Brain

AUGUSTA, Ga. – A receptor mutation that essentially blocks estrogen's action has been identified for the first time in a female, researchers report.

The 18-year-old wasn't experiencing breast development or menstruation, classic symptoms of too little estrogen, the usual cause of delayed puberty. Subsequent studies revealed instead sky-high levels of the sex hormone in her blood, said Dr. Lawrence C. Layman, Chief of the Section of Reproductive Endocrinology, Infertility and Genetics at the Medical College of Georgia at Georgia Regents University.

Forget fingerprints or iris recognition, the next big thing in biometrics will be a thermal imaging scan that maps the blood vessels under the skin of your face for instantaneous face recognition that would be almost impossible to spoof.

Gait dysfunction is one of the most serious disabling sequelae of stroke. Regaining gait ability in stroke is a primary goal of neurorehabilitation. Furthermore, gait is a less demanding motor function than hand function. Stroke patients can walk when motor function is recovered in the proximal joint (hip and knee), at least to the degree of being able to oppose gravity. In general, most motor recovery after stroke occurs within 3-6 months after onset, and gait function usually recovers within 3 months of stroke onset.

Researchers from the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute in Nehru Marg, India have added another piece to the puzzle of how to synthetize an artificial nicotine receptor. Nicotine -- the infamous principal component of tobacco -- is responsible for smoking addition due to specific receptors in the brain that trigger the dopamine reward system. One of the most long-lasting goals of biomedical science and technology is to design and synthesize efficient artificial receptors that would point to new avenues in the treatment of addiction.

An experimental study in rats has shown that consuming choline, a vitamin B group nutrient found in foodstuffs like eggs and chicken or beef liver, soy and wheat germ, helps improve long-term memory and attention-holding capacity. The study, conducted by scientists at the University of Granada (Spain) Simón Bolívar University, (Venezuela) and the University of York (United Kingdom), has revealed that choline is directly involved in attention and memory processes and helps modulate them.

LOS ANGELES (July 11, 2013) – Deep brain stimulation therapy blocks or modulates electrical signals in the brain to improve symptoms in patients suffering from movement disorders such as Parkinson's disease, essential tremor and dystonia, but a new study suggests that several factors may cause electrical current to vary over time.

The combination of smoking and heavy drinking speeds up cognitive decline, according to new research published in the British Journal of Psychiatry.

Researchers from UCL (University College London) found that smokers who drank alcohol heavily had a 36% faster cognitive decline compared to non-smoking moderate drinkers.

Yoga can improve mood and mental wellbeing among prisoners, an Oxford University study suggests, and may also have an effect on impulsive behaviour.

The researchers found that prisoners after a ten-week yoga course reported improved mood, reduced stress and were better at a task related to behaviour control than those who continued in their normal prison routine.

Cyberbullying in the college environment can pose serious consequences for students' living and learning environments, including physical endangerment, according to newly published research by a UT Arlington associate education professor.

Jiyoon Yoon, director of the Early Childhood – Grade 6 Program for the UT Arlington College of Education and Health Professions, co-authored the paper "Cyberbullying Presence, Extent, and Forms in a Midwestern Post-secondary Institution," which appears in the June 2013 issue of Information Systems Education Journal.

• An individual enters adolescence with personality characteristics and life experiences already accumulated.
• A new study evaluates the impact of childhood temperament on later alcohol use/problems.
• Results show that childhood temperament prior to age five predicts adolescent alcohol use and problems at age 15.5 years, even after controlling for socio-demographic factors and parental alcohol problems.

• Prior research found that women tended to use moderate self-referral terms for intoxication, whereas men used heavy terms.
• New findings confirm that men's drinking is generally described in terms indicative of excessive consumption while women tend to couch drinking in more moderate terms.
• These labels of intoxication may impact perceptions and subsequent behaviors, but also inform tailored measures for prevention and intervention.

Several human and animal studies have shown a relationship between a preference for highly sweet tastes and alcohol use disorders. Furthermore, the brain mechanisms of sweet-taste responses may share common neural pathways with responses to alcohol and other drugs. A new study using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has found that recent drinking is related to the orbitofrontal-region brain response to an intensely sweet stimulus, a brain response that may serve as an important phenotype, or observable characteristic, of alcoholism risk.

New research in the Journal of Newborns & Infant Nursing Reviews concludes that so-called "kangaroo care" (KC), the skin-to-skin and chest-to-chest touching between baby and mother, offers developmentally appropriate therapy for hospitalized preterm infants.

In the article, "Kangaroo Care as a Neonatal Therapy," Susan Ludington-Hoe, RN, CNM, PhD, FAAN, from Case Western Reserve University's Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing, describes how KC delivers benefits beyond bonding and breastfeeding for a hospital's tiniest newborns.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Fewer Americans may be feeling the blues, with rates of depression in people over 50 on the decline, according to a new University of Michigan Health System study.

Between 1998 and 2008, rates of severe depression fell among the majority of older adults, especially the elderly, who have historically been a higher risk group for depression, new findings show. Meanwhile, late middle agers between ages 55-59 appeared to experience increased depression over the 10 year period.

INDIANAPOLIS -- Indiana University scientists have transformed mouse embryonic stem cells into key structures of the inner ear. The discovery provides new insights into the sensory organ's developmental process and sets the stage for laboratory models of disease, drug discovery and potential treatments for hearing loss and balance disorders.