Brain

Jerusalem, May 18, 2011 – In case you thought that octopuses were smart only in guessing the outcome of soccer matches (remember the late Paul the octopus in Germany who picked all the right winners in last year's world cup matches in Johannesburg?), scientists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have now shown that not only are they smart, they can make some pretty good moves as well.

PHILADELPHIA — Neuroeconomic research at the University of Pennsylvania has conclusively identified a part of the brain that is necessary for making everyday decisions about value.Previous functional magnetic imaging studies, during which researchers use a powerful magnet to determine which parts of a subjects brain are most active while doing a task, have suggested that the ventromedial frontal cortex, or VMF, plays an evaluative role during decision making.

Despite the recognition of stroke as a major contributor to disability and mortality worldwide, little is known about the long-term outcomes among individuals who survive a stroke. In a research study reported by Charles Wolfe from King's College London and colleagues, the researchers examine outcomes for up to ten years in a cohort of people surviving their first-ever stroke in an inner city area of London, UK.

It likely comes as no surprise that low back pain is the most common form of chronic pain among adults. Lesser known is the fact that those withchronic pain also experience cognitive impairments and reduced gray matter in parts of the brain associated with pain processing and the emotional components of pain, like depression and anxiety.

PHILADELPHIA — From high-school students to surgeons, anyone who has pulled an all-nighter knows there is a price to be paid the next day: trouble focusing, a fuzzy memory and other cognitive impairments. Now, researchers at Penn have found the part of the brain and the neurochemical basis for sleep deprivation's effects on memory.

Researchers at New York University's Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences have adopted an innovative data collection method for their latest work in the area of computer vision—a music video created by the Dutch progressive-electro band C-Mon & Kypski. Individual frames from the band's recent video for its song "More is Less" served as a unique visual database for the Courant researchers' work to develop computer vision technology.

Advancements over the last 10 years in understanding intellectual disability (ID, formerly mental retardation), have led to the once-unimaginable possibility that ID may be treatable, a review of more than 100 studies on the topic has concluded. It appears in ACS Chemical Neuroscience.

Philadelphia, PA – 17 May 2011 – There is a significant need for objective tests that could improve clinical prediction of future psychosis.

One strategy has been to determine whether physiologic measures that are abnormal in people diagnosed with schizophrenia might also be useful in estimating the risk for developing this illness. This is the strategy taken by German and Swiss researchers in the current issue of Biological Psychiatry.

Hamilton, ON (May 17, 2011) - For the first time, researchers at McMaster University have conclusive evidence that bacteria residing in the gut influence brain chemistry and behaviour.

The findings are important because several common types of gastrointestinal disease, including irritable bowel syndrome, are frequently associated with anxiety or depression. In addition there has been speculation that some psychiatric disorders, such as late onset autism, may be associated with an abnormal bacterial content in the gut.

A team led by developmental biologist Professor Christophe Marcelle has nailed the mechanism that causes stem cells in the embryo to differentiate into specialised cells that form the skeletal muscles of animals' bodies. The scientists published their results in the British journal Nature on Monday (May 16).

Boston, Mass. -- Studies in institutionalized Romanian children have found that the length of time spent in conditions of social deprivation and neglect correlates with lower IQ and behavioral problems. A new study, led by researchers at Children's Hospital Boston and Tulane University, shows that early adversity even affects children's chromosomes – prematurely shortening the chromosome tips, known as telomeres, and hastening how quickly their cells "age."

It seems like everyone wants to be happier and the pursuit of happiness is one of the foundations of American life. But even happiness can have a dark side, according to the authors of a new review article published in Perspectives on Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. They say that happiness shouldn't be thought of as a universally good thing, and outline four ways in which this is the case. Indeed, not all types and degrees of happiness are equally good, and even pursuing happiness can make people feel worse.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- It seems like a no-brainer: Remanufacturing products rather than making new ones from scratch — widely done with everything from retread tires to refilled inkjet cartridges to remanufactured engines — should save a lot of energy, right?

Not so fast, says a new study by researchers at MIT.

COLUMBUS, Ohio – A new study using sophisticated brain scans shows how simple line drawings can capture the essence of a beach or a mountain for viewers just as well as a photograph would.

Researchers found that viewing a "beach" scene depicted in a line drawing activated nearly the same patterns of brain activity in study participants as did viewing an actual color photograph of a beach. The same was true when people viewed line drawings and photographs of other natural scenes including city streets, forests, highways, mountains and offices.

A series of workshops held by the Institute of Medicine explored what is necessary to enable health professionals and organizations to harness the full potential of new digital technologies such as tablets and electronic health records to increase efficiency and apply knowledge to real-time care decisions.