Brain

SEATTLE – Many soldiers who experienced mild head trauma or a blast exposure while serving in Iraq or Afghanistan are returning to the United States with headaches, according to a study released today that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology's 61st Annual Meeting in Seattle, April 25 to May 2, 2009.

The study, conducted at Fort Lewis, WA, involved 978 U.S. Army soldiers returning from Iraq or Afghanistan in 2008. All had experienced a concussion, head injury or blast exposure while deployed.

ST. PAUL, Minn. – People whose parents or aunts and uncles have had a brain aneurysm are more likely to have one themselves, indicating that genetic risk factors passed down by generation are responsible. Prior studies had suggested that aneurysm ruptures affect the offspring or second generation as much as 20 years younger than older generations. This suggests that a genetic risk factor is accumulating with each generation and that aggressive screening should be performed. But a new study shows that may not be the case, and the aneurysms actually may happen at an older age.

Contrary to the stereotype of grandparents sitting on the porch in rocking chairs, retirement can be a time of personal growth and activity, according to new research in the Journal of Consumer Research.

"Our research investigates retirement as a life stage focused on consumption where outdated cultural scripts for retirement are challenged," write authors Hope Jensen Schau (University of Arizona), Mary C. Gilly (University of California, Irvine), and Mary Wolfinbarger (California State University, Long Beach).

Do sexy images sell products? It depends, says a new study in Journal of Consumer Research. If marketers are determined to use sex in advertising, there may be ways to do it that can attract customers of both sexes.

In today's cluttered advertising space, marketers use increasingly radical images that include nudity and sexual language.

When choosing a flavor of ice cream, an item of clothing, or even a home, you might be better off letting your emotions guide you, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research.

WASHINGTON – Spending time with a grandparent is linked with better social skills and fewer behavior problems among adolescents, especially those living in single-parent or stepfamily households, according to a new study.

This study, appearing in the February Journal of Family Psychology, published by the American Psychological Association, found that children and adolescents whose parents have separated or divorced see their grandparents as confidants and sources of comfort.

Traditionally, stimulating nerves or brain tissue involves cumbersome wiring and a sharp metal electrode. But a team of researchers at Case Western Reserve University is going "wireless."

And it's a unique collaboration between chemists and neuroscientists that led to the discovery of a remarkable new way to use light to activate brain circuits with nanoparticles.

A University of Illinois researcher has demonstrated successful strategies that children can use to handle the emotional ups and downs that go with being a brother or a sister and reported them in a new study published in Family Relations.

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Employees with previous work experience bring valuable knowledge and skills to their new jobs – but some of what they learned may actually hurt their work performance.

A study of telephone call center employees is one of the first to suggest that previous work experience isn't all positive for new employees. Workers may keep some old habits and ways of doing things that hurt performance in their new roles.

Scare tactics may not be necessary when trying to get patients at risk of heart disease to change their diet or behaviour, a new study has found. Instead, doctors and nurses should be aware of the stage of life their patients are at, and offer them very specific and targeted advice.

A paper published online today in Nature Neuroscience reveals the presence of methyl CpG binding protein 2 (MeCP2) in glia. MeCP2 is a protein associated with a variety of neurological disorders, including Rett Syndrome, the most physically disabling of the autism spectrum disorders. The researchers show that MeCP2-deficient astrocytes (a subset of glia) stunt the growth of neighboring neurons. Remarkably, these neurons can recover when exposed to normal glia in culture.

Drinking at least three cups of green or black tea a day can significantly reduce the risk of stroke, a new UCLA study has found. And the more you drink, the better your odds of staving off a stroke.

The study results, published in the online edition of Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association, were presented Feb. 19 at the American Heart Association's annual International Stroke Conference in San Diego, Calif.

FINDINGS: Researchers have created an algorithm that meshes existing data to produce a clearer step-by-step flow chart of how cells respond to stimuli. Using this new method, Whitehead Institute and Massachusetts Institute of Technology scientists have analyzed alpha-synuclein toxicity to identify genes and pathways that can affect cell survival. Misfolded copies of the alpha-synuclein protein in brain cells are a hallmark of Parkinson's disease.

For many animals, sleep is a risk: foraging for food, mingling with mates and guarding against predators just aren't possible while snoozing.

How, then, has this seemingly life-threatening behavior remained constant among various species of animals?

People voluntarily pick what information they store in short-term memory. Now, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), researchers can see just what information people are holding in memory based only on patterns of activity in the brain.

Psychologists from the University of Oregon and the University of California, San Diego, reported their findings in the February issue of Psychological Science. By analyzing blood-flow activity, they were able to identify the specific color or orientation of an object that was intentionally stored by the observer.