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Neuroscience
Gaming improves children’s cognitive performance – US study
A recent study suggests that video gaming could be associated with improved cognitive abilities involving response inhibition and working memory, and with alterations in...
Voice control devices could hinder children’s social and emotional development – experts
Experts in the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning in healthcare say voice control smart devices, like Alexa, Siri and Google Home, might hinder...
Nervous system retraining effective in treating chronic back pain – randomised trial
There’s finally hope for people suffering from chronic back pain, shows a randomised control trial of treatment focused on retraining how the back and...
Psilocybin rewires brain for people with depression – UCSF-University College London
Psilocybin fosters greater connections between different regions of the brain in depressed people, freeing them up from long-held patterns of rumination and excessive self-focus,...
Our lives might really flash before our eyes when we die – Vancouver brain study
A study is based on a rare recording of a dying brain, which occurred accidentally at a Canadian hospital, suggests that there may be...
High coffee use associated with slower cognitive decline — 10-year biomarker analysis
There was an association between higher coffee consumption and lower risk of transitioning to the mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease, found a 10-year...
Ultrasound as a potential treatment for Alzheimer's — Australian animal study
Ultrasound can overcome some of the detrimental effects of ageing and dementia without the need to cross the blood-brain barrier, Queensland Brain Institute researchers have found...
Breastfeeding link to higher neurocognitive testing scores in offspring
Research finds that children who were breastfed scored higher on neurocognitive tests. Researchers in the Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience at the University of...
Designer cytokine allows paralysed mice to walk again
Using gene therapy, a research team has succeeded for the first time in getting mice to walk again after a complete cross-sectional injury, according...
UK scientist with MND converts himself into a cyborg
A 61-year-old British scientist suffering from a life-threatening muscle wasting disease – motor neurone disease (MND) – has managed to convert himself fully into...
Epilepsy: Seizures not forecastable as expected
Epileptic seizures can probably not be predicted by changes in brain wave patterns that were previously assumed to be characteristic precursors. This is the...
Fumigation neurotoxin may be cause of Cuban 'sonic attacks'
Fumigation against mosquitoes in Cuba and not “sonic attacks” may have caused some 40 US and Canadian diplomats and family members in Havana to...
Electrical current to part of cortex improves memory retrieval
A study by University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) provides evidence that using transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to a specific area of the...
Scientists restore some functions of pig brain hours after death
Circulation and cellular activity were restored in a pig's brain four hours after its death, a finding that challenges long-held assumptions about the timing...
Sleep apnoea link to memory loss and depression risk
People with sleep apnoea struggle to remember details of memories from their own lives, potentially making them vulnerable to depression, a small Australian study...
Even minor changes in nightly sleep impact on next-day pain burden
Even very subtle changes in nightly sleep have a clear impact on the next-day pain burden, amplifying the pain-sensing regions in the brain and...
Blood marker an early predictor of Alzheimer's risk
Years before symptoms of Alzheimer's disease manifest, the brain starts changing and neurons are slowly degraded. Scientists at the German Centre for Neurodegenerative Diseases...
Researchers probe secrets of key compound in memory and addiction
A team led by researchers at Imperial College London is leading an international effort to uncover the role of one of the brain’s key chemical...
Smoking linked to higher dementia risk
In an Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology analysis of nationwide health claims from Korea, men who smoked had an elevated risk of dementia. Researchers at...
Neurogenetic determinants and mechanisms of nicotine, tobacco addiction
A review of research has found a large gap in accounting for the heritability of key phenotypes involved in each stage of addiction to...
Diplomats' mystery illness linked to radio-frequency microwave radiation
Dr Beatrice Golomb, professor of medicine at University of California San Diego School of Medicine, says publicly reported symptoms and experiences of a "mystery...
Testosterone shot increases males' preference for upmarket goods
Giving men a single dose of testosterone increased their preference for higher-status goods, found a double-blinded and randomised US trial
The finding supports previous research...
Learning music enhances cognitive abilities in children
Structured music lessons significantly enhance children's cognitive abilities – including language-based reasoning, short-term memory, planning and inhibition – which lead to improved academic performance....
NSAIDs could prevent onset of Alzheimer's — Canadian study
Once identified, those at risk of Alzheimer's disease can prevent disease development through self treatment by consumption of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), adhering to...
Brain response during controlled whole-body exposure
Dutch adventurer Wim Hof is known as "The Iceman" after establishing several world records for prolonged resistance to cold exposure, an ability he attributes...
Children's brain structure affected by exercise
Researchers from the University of Granada (UGR) have proven, for the first time in history, that physical fitness in children may affect their brain...
Nerve stimulation restores some consciousness after 15 years of PVS
A 35-year-old man who had been in a persistent vegetative state (PVS) for 15 years has shown signs of consciousness after receiving a pioneering...
Being even just a little generous makes people happier
Being even a little generous or merely promising to be so, triggers a change in the brain that makes people happier, found a University...
A lover's touch eases pain as heartbeats, breathing synchronise
When an empathetic partner holds the hand of a woman in pain, their heart and respiratory rates synchronise and her pain dissipates, found a...
Runners' brains have greater connectivity
MRI scans reveal that endurance runners' brains have greater functional connectivity than the brains of more sedentary individuals, found University of Arizona study.
The researchers...
Music training in youth boosts listening skills
A Canadian study has found that older adults who had musical training in their youth were 20% faster in identifying speech sounds than their non-musician peers, a benefit already observed in young people with musical training.
Anti-epilepsy drug may reduce stroke impact
Research on mice suggests that anti-epilepsy drug retigabin could dramatically reduce the debilitating impact of strokes.
How the brain senses low glucose levels
UK and University of Michigan research has advanced the understanding how the brain senses low glucose levels and triggers the body's response, with implications for diabetes control.
Study suggests copper compound FOR Lou Gehrig’s, Parkinson’s
A new study on mice suggests that a copper compound could be used in therapy for Lou Gehrig’s disease – also known as amyotrophic...
Homicidal youths have different brain structures
A new study suggests that youths between the ages of 12 and 18 who have committed homicide have significantly different brain structures, compared with...
Finding has implications for understanding cognitive decline in ageing
Research on mice suggests that certain types of brain cells may be ‘picky eaters,’ seeming to prefer one specific energy source over others. News-Medical...
Young marijuana smokers face potential brain abnormalities
Young, casual marijuana smokersexperience potentially harmful changes to their brains, with the drug altering regions of the mind related to motivation and emotion, researchers...
New research offers hope for motor neurone disease sufferers
The paralysed have been offered a ray of hope after scientists used light to move and control frozen muscles. The Daily Mail reports that...
Alterations in eye movements – an early indication of Alzheimer’s
Researchers have suggested that alterations in eye movements when reading could be linked to impairments in working memory and an early indication of Alzheimer’s...
Evidence found that autism begins in the womb
Scientists say they have new evidence that autism begins in the womb – patchy changes in the developing brain long before birth may cause...