Brain

Brain abnormalities in babies born with microcephaly and associated with the current Zika virus epidemic in Brazil are described by a team of doctors in a new study published in The BMJ today.

The findings show that babies born with microcephaly, presumably due to the Zika virus infection, have severe brain damage with a range of abnormalities.

In the late 1960s, urban planners Horst Rittel and Melvin Webber began formulating the concept of "wicked problems" or "wicked challenges" --problems so vexing in the realm of social and organizational planning that they could not be successfully ameliorated with traditional linear, analytical, systems-engineering types of approaches.

That old trope about there being at least 50 Eskimo words for snow has a new twist.

Researchers at UC Berkeley and Carnegie Mellon University have taken a fresh look at words for snow, taking on an urban legend referred to by some as "the great Eskimo vocabulary hoax."

But instead of counting the words for snow used by Inuit, Yupik and other natives of the Arctic regions, as others have done, they looked at how people in warmer climates speak of snow and ice compared to their cold-weather counterparts.

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. - Sanford Research scientists are published in Nature Cell Biology for their work developing a model to explore therapies for a pediatric brain tumor known as choroid plexus carcinoma.

Haotian Zhao, Ph.D., is the lead author on the study titled "Sonic Hedgehog promotes proliferation of Notch-dependent monociliated choroid plexus tumour cells." Zhao is an associate scientist in the Children's Health Research Center at Sanford Research.Haotian Zhao

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Young male gamers who strongly identify with male characters in sexist, violent video games show less empathy than others toward female violence victims, a new study found.

After playing a violent, sexist game, these male players reported lower levels of sympathy and compassion (compared to those who played games without a sexist component) when shown a photo illustration depicting an adolescent girl who had been physically abused by an adolescent boy.

The claim that Eskimo languages have many words for different types of snow is well known among the public, but it has been greatly exaggerated and is therefore often dismissed by scholars of language.

However, a new study published in PLOS ONE supports the general idea behind the original claim. Carnegie Mellon University and University of California, Berkeley researchers found that languages that use the same word for snow and ice tend to be spoken in warmer climates, reflecting lower communicative need to talk about snow and ice.

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Six years ago, he was paralyzed in a diving accident. Today, he participates in clinical sessions during which he can grasp and swipe a credit card or play a guitar video game with his own fingers and hand. These complex functional movements are driven by his own thoughts and a prototype medical system that are detailed in a study published online today in the journal Nature.

MISSOULA - Ethnic brand imagery, including American Indian mascots, can strengthen stereotypes, causing detrimental societal consequences, according to a newly published study conducted by a University of Montana researcher.

When people take the psychedelic drug LSD, they sometimes feel as though the boundary that separates them from the rest of the world has dissolved. Now, the first functional magnetic resonance images (fMRI) of people's brains while on LSD help to explain this phenomenon known as "ego dissolution."

Redwood City, CA - APRIL 12, 2016--How do our brains learn and understand the world? That question is of paramount importance to both neuroscientists and technologists who want to build intelligent machines.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Want to know if your child's height and weight are on track? Check the growth chart that the doctor gives you after each yearly checkup.

Want to know if your child's brain is on track for healthy attention abilities? Someday, your doctor might have a growth chart for that too.

New research from the University of Michigan Medical School suggests that it might be possible to create a growth chart of brain networks that could identify early signs of attention difficulties and, potentially, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Pediatricians routinely use growth charts to measure patients' height, weight and head circumference to look for abnormalities. What about using growth charting to examine maturation of functional networks in the brain to look for neurocognitive abnormalities such as attention impairment?

That's what Chandra Sripada, M.D., Ph.D., of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and coauthors did in a new study published online by JAMA Psychiatry.

Hamilton, ON (April 13, 2016) - People with drug addictions who started opioid abuse later in life use injections for their drugs, or increased their use of downers before starting drug treatment, are more likely to relapse from treatment than others, says a new study from McMaster University.

But, the older the person with drug abuse issues, the more likely they will not relapse from treatment.

Alzheimer's disease is caused by protein (amyloid) deposition in the brain. New research at the University of Bergen (UiB) and Haukeland University Hospital shows that the protein PITRM1, which is found in mitochondria, otherwise known as the powerhouses of the cell, may be involved in the development of the disease.

Montreal (Quebec), April 13, 2016 - Catherine Aaron and Gabrielle Beaudry were 17 when they knocked on the door of the laboratory of Alex Parker, a neuroscience researcher at the University of Montreal Hospital Research Centre (CRCHUM). While students at Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf in Montreal, they were looking for a mentor for an after-school research project. Two and half years later, the results of this scientific adventure were published today in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.