There has been an abundance of research on the effects of alcohol on the brain, but many questions regarding how alcohol impairs the built-in control systems are still unknown. A new study released in the January 2011 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, which is currently available at Early View, explores that subject in detail and found that certain brain regions involved in error processing are affected more by alcohol than others.
Brain
- Exposure to alcohol as a fetus has been shown to cause difficulties in memory and information processing in children
- New findings indicate that visual perception, control of attention and demand processing may be involved in fetal alcohol-related learning problems
- This information could potentially be used to help children affected with such difficulties
- Adolescence and puberty is a period of significant development in the brain
- New findings indicate that excessive alcohol use selectively damages the frontal lobe, which is responsible for the development of social skills and judgment
- This indicates that severe alcohol abuse may damage brain function, and the normal course of neural development in adolescents
- The gene CYP2E1, which is located on the terminal region of chromosome 10, plays a major role in the metabolic processing of alcohol
- New findings show that this gene is linked with a low sensitivity to alcohol and increased risk for alcoholism
- CYP2E1 could therefore be used as a predictor for those who are at risk for alcoholism
In contrast to the findings of some studies and the recommendations that pregnant women increase their intake of fish oil via dietary docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) because of the possible benefits, a randomized trial that included more than 2,000 women finds that use of DHA supplements did not result in lower levels of postpartum depression in mothers or improved cognitive and language development in their offspring during early childhood, according to a study in the October 20 issue of JAMA.
Scientists at The Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital – The Neuro, McGill University have discovered that our brains have the ability to determine the shape of an object simply by processing specially-coded sounds, without any visual or tactile input. Not only does this new research tell us about the plasticity of the brain and how it perceives the world around us, it also provides important new possibilities for aiding those who are blind or with impaired vision.
SEATTLE, Wash.—October 18, 2010—Researchers at the Allen Institute for Brain Science have found that the same genes have different activity patterns in the brain in individuals with different genetic backgrounds. These findings may help to explain individual differences in the effectiveness and side-effect profiles of therapeutic drugs and thus have implications for personalized medicine. The study is available in this week's online early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (www.pnas.org).
Seeing a child or a dog play is not a foreign sight. But what about a turtle or even a wasp?
Apparently, they play, too.
In fact, according to Gordon Burghardt, a psychology professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, many animals -- not just dogs, cats, and monkeys -- need a little play time.
An international collaboration led by academics at the University of Sheffield, has shed new light into Parkinson's disease, which could help with the development of cures or treatments in the future.
Mobile phone-based games could provide a new way to teach basic knowledge of Chinese language characters that might be particularly helpful in underdeveloped rural areas of China, say researchers in Carnegie Mellon University's Mobile & Immersive Learning for Literacy in Emerging Economies (MILLEE) Project.
Watching violent films, TV programs or video games desensitizes teenagers, blunts their emotional responses to aggression and potentially promotes aggressive attitudes and behavior, according to new research published online today in the Oxford Journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience (Tuesday 19 October).
The structure of the university in the 21st century is changing rapidly after its evolution into a multiversity in the 20th century. But as universities are being restructured to best serve the society of tomorrow, are their curricula reflecting these changes and the development of new and possibly even unformulated new disciplines and areas of inquiry?
ST. PAUL, Minn. – A new study shows that vitamin B12 may protect against Alzheimer's disease, adding more evidence to the scientific debate about whether the vitamin is effective in reducing the risk of memory loss. The research will be published in the October 19, 2010, issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Lowering levels of a key protein involved in regulating learning and memory—STtriatal-Enriched tyrosine Phosphatase (STEP)—reversed cognitive deficits in mice with Alzheimer's disease, Yale School of Medicine researchers report in the October 18 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Tampa, Fla. (October 18, 2010) –Two research teams from the Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine (Okayama, Japan) have reported breakthrough studies in liver cell transplantation.