Brain

Research from the University of Warwick shows a trip to the zoo can boost your child's science and conservation education more than books or classroom teaching alone.

In research conducted at ZSL London Zoo, more than 3,000 school children aged between seven and 14 were asked about their knowledge of animals, habitat and conservation and then tested again after their trip.

Conflicts and misunderstandings frequently arise between individuals from different cultures. But what makes cultures different; what makes one more restrictive and another less so?

A new international study led by the University of Maryland and supported by the National Science Foundation's Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences offers insights that may help explain such cultural differences and bridge the gaps between them.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - Over the past two decades, scientists have shown that babies only a few months old have a solid grasp on basic rules of the physical world. They understand that objects can't wink in and out of existence, and that objects can't "teleport" from one spot to another.

Now, an international team of researchers co-led by MIT's Josh Tenenbaum has found that infants can use that knowledge to form surprisingly sophisticated expectations of how novel situations will unfold.

Specialised teaching for individuals with dyscalculia, the mathematical equivalent of dyslexia, should be made widely available in mainstream education, according to a review of current research published today in the journal Science.

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – In today's world, conflicts and misunderstandings frequently arise between those who are from more restrictive cultures and those from less restrictive ones.Now, a new international study led by the University of Maryland offers insights that may help bridge such cultural differences.

Students who struggle to learn mathematics may have a neurocognitive disorder that inhibits the acquisition of basic numerical and arithmetic concepts, according to a new paper by University of Minnesota and British researchers. Called developmental dyscalculia, the disorder affects roughly the same number of people as dyslexia but has received much less attention (and research funding).

People suffering from body dysmorphic disorder, or BDD — a severe mental illness characterized by debilitating misperceptions that one appears disfigured and ugly — process visual information abnormally, even when looking at inanimate objects, according to a new UCLA study.

First author Dr. Jamie Feusner, a UCLA assistant professor of psychiatry, and colleagues found that patients with the disorder have less brain activity when processing holistic visual elements that provide the "big picture," regardless of whether that picture is a face or an object.

Medicine and technology are converging in patient care at a faster pace than most people realize. Space age advancements from point-of-care health technologies like telemedicine to medical robots performing surgery are fast becoming commonplace in many hospitals. What's next?

PHOENIX, Ariz. — May 26, 2011 — A family of naturally occurring plant compounds could help prevent or delay memory loss associated with Alzheimer's disease, according to a new study by the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen).

Beta-carboline alkaloids could potentially be used in therapeutic drugs to stop, or at least slow down, the progressively debilitating effects of Alzheimer's, according to the study published recently in the scientific journal Public Library of Science (PLoS) One.

A University of Toronto study shows that when formerly depressed people experience mild states of sadness, their brain's response can predict if they will become depressed again.

"Part of what makes depression such a devastating disease is the high rate of relapse," says Norman Farb, a PhD psychology student and lead author of the study. "However, the fact that some patients are able to fully maintain their recovery suggests the possibility that different responses to the type of emotional challenges encountered in everyday life could reduce the chance of relapse."

Our brain's understanding of spatial awareness is not triggered by sight alone, scientists have found, in a development that could help design technology for the visually impaired.

Researchers at the University of Edinburgh have found that our brain can use other senses – such as touch – to help us understand spatial awareness.

Scientists took MRI brain scans of both sighted volunteers and others who had been blind since birth while they examined three-dimensional spaces.

Protein deposits in nerve cells are a typical feature of Alzheimer's disease: the excessive alteration of the tau protein through the addition of phosphate groups – a process known as hyperphosphorylation – causes the protein in the cells to aggregate into clumps. As a result, nerve cells die, particularly in the hippocampus, a part of the brain that plays an important role in learning and memory, as well as in the prefrontal cortex which regulates higher cognitive functions.

Bethesda, Md. (May 26, 2011)—For many years doctors believed the estrogen women consumed in the form of oral contraceptives and hormone replacement therapy (HRT) pills was good for their patients' hearts. Recent studies however have shown that long-term exposure to estrogen can be a danger to women as it has been associated with high blood pressure, a key link to heart- and brain-attacks (strokes).

New research shows that residents of the Stroke Belt—a southern portion of the U.S. with significantly elevated stroke morality rate—also have a greater incidence of cognitive decline than other regions of the country. Researchers believe shared risk factors among members of this population are to blame. Results of this study, funded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), are published in Annals of Neurology, a journal of the American Neurological Association.

EAST LANSING, Mich. — For the first time, researchers have shown why precision-tinted lenses reduce headaches for migraine sufferers, a finding that could help improve treatment options for patients battling the debilitating ailment.

Jie Huang of Michigan State University's Department of Radiology used functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, to reveal how precision-tinted lenses normalize brain activity in patients with migraine headaches, preventing such attacks.

Huang's research appears in the current edition of the journal Cephalalgia, published by SAGE.