Brain | Page 1536 | Science Codex

Estimate soil texture-by-feel

MADISON, WI, October 14, 2008 -- The ability to estimate soil texture-by-feel is an important skill that students and registered soil scientists should learn.

Many soil properties depend largely on soil texture, and texture impacts most land-use decisions. Soil texture strongly influences the nutrient holding ability of a soil, the amount of water the soil can store, the amount of this water that is available to plants, how fast water moves through the soil, the effectiveness of soil in cleaning up waste water, the shrink-swell nature of soil, and many other properties.

Brain-nourishing molecule may predict schizophrenia relapse

A factor that helps optimize brain formation and function may also provide clues about whether patients suffering with schizophrenia are headed toward relapse, researchers say.

Over the next two- and one-half years, they are regularly measuring levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor, or BDNF, in the blood of patients with schizophrenia to see if the pattern of their rise and fall is a good indicator that patients are headed for trouble, say Medical College of Georgia researchers.

People with autism make more rational decisions, study shows

People with autism-related disorders are less likely to make irrational decisions, and are less influenced by gut instincts, according to research funded by the Wellcome Trust. The study adds to the growing body of research implicating altered emotional processing in autism.

Decision-making is a complex process, involving both intuition and analysis: analysis involves computation and more "rational" thought, but is slower; intuition, by contrast, is much faster, but less accurate, relying on heuristics, or "gut instincts".

Model against unnecessary use of antibiotics

In his thesis Stefan Visscher studied 238 cases of antibiotic treatment of which – with hindsight – only 157 patients were actually suffering from pneumonia. An absence of suitable patient-friendly tests makes it difficult to determine with certainty whether or not a patient has developed pneumonia.

Missing person

An increasing amount of information is available nowadays via the Internet. Yet can all this information be found? Search engines are already effective in searching for documents, yet are far less good at searching for entities, such as persons. Krisztian Balog introduces two new models in his thesis that make finding the right person quicker and more accurate.

Importance of sex-specific testing shown in anxiety study

An Australian study has flagged an important truth for the medical research community. Like their human counterparts, male and female mice are not only different, their respective genetic responses can often be the reverse of what you'd expect from pharmacological results. This has important ramifications for laboratory and clinical testing.

Dr Tim Karl, behavioural neuroscientist at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research, found the opposite of what he expected in female mice when he investigated the anxiety behaviours of males and females in specific mouse models.

Vitamin B does not slow cognitive decline in Alzheimer's

A clinical trial led by Paul S. Aisen, M.D., professor of neurosciences at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, showed that high-dose vitamin B supplements did not slow the rate of cognitive decline in patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer disease. The study will be published in the October 15 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

Design of a compound that stabilizes the main natural suppressor of tumors

Caltech scientists engineer supersensitive receptor, gain better understanding of dopamine system

PASADENA, Calif.--Genetically modifying a receptor found on the neurons that produce the neurotransmitter dopamine has given California Institute of Technology (Caltech) researchers a unique glimpse into the workings of the brain's dopamine system--as well as a new target for treating diseases that result from either too much or too little of this critical neurotransmitter.

Unpicking the complexity of human disease

The mysteries of the human genome are slowly being revealed – but the more we uncover the more complicated the picture becomes. This was one key message to emerge from the European Science Foundation's 3rd Functional Genomics Conference held in Innsbruck, Austria, on 1-4 October.

Being altruistic may make you attractive

Displays of altruism or selflessness towards others can be sexually attractive in a mate. This is one of the findings of a study carried out by biologists and a psychologist at The University of Nottingham.

In three studies of more than 1,000 people Dr Tim Phillips and his fellow researchers discovered that women place significantly greater importance on altruistic traits that anything else. Their findings have been published in the British Journal of Psychology.

UCLA study finds that searching the Internet increases brain function

UCLA scientists have found that for computer-savvy middle-aged and older adults, searching the Internet triggers key centers in the brain that control decision-making and complex reasoning. The findings demonstrate that Web search activity may help stimulate and possibly improve brain function.

The study, the first of its kind to assess the impact of Internet searching on brain performance, is currently in press at the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry and will appear in an upcoming issue.

Methamphetamine enters brain quickly and lingers

UPTON, NY — Using positron emission tomography (PET) to track tracer doses of methamphetamine in humans' brains, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory find that the addictive and long-lasting effects of this increasingly prevalent drug can be explained in part by its pharmacokinetics — the rate at which it enters and clears the brain, and its distribution. This study in 19 healthy, non-drug-abusing volunteers includes a comparison with cocaine and also looked for differences by race.

Critical genetic link found between human taste differences and nicotine dependence

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., October 13, 2008 — Could an aversion to bitter substances or an overall heightened sense of taste help protect some people from becoming addicted to nicotine? That's what researchers at UVA have found using an innovative new method they've developed to analyze the interactions of multiple genetic and environmental factors. Their findings one day may be key in identifying people at risk for nicotine dependence.

Looking through the broken mirror

Researchers at The University of Nottingham are hoping to learn more about the causes of autism and Asperger's Syndrome, by putting a controversial theory to the test.

The team in the Social Cognition Group in the School of Psychology are looking for volunteers to take part in a series of tests that include computer tasks and puzzles, a short interview and a Magnetic Resonance brain scan (MRI).