Brain

NEW YORK, NY (Nov. 7, 2013) – A Columbia University Medical Center-led research team has clinically validated a new method for predicting time to full-time care, nursing home residence, or death for patients with Alzheimer's disease. The method, which uses data gathered from a single patient visit, is based on a complex model of Alzheimer's disease progression that the researchers developed by consecutively following two sets of Alzheimer's patients for 10 years each. The results were published online ahead of print in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease.

The brains of children with autism show more connections than the brains of typically developing children do. What's more, the brains of individuals with the most severe social symptoms are also the most hyper-connected. The findings reported in two independent studies published in the Cell Press journal Cell Reports on November 7th are challenge the prevailing notion in the field that autistic brains are lacking in neural connections.

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified a chain reaction that triggers the regrowth of some damaged nerve cell branches, a discovery that one day may help improve treatments for nerve injuries that can cause loss of sensation or paralysis.

Narcissus, the physically flawless character of Greek mythology who wound up falling in love with his own reflection, hardly seems like a good role model. For those dreaming of becoming president of the United States, however, some narcissistic traits may be worth fostering, suggests an analysis by psychologists at Emory University.

A device that could predict when a person with epilepsy might next have a seizure is one step closer to reality thanks to the development of software by researchers in the USA. Details are to be published in a forthcoming issue of the International Journal of Data Mining and Bioinformatics.

When a person is deemed trustworthy, we perceive that person's face to be more similar to our own, according to a new study published in Psychological Science.

A team of scientists from the Department of Psychology at Royal Holloway University, found that feelings of similarity towards others extend beyond social closeness and into physical characteristics, using trust as the basis in this experiment.

War is hell, and according to new research, experiencing the horrors of war can cause people to have a greater affinity for members of their own group, particularly if individuals are exposed to war during key periods of their life.

"These effects have the potential to explain why conflict sometimes leads to cycles of war and sometimes stimulates nation-building in its wake," says Joseph Henrich of the University of British Columbia, who helped conduct the study. The research appears in the journal Psychological Science.

Philadelphia, PA, November 7, 2013 –The knowledge and skills required to change poor nutrition and health behavior choices are often unavailable to those living with financial limitations. Competing demands on time and resources may pose obstacles to their achieving better diets. However, two researchers at the University of Minnesota recently completed a study that looked at the effects that three educational sessions might have on knowledge and behaviors of 118 low-income women of ethnically diverse backgrounds.

War experiences have a long-term effect on human psychology, shifting people's motivations toward greater equality for members of their own group, according to research forthcoming in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

According to study co-author Joseph Heinrich of the University of British Columbia, "these effects have the potential to explain both why conflict sometimes leads to cycles of war and sometimes stimulates nation-building in its wake."

New research on pond snails has revealed that high levels of stress can block memory processes. Researchers from the University of Exeter and the University of Calgary trained snails and found that when they were exposed to multiple stressful events they were unable remember what they had learned.

Previous research has shown that stress also affects human ability to remember. This study, published in the journal PLOS ONE, found that experiencing multiple stressful events simultaneously has a cumulative detrimental effect on memory.

NEW YORK, NY - NOVEMBER 6, 2013: In an article appearing in Medical Hypotheses on September 20, a New York-based physician-researcher from the Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine has called for the testing of umbilical cord blood for levels of a growth protein that could help predict an infant's propensity to later develop autism.

When diners belly-up to a buffet, food order matters. When healthy foods are first, eaters are less likely to desire the higher calorie dishes later in the line, says a new Cornell University behavioral study in PLOS ONE, Oct 23.

"Each food taken may partly determine what other foods a person selects. In this way, the first food a person selects triggers what they take next," write behavioral economists Professor Brian Wansink and Andrew Hanks, postdoctoral researcher.

MINNEAPOLIS – In the largest study on the topic to date, research shows that speaking a second language may delay the onset of three types of dementias. The research is published in the November 6, 2013, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

The study found that people who spoke two languages developed dementia four and a half years later than people who only spoke one language.

People who speak more than one language and who develop dementia tend to do so up to five years later than those who are monolingual, according to a study.

A team of scientists examined almost 650 dementia patients and assessed when each one had been diagnosed with the condition. The study was carried out by researchers from the University of Edinburgh and Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences in Hyderabad (India).

They found that people who spoke two or more languages experienced a later onset of Alzheimer's disease, vascular dementia and frontotemporal dementia.

Cocaine addicts may become trapped in drug binges – not because of the euphoric highs they are chasing but rather the unbearable emotional lows they desperately want to avoid.