Better oral hygiene and regular dental visits may play a role in slowing cognitive decline as people age, although evidence is not definitive enough to suggest that one causes the other. The findings, published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, come from the first systematic review of studies focused on oral health and cognition--two important areas of research as the older adult population continues to grow, with some 36% of people over age 70 already living with cognitive impairments.
Brain
- By 2025, around a fifth of adults worldwide will be obese
- Over a third of UK men and women, and over 40% of US men and women will be obese by 2025.
- Interactive maps and country by country data available below
In the past 40 years, there has been a startling increase in the number of obese people worldwide--rising from 105 million in 1975 to 641 million in 2014, according to the most comprehensive analysis of trends in body mass index (BMI) to date, published in The Lancet.
Researchers at the RIKEN Brain Science Institute in Japan have found that a deep-brain structure called the habenula contains two neural circuits that work in a complex interplay to influence whether a fight will be a win or loss.
A new study reveals the structure of the Zika virus, shedding light on its similarities and differences compared to viruses of the same family. The ongoing Zika virus epidemic is of grave concern because of apparent links to congenital microcephaly, a medical condition in which the brain does not develop properly, resulting in a smaller than normal head, as well as Guillain Barre syndrome.
BOSTON (March 31, 2016)--Researchers at Boston Children's Hospital show how brain connections, or synapses, are lost early in Alzheimer's disease and demonstrate that the process starts -- and could potentially be halted -- before telltale plaques accumulate in the brain. Their work, published online by Science on March 31, suggests new therapeutic targets to preserve cognitive function early in Alzheimer's disease.
A new UCLA psychology study provides insights into how the brain combines sound and vision. The research suggests that there is not one sole mechanism in the brain that governs how much our senses work together to process information.
Among the implications of the study: It might not be as easy as many people had assumed to categorize the way in which we perceive and learn.
All animals, including humans, love sweet food, particularly when we are hungry. But if you're someone who never turns down dessert under normal circumstances, try wolfing down six donuts as a scientific experiment. Even the moistest, most velvety piece of chocolate cake will seem a lot less appetizing--and you will likely eat less of it.
Older Americans are increasingly active, and this lifestyle shift has contributed to the rise in average age of a person experiencing a spinal cord injury. The changing demographic calls for a better understanding of how aging impacts recovery and repair after a spinal cord injury. To this end, researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and University of British Columbia (UBC) have now determined that, in mice, age diminishes ability to regenerate axons, the brain's communication wires in the spinal cord. The study is published March 31 in Cell Reports.
What happens when you rest a chopped ping pong ball on your finger and look at it from above? Experimental psychologists from KU Leuven, Belgium, have shown that our visual system fills in the bottom part of the ball, even though we know it's missing. This makes our finger feel unusually short, as if to compensate for the 'complete' ball. The findings indicate that the completion is due to our visual system, not our imagination.
Mitochondrial diseases - which affect 1 in 5,000 people - encompass a spectrum of disorders with an array of symptoms. Many patients with a mitochondrial disease experience neurological symptoms, including intellectual disability, childhood epilepsy and autism spectrum disorder, but why dysfunctional mitochondria - the powerhouses of cells -lead to these sorts of symptoms has been unclear.
Scientists have long known that the protein tau is involved in dementia, but how it hinders cognitive function has remained uncertain. In a study published in the journal Neuron, researchers at the Gladstone Institutes reveal how tau disrupts the ability of brain cells to strengthen connections with other brain cells, preventing new memories from forming.
CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Some mental illnesses may stem, in part, from the brain's inability to correctly assign emotional associations to events. For example, people who are depressed often do not feel happy even when experiencing something that they normally enjoy.
A new study from MIT reveals how two populations of neurons in the brain contribute to this process. The researchers found that these neurons, located in an almond-sized region known as the amygdala, form parallel channels that carry information about pleasant or unpleasant events.
Sensory neurons in human muscles provide important information used for the perception and control of movement. Learning to move in a novel context also relies on the brain's independent control of these sensors, not just of muscles, according to a new study published in the journal Current Biology.
Each muscle can have tens or hundreds of encapsulated sensory receptors, and these "sensors" are called muscle spindles. Spindles differ from other sensory receptors as they also receive nerve fibers from the central nervous system itself, which acts to control spindle output.
PHILADELPHIA (March 31, 2016) - New research from the Monell Center reveals that olfactory marker protein (OMP), a molecule found in the cells that detect odor molecules, plays a key role in regulating the speed and transmission of odor information to the brain. The findings solve a 30-year-old mystery regarding the function of OMP and increases understanding of how the olfactory system integrates information to transmit accurate data about odors and the messages they contain.
Vital clues about how the brain erases long term memories have been uncovered by researchers.
The study in rats reveals how forgetting can be the result of an active deletion process rather than a failure to remember.
It points towards new ways of tackling memory loss associated with conditions such as Alzheimer's disease and other types of dementia.
The findings could also help scientists to understand why some unwanted memories are so long-lasting - such as those of people suffering from post-traumatic stress disorders.