Brain

Loss of thinking power is a fear shared by many aging baby boomers. That fear has resulted in a budding industry for brain training products – exercises such as Brain Age, Mindfit and My Brain Trainer – which in 2007 generated $80 million in the United States alone.

Toronto – Ever thought the other guy was a loser for giving his all for the team even if others weren't pulling their weight?

A new study, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, says that person can influence a group to become more efficient in achieving its goals by making cooperative, collective behaviour seem acceptable and appropriate, and thereby encouraging others to act similarly.

Most people consume far too much salt, and a University of Iowa researcher has discovered one potential reason we crave it: it might put us in a better mood.

UI psychologist Kim Johnson and colleagues found in their research that when rats are deficient in sodium chloride, common table salt, they shy away from activities they normally enjoy, like drinking a sugary substance or pressing a bar that stimulates a pleasant sensation in their brains.

Most of us remember our teenage years with a mix of fondness and relief. Fondness for the good memories, and relief that all that teenage stress, angst and drama — first love, gossip, SATs, fights with parents — is behind us.

Or is it? It turns out, say UCLA researchers, that even stressful times from the teenage years exact a physical toll that could have implications for health during adulthood.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Breast cancer patients face many horrors, including those that arise when fighting the cancer itself. Medications given during chemotherapy can have wicked side effects, including vomiting, dizziness, anemia and hair loss. These side effects occur because medications released into the body target healthy cells as well as tumor cells.

Amsterdam, The Netherlands, March 10, 2009 – A simple balance test may predict cognitive decline in Alzheimer's Disease, according to a study published in the March 2009 issue of the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease.

If the teacher is not capable of understanding the perspective of six year olds then the child's learning becomes unnecessarily difficult, or in some cases the child's interest in learning may not be aroused at all. This is revealed in a new thesis by Agneta Simeonsdotter Svensson, from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

Educational programmes for six year olds became an institutionalised section of the Swedish school system in 1998 under the designation of preschool class, with a syllabus linked to that of after-school centres and junior schools.

Staten Island, NY, March 9, 2009 – Scientists from The New York State Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities' (OMRDD) New York State Institute for Basic Research in Developmental Disabilities (IBR) report today in the March 2009 issue of the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease that anesthesia induces phosphorylation of tau. Tau is a key neuronal protein involved in neurodegeneration in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and several other neurodegenerative disorders. Anesthesia has previously been found to be associated with cognitive impairment and the risk for AD.

University of Queensland research has revealed the older a dad is the more likely his children will have reduced cognitive abilities.

Professor John McGrath, from UQ's Queensland Brain Institute, said the study could have implications for a society that is having children later in life.

He said while recent research had shown a link between the age of a father and an increased chance of schizophrenia and autism in the children, there has been less focus on the age of father and cognition.

For over twenty years, scientists have known that a normal protein in the brain, PrP, or prion protein, can turn harmful and cause deadly illnesses like Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) in humans, and bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in cattle. What they could not explain is why large amounts of this normal protein are produced by our bodies in the first place.

Mice lose their fear of territorial rivals when a tiny piece of their brain is neutralized, a new study reports.

The study adds to evidence that primal fear responses do not depend on the amygdala – long a favored region of fear researchers – but on an obscure corner of the primeval brain.

A group of neuroscientists led by Larry Swanson of the University of Southern California studied the brain activity of rats and mice exposed to cats, or to rival rodents defending their territory.

COLUMBUS, Ohio – With obesity reaching epidemic levels, researchers at the Ohio State University Medical Center are studying a potentially long-term treatment that involves injecting a gene directly into one of the critical feeding and weight control centers of the brain.

NEW YORK – A history of diabetes and elevated levels of cholesterol, especially LDL cholesterol, are associated with faster cognitive decline in patients with Alzheimer’s disease, according to a new study from Columbia University Medical Center researchers. These results add further evidence of the role of vascular risk factors in the onset and progression of Alzheimer’s disease.

Patients with early Parkinson disease appear to have similar overall levels of disability and quality of life six years after beginning treatment with either levodopa or a dopamine agonist, according to a report posted online today that will appear in the May print issue of Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. However, persistent differences are seen in some effects of these medications, including motor symptoms, fluid build-up and sleepiness.