Brain

Humans are unique in their ability to acquire language. But how? A new study published in the Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences shows that we are in fact born with the basic fundamental knowledge of language, thus shedding light on the age-old linguistic "nature vs. nurture" debate.

THE STUDY

According to traditional Chinese medicine, the roles of Angelica sinensis correlate with tonifying the blood and promoting its circulation. Recent studies have shown that extracts of Angelica sinensis have antioxidative and neuroprotective effects. However, the anti-oxidative function of Angelica sinensis polysaccharide has rarely been addressed. In a preliminary experiment from Dr.

When someone suffers from a stroke, a silent countdown begins. A fast diagnosis and treatment can mean the difference between life and death. So scientists are working on a new blood test that one day could rapidly confirm whether someone is having a stroke and what kind. Their report appears in the ACS journal Analytical Chemistry.

A series of previous studies suggested that the neuronal differentiation rate of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells during the in vitro culture reached 78-92%, but their in vivo transplantation efficiency, and survival and differentiation rates were very low. The low levels of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cell transplantation, survival, colonization and differentiation efficacy greatly restrict their therapeutic effect. Red or near-infrared light from 600-1,000 nm promotes cellular migration and prevents apoptosis. Thus, Dr.

WASHINGTON, DC, April 9, 2014 — The punishing psychological toll endured by military personnel in war zones has been extensively documented for years by researchers, perhaps more than ever in the wake of recent military engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But there has been a troubling dearth of research examining the mental health toll exacted on the large numbers of civilians who work with the military in war zones.

As Daisuke Koyabu, now at University of Tokyo, who conducted the studies while he was a post-doc under Sánchez-Villagra, was able to demonstrate, the different bone types do not develop synchronously: Dermal cranial bones form before the endochondrals. According to Sánchez-Villagra, this indicates that the individual bones form based on a precisely defined, coordinated schedule that is characteristic for every species of animal and enables conclusions to be drawn regarding their evolutionary relationships in the tree of animal life.

The next generation of wearable computing is being trialled for the first time to evaluate its potential to support people with Parkinson's.

Experts at Newcastle University are investigating Google Glass as an assistive aid to help people with Parkinson's retain their independence for longer.

Regular aerobic exercise seems to boost the size of the area of the brain (hippocampus) involved in verbal memory and learning among women whose intellectual capacity has been affected by age, indicates a small study published online in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

The hippocampus has become a focus of interest in dementia research because it is the area of the brain involved in verbal memory and learning, but it is very sensitive to the effects of ageing and neurological damage.

The widespread perception that only women have eating disorders is preventing men with these problems from getting the help and support they need, indicates a small study published in the online journal BMJ Open.

Estimates suggest that around 1 in 250 women and 1 in 2000 men in the UK have anorexia nervosa, one of the four recognised types of eating disorder - the others being bulimia nervosa; binge eating disorder; and eating disorder not otherwise specified (EDNOS).

DURHAM, NC -- Residents of poorer Chicago neighborhoods are more likely to suffer terrible life events -- and their health suffers as a result, according to a new Duke University study.

The misfortunes they face can come in many forms -- from mugging to job loss to the death of a loved one -- and the stress involved often leads to anxiety, depression and other illnesses, according to the study, released April 8 in PLoS ONE, an open access, peer-reviewed journal.

The sense of smell might seem intuitive, almost something you take for granted. But researchers from NYU Langone Medical Center have found that memory of specific odors depends on the ability of the brain to learn, process and recall accurately and effectively during slow-wave sleep — a deep sleep characterized by slow brain waves.

Washington, DC — New research appearing in the April 9 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience highlights the important role sleep plays in strengthening and maintaining the accuracy of a memory and hints at why the brain shuts out sensory information during periods of deep sleep. The study found that introducing new odor information to an animal while it sleeps compromises its ability to remember the difference between new and previously encountered smells while awake.

• Chronic cigarette smoking has a high co-occurrence with alcohol use disorders.
• Postural instability is also common among alcohol dependent (AD) individuals.
• New findings indicate that chronic cigarette use continues to impact the brain systems regulating postural stability even during abstinence from alcohol.

Comprehensive genomic analysis of low-grade brain tumors sorts them into three categories, one of which has the molecular hallmarks and shortened survival of glioblastoma multiforme, the most lethal of brain tumors, researchers reported at the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2014.

When the researchers eliminated both BRCA1 and p53, they found the neurons grew at a normal rate, but still disorderly, with cells pointed in the wrong direction.

"In this scenario, we recover a lot of neurons but there's still a lot of abnormalities, such as cells that are sideways and pointed the wrong direction," says Gerald Pao, who, along with Quan Zhu and Perez–Garcia, is a primary contributor to the paper and Salk researcher.