Children with dyslexia are slower to process visual information, according to new research that sheds new light on which brain processes are affected by dyslexia beyond just reading ability. The study, published in JNeurosci and the first to combine new methods to understand visual processing and brain activity in dyslexia, challenged a group of children […]
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COVID-19 affects transplant recipients differently, possible therapeutic approach suggested
Recipients of liver transplants who contracted COVID-19 recovered faster with less severe inflammation than heart or kidney transplant recipients, and some even did better than non-transplant patients, according to a study conducted at Hospital das Clínicas (HC), the hospital complex run by the University of São Paulo’s Medical School (FM-USP) in Brazil. An article describing […]
Fertility treatment affects children’s growth patterns but not for long
Children born as a result of fertility treatment have different growth patterns to naturally-conceived children but, by the time they reach the age of 17, they are of similar height, weight and body mass index (BMI), according to research published today (Wednesday) in Human Reproduction. The study of 81,461 children from the Norwegian Mother, Father […]
Wind turbine noise affects dream sleep and perceived sleep restoration
Wind turbine noise (WTN) influences people’s perception of the restorative effects of sleep, and also has a small but significant effect on dream sleep, otherwise known as REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, a study at the University of Gothenburg shows. A night of WTN resulted in delayed and shortened REM sleep. Knowledge of how sleep […]
Animal study shows how stress and mother’s abuse affects infant brain
A new study in rats shows the extent of brain damage in newborn rodents from even short-term abuse by their mother. Past studies in animals and humans have established how a mother’s abuse can lead to brain shrinkage in her infants’ amygdala and hippocampus, parts of the brain that process fear and memory, researchers say. […]
Researchers identify previously unrecognised abnormalities in how MND affects brain activity
Researchers in the Academic Unit of Neurology at Trinity College Dublin have identified characteristic changes in the patterns of electrical brain wave activity in motor neurone disease (MND). This ground breaking observation will help to develop treatments for the disease that affects over 350 people in Ireland. Their findings, published in the recent issue of […]
Gender affects the correlation between depression and weight in children and adolescents
The results of a large community-based study have shown that the probability of major depressive disorder in children and adolescents with high, low, or normal body mass index differs according to gender. Underweight boys and overweight girls have an increased risk of depression, according to the study published in Childhood Obesity. Seyed-Ali Mostafavi, Tehran University […]
Brain injury from low oxygen affects specific cells, study finds
Low oxygen levels are a well-known cause of brain injury in premature babies. But the mechanism by which low oxygen hurts the developing human brain has been unclear. Now, researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have identified a specific set of brain cells that are particularly susceptible to harm from low oxygen exposure […]
New multi-pronged method probes how noncoding DNA affects gene expression
Approximately 98 percent of the human genome is made up of noncoding DNA, including enhancers, promoters, and other elements that regulate gene activity. The methods for studying these regions tend to be expensive, labor-intensive, and largely low-throughput. To really understand the functional geography of the noncoding genome, however, researchers need a way to isolate and […]
How the switchover to daylight saving time affects our health
On Saturday night, Australians who switch over to daylight saving time will get an hour less of sleep as they move their clocks forward. Changing the clock causes a temporary state of misalignment in our internal biological time. We may not feel ready to go to bed an hour earlier and our alarms will wake […]