Brain

Researchers at UNC's Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute have completed a new examination of peer-reviewed science that reveals how early childhood educators can ignite the growth of language and communication skills in infants and toddlers. Earlier today, Nicole Gardner-Neblett and Kathleen Cranley Gallagher published the FPG team's research-based recommendations online.

In order for prolonged exposure therapy, an evidence-based psychotherapy for post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), to reach its full potential, any misperceptions or ruptures in trust and communication between therapist and client need fixing, according to a new Case Western Reserve University study.

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Until now, little research has been conducted on the association between parents' friendships and the emotional well-being of their adolescent children. A new study from researchers at the University of Missouri suggests that mothers' friendships with other adults can impact their adolescent children's relationships with their own friends, particularly the negative aspects of these relationships such as conflict and antagonism.

DURHAM, N.C. – In a study led by Duke researchers, monkeys have learned to control the movement of both arms on an avatar using just their brain activity.

The findings, published Nov. 6, 2013, in the journal Science Translational Medicine, advance efforts to develop bilateral movement in brain-controlled prosthetic devices for severely paralyzed patients.

While eating lunch you notice an insect buzzing around your plate. Its color and motion could both influence how you respond. If the insect was yellow and black you might decide it was a bee and move away. Conversely, you might simply be annoyed at the buzzing motion and shoo the insect away. You perceive both color and motion, and decide based on the circumstances. Our brains make such contextual decisions in a heartbeat. The mystery is how.

A growing body of evidence suggests that the brain plays a key role in glucose regulation and the development of type 2 diabetes, researchers write in the Nov. 7 issue of the journal Nature. If the hypothesis is correct, it may open the door to entirely new ways to prevent and treat this disease, which is projected to affect one in three adults in the United States by 2050.

Researchers at Marcus Autism Center, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta and Emory University School of Medicine have identified signs of autism present in the first months of life. The researchers followed babies from birth until 3 years of age, using eye-tracking technology, to measure the way infants look at and respond to social cues. Infants later diagnosed with autism showed declining attention to the eyes of other people, from the age of 2 months onwards. The results are reported in the Nov. 6, 2013 advanced online publication of the journal Nature.

TAMPA, Fla. (Nov. 6, 2013) – A human clinical study of older adults has demonstrated that participants who took NutraStem Cardio®, a natural dietary supplement created by Natura Therapeutics, Inc., showed a significant increase in cognition when compared to age-matched individuals taking a placebo. Cognition includes processes such as attention, decision making, and memory.

The company's study, Nutraceutical Intervention Improves Older Adults' Cognitive Functioning, has been published online ahead of print in the journal Rejuvenation Research.

Math video games can enhance students' motivation to learn, but it may depend on how students play, researchers at New York University and the City University of New York have found in a study of middle-schoolers.

While playing a math video game either competitively or collaboratively with another player—as compared to playing alone—students adopted a mastery mindset that is highly conducive to learning. Moreover, students' interest and enjoyment in playing the math video game increased when they played with another student.

Computer recognition of people has focused almost exclusively on faces, but a new study suggests it may be time to take additional information into consideration. A study* published online Sept. 25, 2013 in the journal Psychological Science by researchers at the University of Texas at Dallas and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) describes a series of experiments that demonstrates there is potentially more valuable information for biometrics-based identity recognition in images of people than the face alone.

The pain caused by a surgical incision may contribute to the risk of postoperative cognitive dysfunction, a sometimes transient impairment in learning and memory that affects a small but significant number of patients in the days following a surgical procedure. An animal study from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers, appearing in the November 6 Journal of Neuroscience, also identifies a probable mechanism for pain-induced cognitive impairment, suggesting pathways that may be targeted by potential preventive measures.

EVANSTON, Ill. --- What makes a good reader? First, you have to know how to read the words on a page and understand them -- but there's a higher-level step to reading comprehension. You have to tie together the words over time, maintaining their order and meaning in your memory, so that you can understand phrases, sentences, paragraphs and extended texts.

Research by the University of Liverpool has found that people experiencing depressive episodes display increased brain activity when they think about themselves.

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) brain imaging technologies, scientists found that people experiencing a depressive episode process information about themselves in the brain differently to people who are not depressed.

To survive, animals must explore their world to find the necessities of life. It's a complex task, requiring them to form them a mental map of their environment to navigate the safest and fastest routes to food and water. They also learn to anticipate when and where certain important events, such as finding a meal, will occur.

Understanding the connection between these two fundamental behaviors, navigation and the anticipation of a reward, had long eluded scientists because it was not possible to simultaneously study both while an animal was moving.

The traditional Chinese medicine Buyang Huanwu Decoction has been shown to improve the neurological function of patients with stroke. Baiyan Liu from Hunan University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, China showed that Buyang Huanwu Decoction significantly increased the number of cells positive for 5-bromodeoxyuridine, a cell proliferation-related marker, microtubule-associated protein-2, a marker of neuronal differentiation, and growth-associated protein 43, a marker of synaptic plasticity in the ischemic rat cerebral regions.