Brain

If you think having loads of money, fetching looks, or the admiration of many will improve your life — think again. A new study by three University of Rochester researchers demonstrates that progress on these fronts can actually make a person less happy.

Family and network oriented, stress-reducing care improves level of overall functioning and mental health in adolescents at risk of developing psychosis, suggests a recent Finnish study.

Oxford, UK, 14 May 2009 - A new article published in Elsevier's journal Bioscience Hypotheses (www.elsevier.com/bihy) suggests that our feelings in our lifetime can affect our children.

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is the single most common cause of death and disability in children and adolescents, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Now, according to a new study by UCLA researchers, the effects of a blow to the head, whether it's mild or a concussion, can linger for years.

WASHINGTON — Significant and widespread cognitive problems appear to exist in schizophrenia in its earliest phase, making it very hard for people with the disorder to work, study or be social, according to a new study published by the American Psychological Association.

New research significantly advances our understanding of the brain mechanisms that link learning with flexible decision making. The study, published by Cell Press in the May 14th issue of the journal Neuron, demonstrates that the brain does not just learn the structure of the physical world but, through learning, encodes rules that regulate how we interpret future sensory information.

New research sheds light on how cocaine regulates gene expression in a crucial reward region of the brain to elicit long-lasting changes in behavior. The study, published by Cell Press in the May 14th issue of the journal Neuron, provides exciting insight into the molecular pathways regulated by cocaine and may lead to new strategies for battling drug addiction.

Researchers funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) have shown that past experience really does help when we have to make complex decisions based on uncertain or confusing information. They show that learning from experience actually changes the circuitry in our brains so that we can quickly categorise what we are seeing and make a decision or carry out appropriate actions. The research is published today (13 May) in Neuron.

Irvine, Calif., May 13, 2009 – A potential vaccine for Alzheimer's disease also has been shown in mice to slow the weakening of muscles associated with inclusion body myositis, a disorder that affects the elderly.

The finding brings new hope for IBM patients with weakness, inflammation or atrophy of muscles in their fingers, wrists, forearms or quadriceps. There is no cure for IBM, nor is there an effective treatment, according to the National Institutes of Health.

It can take just hours after the symptoms appear for someone to die from bacterial meningitis. Now, after years of research, experts at The University of Nottingham have finally discovered how the deadly meningococcal bacteria is able to break through the body's natural defence mechanism and attack the brain.

The discovery could lead to better treatment and vaccines for meningitis and could save the lives of hundreds of children.

Milan, Italy, 13 May 2009 - If somebody asks you "Do you remember what you did on March 13, 1985?" you are very likely to answer "I don't know", even if your memory is excellent. In a study conducted by Dalla Barba and Decaix from the Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale and the Department of Neurology of the Hôpital Saint Antoine in Paris and published in the May 2009 issue of Cortex, researchers found that a patient with severe amnesia reported detailed false memories in answering this type of question.

Whether on the trail, at the gym, or even on the front-porch steps, what happens inside your ankle in the milliseconds following a single misstep could sentence you to a lifetime of ankle trouble.

And it's not just the ligaments left with lasting damage, finds Brigham Young University researcher Ty Hopkins and collaborators from the University of Michigan. Their new study points to a leg muscle whose speed and quality of protective response is permanently compromised after a sprain.

Improving the environment in which rats are reared can significantly strengthen the physiological process of wound healing, according to a report in the open-access journal PLoS ONE. Researchers from the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Shriners Burns Hospital found that giving rats living in isolation the opportunity to build nests led to faster and more complete healing of burn injuries than was seen in isolation-reared rats without nest-building materials.

Improving the environment in which rats are reared can significantly strengthen the physiological process of wound healing, according to a report in the online, open-access, peer-reviewed journal PLoS ONE. Researchers from the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Shriners Burns Hospital found that giving rats living in isolation the opportunity to build nests led to faster and more complete healing of burn injuries than was seen in isolation-reared rats without nest-building materials.