National Institutes of Health, Brain and Behavioral Research Foundation, FRAXA Research Foundation
DURHAM, N.C. -- A single chemical receptor in the brain is responsible for a range of symptoms in mice that are reminiscent of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), according to a Duke University study that appears online in the journal Biological Psychiatry.
In the July 14 edition of Scientific Reports (Nature), 39 researchers from 14 leading institutions in the United States, United Kingdom and France suggest novel approaches that could hasten the development of better medications for people suffering from toxoplasmosis. This chronic, currently incurable infection, caused by the parasite Toxoplasma gondii, infects the brain and eye of as many as 2 billion people worldwide.
While the brain's ability to deal with abstract properties - including patterns of "same" and "different" - has been demonstrated in animals with advanced intelligence after extensive training, researchers now show that newly hatched ducklings can distinguish same and different, too, without any training at all. The ability to identify logical relationships between objects, retain this understanding, and apply it to novel objects is known as relational concept learning.
Scientists from the University of Oxford have shown that newly hatched ducklings can readily acquire the concepts of 'same' and 'different' - an ability previously known only in highly intelligent animals such as apes, crows and parrots.
A major, multi-institutional study based at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) has identified a promising treatment strategy for Huntington's disease (HD). In their report receiving online publication in Cell Chemical Biology, the team describes finding that their novel compound appears to protect against neurodegeneration in cellular and animal models of HD by means of two separate mechanisms - inhibiting the regulatory enzyme SIRT2 and activating the antioxidant pathway controlled by the NRF2 transcription factor.
Patients' self-rated health is a better long-term predictor of illness and death than standard blood tests, blood pressure measurements or other symptomatic evidence a doctor might gather, according to a new study from Rice University.
The study in Psychoneuroendocrinology lays out mounting statistical evidence to support this conclusion.
American black bears may be able to recognize things they know in real life, such as pieces of food or humans, when looking at a photograph of the same thing. This is one of the findings of a study led by Zoe Johnson-Ulrich and Jennifer Vonk of Oakland University in the US, which involved a black bear called Migwan and a computer screen. The findings are published in Springer's journal Animal Cognition.
Team training of health care employees can reduce patient mortality by 15 percent, according to a new study from Rice University, the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, the University of Central Florida, the U.S. Department of Defense and the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center.
Fear memory encoding, the process responsible for persistent reactions to trauma-associated cues, is influenced by a sparse but potent population of inhibitory cells called parvalbumin-interneurons (PV-INs) in the amygdala, according to a study conducted at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and published online July 14 in the journal Neuron.
At a time of intense national attention on law enforcement and race, a new University of Washington study suggests that racially based fear plays a role in public support for policing reforms.
The research, conducted by UW postdoctoral researcher Allison Skinner and published online July 12 in the open-access journal Frontiers in Psychology, used a series of experiments to gauge participants' level of support for policing reforms in relation to whether they felt threatened by police officers or black men.
Los Angeles, CA (July 15, 2016) Though healthcare is not without risks or error, hospital employees can support a culture of patient safety by identifying, reporting, and learning from medical mistakes that have or could have harmed patients. In a new study, a training program focusing on team communication, leadership, and decision-making practices, known as Crew Resource Management (CRM), was found to improve perceptions of the safety culture by 8% over the course of two years.
A number of drugs--from insulin to cancer chemotherapy--can be delivered only via injections, which are far more difficult for patients than taking a simple tablet or pill. It can also be more expensive, as this type of drug has to be prepared very carefully and sometimes can only be administered in a clinical setting.
If we are in a relationship we are more likely to be attracted to faces resembling our own, but for single people, opposites attract.
Relationship status affects who and what we find attractive, found a study published in Frontiers in Psychology.
Dr Jitka Lindová of Charles University in the Czech Republic and her team showed a series of photographs of faces to university students and asked them to rate their attractiveness. The photographs were digitally manipulated so that the resemblance to the student was modified.
Brain State Technologies announces that a series of young athletes with long-term symptoms after concussion showed a variety of lasting improvements, after using HIRREM® neurotechnology. At three months, the athletes maintained their reduction of symptoms, and they had all returned to full physical exercise. The study findings were presented at the American Academy of Neurology Sports Concussion Conference that was held July 8-10, 2016 in Chicago.
London, July 14, 2016 - Subjecting female soccer players to a negative stereotype about their abilities reduced their dribbling speed significantly, according to a new study published in Psychology of Sport and Exercise. The results demonstrate the impact negative stereotypes can have on athletic performance.