Brain

Great ape gestures have intentional meaning and are made with the expectation of specific behavioral responses, according to Erica Cartmill and Richard Byrne from the University of St. Andrews in the UK. The study[1] of meaning in animal communication takes a significant step forward with the authors' new systematic approach to assessing intentional meaning in the gestural communication of non-humans, applied here to a group of orangutan gestures. Their work is published in Springer's journal Animal Cognition.

Conventional drugs used in the treatment of liver diseases inevitably have side effects. An increasing number of natural substances have been studied to explore if they have protective effects on the liver. Blueberries have unique effects on human retinal, brain and tumor cells, but reports about the effects of blueberries on liver diseases are lacking.

The increasing number of incidental findings in brain imaging can be managed ethically and cost-effectively by screening study participants based on gender, age and family history, according to University of British Columbia researchers.

Incidental findings are anomalies discovered unexpectedly during research that utilizes brain imaging techniques such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) of the brain.

More than 5,100 physicians, technologists and members of the molecular imaging and nuclear medicine communities gathered in Salt Lake City for SNM's 57th Annual Meeting, held June 5-9. The meeting featured more than 1,400 scientific papers that represented groundbreaking research and development worldwide in molecular imaging and nuclear medicine.

Masculine ideals of strength coupled with strong family ties can help men combat depression and overcome thoughts of suicide, according to University of British Columbia research.

In a study to appear in a forthcoming issue of Social Science and Medicine, UBC researchers John Oliffe and John Ogrodniczuk looked at how men's ideas of masculinity served or hindered them during bouts of severe depression. Their findings shed light on risk factors and prevention strategies for suicide.

Research at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, explores how an online learning community works for a group of general practitioners and shows that clear rules facilitate continued web interaction.

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – Crayfish make surprisingly complex, cost-benefit calculations, finds a University of Maryland study, opening the door to a new line of research that may help unravel the cellular brain activity involved in human decisions.

This bacterium, Escherichia coli K1, is the most common cause of meningitis in premature infants and the second most common cause of the disease in newborns. "The ineffectiveness of antibiotics in treating newborns with meningitis and the emergence of antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria require new strategies," explains Nemani V. Prasadarao, PhD, associate professor of infectious disease at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles.

Almost two million years ago, early humans began eating food such as crocodiles, turtles and fish – a diet that could have played an important role in the evolution of human brains and our footsteps out of Africa, according to new research.

In what is the first evidence of consistent amounts of aquatic foods in the human diet, an international team of researchers has discovered early stone tools and cut marked animal remains in northern Kenya. The work has just been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Washington, DC – It's long been known that alcohol use in pregnancy can lead to children with mental retardation and birth defects, but researchers who study fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) have not made definitive progress on preventing the disorder, detecting it early, or effectively treating it, say researchers from Georgetown University Medical Center.

PHILADELPHIA –- Why is there so much disagreement about whether using recreational drugs is morally wrong? A University of Pennsylvania psychology study shows that the debate about drugs might really be about sex.

The study compared two competing theories.

One theory -- the conventional wisdom in political science -- sees drug attitudes as primarily coming from people's political ideology, level of religious commitment, and personality, for example, openness to experience.

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – Crayfish make surprisingly complex, cost-benefit calculations, finds a University of Maryland study, opening the door to a new line of research that may help unravel the cellular brain activity involved in human decisions.

The adult brain, long considered to be fixed in its wiring, is in fact remarkably dynamic. Neuroscientists once thought that the brain's wiring was fixed early in life, during a critical period beyond which changes were impossible. Recent discoveries have challenged that view, and now, research by scientists at Rockefeller University suggests that circuits in the adult brain are continually modified by experience. The researchers, led by Charles D.

In diverse neurodegenerative diseases ranging from Parkinson's to Alzheimer's, researchers have long noted accumulations of a little-understood neuronal protein called α-synuclein. Pathological and genetic evidence strongly suggested that excessive α-synuclein played a role in the evolution of these diseases, but it was unclear how too much α-synuclein culminated in synaptic damage and neurodegeneration.