Brain | Page 235 | Science Codex

Oxytocin in the recognition of emotions

Oxytoxin, whether functioning as a hormone or a neurotransmitter, is involved in a series of important physiological and psychological functions. For example, it promotes maternal attachment, lactation, pair bonding and group cohesion. However, the picture is actually far more complex, just think that it can sometimes even lead to aggressive behaviour.

Experimental results also show that intranasal administration (with a spray) of oxytocin makes people more willing to take care of others and better at recognizing emotions.

Helping co-workers can wear you out

EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Helping your coworkers too often can lead to mental and emotional exhaustion and hurt your job performance, a new study suggests.

Reporting in the Journal of Applied Psychology, Michigan State University's Russell Johnson and colleagues say the depletion effects were especially strong for employees with high "pro-social motivation" - or those who care deeply about the welfare of others.

While previous research on helping has focused largely on the effects of the beneficiaries, this is one of the first studies to focus on the helpers.

Brain in a dish to learn more about Alzheimer's disease

Researchers at the Babraham Institute have found a way to replicate one of the earliest changes in Alzheimer's disease in a dish. This means that it should now be possible to find out a lot more about why it happens - and how to stop it. The new findings are published in the journal Molecular Neurodegeneration and supported by the charity Alzheimer's Research UK.

Origin of a myth: The second trauma cure for amnesia

Quick, when Fred Flintstone had a bowling ball fall on his head that made him forget who he was, what was the way to fix him again?

Dropping another bowling ball on him, obviously.

While that worked in "The Flintstones" world and many other fictional realms, the medical community knows that like doesn't cure like when it comes to head trauma.

Study gives new meaning to the term 'bird brain'

The macaw has a brain the size of an unshelled walnut, while the macaque monkey has a brain about the size of a lemon. Nevertheless, the macaw has more neurons in its forebrain - the portion of the brain associated with intelligent behavior - than the macaque.

PET points to tau protein as leading culprit in Alzheimer's

San Diego, Calif. - Alzheimer's is a devastating and incurable disease marked by beta-amyloid and tau protein aggregations in the brain, yet the direct relationship between these proteins and neurodegeneration has remained a mystery. New molecular imaging research is revealing how tau, rather than amyloid-deposition, may be more directly instigating neuronal dysfunction, say presenters at the 2016 Annual Meeting of the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI).

Stop cells in the brain

In the case of vertebrates - including humans - the neurons in the midbrain control body activity, especially those required for locomotion. Command neurons are produced in this region of the brain and transferred directly to the brainstem. From there, they go through the medulla to the local networks that control the activity of the body's musculature.

New equation reveals how other people's fortunes affect our happiness

A new equation, showing how our happiness depends not only on what happens to us but also how this compares to other people, has been developed by UCL researchers funded by Wellcome.

The team developed an equation to predict happiness in 2014, highlighting the importance of expectations*, and the new updated equation also takes into account other people's fortunes.

Adolescent alcohol and marijuana use leads to poor academic performance & health problems

Adolescents who use both marijuana and alcohol during middle school and high school are more likely to have poor academic performance and mental health during high school, according to a new study by the nonprofit RAND Corporation that followed a group of students over a seven-year period.

Study: Training helps those with mild cognitive impairment

New research from the Center for BrainHealth at The University of Texas at Dallas shows that strategy-based reasoning training can improve the cognitive performance for those with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), a preclinical stage of those at risk for Alzheimer's disease.

The study, in collaboration with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, was recently published online in the open-access journal International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.

Shorter time in bed may protect against chronic insomnia

DENVER - Twenty to 50 percent of Americans suffer from acute insomnia each year, defined as difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep, three or more nights per week, for between two weeks and three months. Roughly 10 percent of Americans experience chronic insomnia lasting longer than three months. The effects of chronic insomnia (and/or sleep loss) include impaired physical and mental performance, increased risk for mental health disorders (such as, depression and substance abuse), and increased risk for medical diseases, including hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, and stroke.

PET/CT reveals adaptations of the alcoholic brain

San Diego, Calif. - Alcoholism is a devastating disorder that too often leads to a perpetual cycle of abuse. An emerging molecular imaging technique may provide a way to break that cycle. It could signal patients' heightened risk and lead to targeted drug treatments that reduce the compulsion to drink, say researchers presenting at the 2016 Annual Meeting of the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI).

Proper maternal folate level may reduce child obesity risk

Proper maternal folate levels during pregnancy may protect children from a future risk of obesity, especially those born to obese mothers, according to a study led by researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health.

New insights into neural computations in cerebral cortex

Dendrites are the tree-like extensions from neurons that serve as the main location for synapses--the junctions that neurons use to communicate with each other. In the cerebral cortex, dendrites are covered with thousands of small protrusions called spines and each dendritic spine is the site of a different synaptic input.
The classical view of dendritic function is that information arriving via the dendritic spines is passively conveyed to the cell body through the dendrites, much like a cable, without changing the information content.

USF researchers find stroke damages blood-spinal cord barrier

Tampa, Fla. (June 13, 2016) - A team of researchers at the University of South Florida investigating the short and long-term effects of ischemic stroke in a rodent model has found that stroke can cause long-term damage to the blood-spinal cord barrier (BSCB), creating a "toxic environment" in the spinal cord that might leave stroke survivors susceptible to motor dysfunction and disease pathology.

The paper describing their study was recently published online and will appear in an upcoming issue of Journal of Neuropathology and Experimental Neurology.