MONDAY, Feb. 4, 2019 — “Boys will be boys” goes the old saying, but girls might have the last laugh. It turns out that female brains tend to age more slowly, researchers report. On average, women’s brains appear to be about three years younger than those of men at the same chronological age. This could […]
Brain’s cerebellum found to influence addictive and social behavior
In a study published online today in the journal Science, researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, part of Montefiore, prove for the first time that the brain’s cerebellum—long thought to be mainly involved in coordinating movement—helps control the brain’s reward circuitry. The surprising finding indicates that the cerebellum plays a major role in reward […]
Two thousand human brains yield clues to how genes raise risk for mental illnesses
It’s one thing to detect sites in the genome associated with mental disorders; it’s quite another to discover the biological mechanisms by which these changes in DNA work in the human brain to boost risk. In their first concerted effort to tackle the latter, 15 collaborating research teams of the National Institutes of Health-funded PsychENCODE […]
Computers can ‘spot the difference’ between healthy brains and the brains of people with DID
Machine-learning and neuroimaging techniques have been used to accurately distinguish between individuals with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) and healthy individuals, on the basis of their brain structure, in new research part funded by the NIHR Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre and published in the British Journal of Psychiatry. Researchers performed MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) brain scans […]
Research uncovers key differences in brains of women and men with schizophrenia
Researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have found clear disparities in the way males and females—both those with schizophrenia and those who are healthy—discern the mental states of others. The research, the first of its kind, will be published online on October 30, in Social Neuroscience. The research team examined emotional […]
New York man, 61, dies from rare disease after eating squirrel brains
New York hunter, 61, dies after eating SQUIRREL BRAINS that left him with rare form of mad cow disease The man went to Rochester Regional Health in 2015 reporting a decline of his cognitive skills and an inability to walk He was diagnosed with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a rare and degenerative brain disorder caused by infectious […]
Oscillations provide insights into the brain’s navigation system
The brain creates a map of our environment, which enables reliable spatial navigation. The Nobel Prize was awarded in 2014 for research into how this navigation system works at the cellular level. Researchers at the Medical Center – University of Freiburg, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing have now shown that […]
Creating custom brains from the ground up
Scientists studying how genetics impact brain disease have long sought a better experimental model. Cultures of genetically-modified cell lines can reveal some clues to how certain genes influence the development of psychiatric disorders and brain cancers. But such models cannot offer the true-to-form look at brain function that can be provided by genetically-modified mice. Even […]
Brief Exercise Breaks During Class Help Bodies, Brains
WEDNESDAY, Sept. 26, 2018 — Two-minute exercise breaks in the classroom may help school children meet physical activity goals without disrupting learning, new research suggests. University of Michigan researchers say short bursts of in-classroom activity can trim childhood obesity rates while helping elementary schools provide 30 minutes of daily exercise for students. “What we’re showing […]
Premature brains develop differently in boys and girls
Brains of baby boys born prematurely are affected differently and more severely than premature infant girls’ brains. This is according to a study published in the Springer Nature-branded journal Pediatric Research. Lead authors Amanda Benavides and Peg Nopoulos of the University of Iowa in the US used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans as part of […]