Brain

EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Conservative Americans remained unwaveringly suspicious of foreigners following Osama bin Laden's death, while liberals dropped their guard briefly before returning to more vigilant beliefs, finds a provocative new study led by a Michigan State University scholar.

The findings, online now in Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, suggest conservatives and liberals respond differently to major events and may have implications for promoting peace and reducing conflict with people who challenge one's core values.

Satellite cells are stem cells found in skeletal muscles. While transplantation of such muscle stem cells can be a potent therapy for degenerative muscle diseases such as Duchenne muscular dystrophy, these cells tend to lose their transplantation efficiency when cultured in vitro. In a study in the current issue of the Journal of Neuromuscular Diseases, researchers treated these stem cells with leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF), which effectively maintained the undifferentiated state of the satellite cells and enhanced their transplantation efficiency.

For a promising pathway to treating Alzheimer's patients, "aim here." That's what National Institute of Standards of Technology (NIST) researchers advised collaborators hunting for molecules that, by linking to a normally occurring enzyme, rev up the brain's capacity for clearing cholesterol--a boost associated with improvements in memory and other benefits in animal studies.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Girls who were overweight as children are likely to begin using cigarettes, marijuana or alcohol at an earlier age than their healthy-weight peers, according to a new study by researchers in the Indiana University School of Education.

But the correlation between weight and substance use shows up only when the data are broken down by the subjects' racial or ethnic group and sex. Previous research that didn't take those categories into account found only a weak relationship between childhood weight and substance use.

Two studies in mice from Baylor College of Medicine, Texas, reveal new insights into neurons that mediate symptoms typical of the postnatal neurological disorder Rett syndrome.

Rett syndrome is a childhood disorder that typically manifests after the first birthday. Early symptoms include delayed development and poor coordination while, during the second stage, a child will gradually or suddenly develop severe problems with communication, language, learning, co-ordination and other brain functions. It can cause seizures, breathing difficulties and sometimes premature death.

Exercise boosts kids' and young people's brain power and academic prowess, says a consensus statement on physical activity in schools and during leisure time, published online in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

Time taken away from lessons for physical activity is time well spent and does not come at the cost of getting good grades, say the 24 signatories to the statement.

Realistic workloads and ongoing emotional support are essential if social workers are to manage stress and perform their job effectively, according to new research by the University of East Anglia (UEA).

The study by the Centre for Research on Children and Families (CRCF) examined the relationship between emotional intelligence - the ability to identify and manage emotions in oneself and others - stress, burnout and social work practice. It also assessed whether emotional intelligence training for social workers would reduce their burnout rates over time.

OAK BROOK, Ill. - A single oral dose of methylene blue results in an increased MRI-based response in brain areas that control short-term memory and attention, according to a new study published online in the journal Radiology.

Methylene blue is used to treat methemoglobinemia, a blood disorder in which oxygen is unable to release effectively to body tissues, and as a surgical stain.

Japan -- What goes on inside the brain when we learn new things? Much still remains wrapped in mystery, but scientists have found a way to examine this at the molecular level.

Researchers in Japan have engineered an artificial switch that could let scientists turn individual neurotransmitter receptors on and off. Shedding light on these receptors' role in memory formation could contribute to the development of new drugs for neurological diseases, including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and ALS.

Teacher burnout and student stress may be linked, according to a University of British Columbia study.

The study is the first of its kind to examine the connection between teacher burnout and students' cortisol levels, which are a biological indicator of stress.

Oxford, June 27, 2016 - Sending text messages on a smartphone can change the rhythm of brain waves, according to a new study published in Epilepsy & Behavior.

People communicate increasingly via text messaging, though little is known on the neurological effects of smartphone use. To find out more about how our brains work during textual communication using smartphones, a team led by Mayo Clinic researcher William Tatum analyzed data from 129 patients. Their brain waves were monitored over a period of 16 months through electroencephalograms (EEGs) combined with video footage.

It is quite surprising that, while food is so central to our lives, neuroscience has devoted limited energy to understanding how it is represented in our brain. Aware of this shortcoming, Raffaella Rumiati, professor at SISSA where she leads the INSuLa laboratory, and Francesco Foroni, SISSA research scientist, reviewed the research published to date on the topic. One of the novelties of their review is that it also considered papers dealing with brain-damaged patients.

Common statistical methods used to analyse brain activity through images taken with MRI scanners cannot be trusted, as shown by Anders Eklund and Hans Knutsson of Linköping University, and Thomas Nichols of the University of Warwick, in the highly-ranked journal PNAS.

As soon as social considerations also play a part in economic decisions, our brain seems to switch to a different processing mode. At least this is indicated by the results of a current study that was conducted at the University of Bonn. In it the participants were able to purchase pieces of music but could themselves set the price to be paid. During the process, the researchers recorded the brain activity of the participants. The work will soon appear in the prestigious journal Frontiers in Psychology but can already be called up online.

Disrupted fetal immune system development, such as that caused by viral infection in the mother, may be a key factor in the later appearance of certain neurodevelopmental disorders. This finding emerges from a Weizmann Institute study published in Science on June 23, 2016.