Brain

• Public-health concerns continue to grow concerning the combining of alcohol with energy drinks (A+ED).
• New findings indicate that combining A+ED increased the urge to drink alcohol relative to drinking alcohol alone.
• Study participants who drank A+ED also had significantly higher ratings on liking the cocktail, and wanting to drink more of it, than the alcohol-only condition.

New research from UC San Francisco found that 60 percent of the city's homeless and unstably housed women who are HIV-infected or at high risk to become infected have endured a recent experience of some form of violence.

New research from UC San Francisco found that 60 percent of the city's homeless and unstably housed women who are HIV-infected or at high risk to become infected have endured a recent experience of some form of violence.

Women who were sexually abused as children may show signs of atherosclerosis, an early indication of cardiovascular disease, according to new research in the American Heart Association journal Stroke.

This is the first study to suggest a link between sexual abuse and higher carotid artery intima-media thickness (IMT) – thickening of the inner lining of the arteries that may indicate early atherosclerosis.

Those who experience persistent sleep problems after a divorce stand to suffer from more than just dark circles. They might also be at risk for potentially harmful increases in blood pressure, a new study finds.

A growing body of research links divorce to significant negative health effects and even early death, yet few studies have looked at why that connection may exist.

Divorce-related sleep troubles may be partly to blame, suggest the authors of a new study to be published in a forthcoming issue of the journal Health Psychology.

Soul singer Betty Everett once proclaimed, "If you want to know if he loves you so, it's in his kiss." But a new study by University of Chicago researchers suggests the difference between love and lust might be in the eyes after all.

Throughout our lives, our brains adapt to what we learn and memorise. The brain is indeed made up of complex networks of neurons and synapses that are constantly re-configured. However, in order for learning to leave a trace, connections must be stabilized. A team at the University of Geneva (UNIGE) discovered a new cellular mechanism involved in the long-term stabilization of neuron connections, in which non-neuronal cells, called astrocytes, play a role unidentified until now.

Obese women have a deficit in reward-based learning, but only when food is involved. Importantly, say researchers who report their findings in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on July 17, those same women have no trouble at all forming accurate associations when the reward is money instead of food. The findings may lead to new, gender-appropriate ways to tackle the obesity epidemic.

The mysterious condition once known as "water on the brain" became just a bit less murky this week thanks to a global research group led in part by a Case Western Reserve researcher. Professor Anthony Wynshaw-Boris, MD, PhD, is the co-principal investigator on a study that illustrates how the domino effect of one genetic error can contribute to excessive cerebrospinal fluid surrounding the brains of mice — a disorder known as hydrocephalus. The findings appear online July 17 in the journal Neuron.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (July 17, 2014) – A signaling pathway once thought to have little if any role during embryogenesis is a key player in the formation of the front-most portion of developing vertebrate embryos. Moreover, signals emanating from this region—referred to as the "extreme anterior domain" (EAD)—orchestrate the complex choreography that gives rise to proper facial structure.

The surprising findings, reported by Whitehead Institute scientists this week in the journal Cell Reports, shed new light on a key process of vertebrate embryonic development.

New research out of Queen's University has shed light on how exercise and relaxation activities like yoga can positively impact people with social anxiety disorders.

Adam Heenan, a Ph.D. candidate in the Clinical Psychology, has found that exercise and relaxation activities literally change the way people perceive the world, altering their perception so that they view the environment in a less threatening, less negative way. For people with mood and anxiety disorders, this is an important breakthrough.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Many beekeepers feed their honey bees sucrose or high-fructose corn syrup when times are lean inside the hive. This practice has come under scrutiny, however, in response to colony collapse disorder, the massive -- and as yet not fully explained -- annual die-off of honey bees in the U.S. and Europe. Some suspect that inadequate nutrition plays a role in honey bee declines.

By carefully watching nearly a hundred hours of video showing mother rats protecting, warming, and feeding their young pups, and then matching up what they saw to real-time electrical readings from the pups' brains, researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center have found that the mother's presence and social interactions — her nurturing role — directly molds the early neural activity and growth of her offsprings' brain.

(New York, NY, July 12, 2014) - Researchers from the Center for Cognitive Neurology (CCN) at NYU Langone Medical Center, NYU School of Medicine, and the Nathan S. Kline Research Institute will present new findings at the 2014 Alzheimer's Association International Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, July 12 – 17, 2014.

This news release is available in French.