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No substantive evidence for 'pause' in global warming, study finds

There is no substantive evidence for a 'pause' or 'hiatus' in global warming and the use of those terms is therefore inaccurate, new research from the University of Bristol, UK has found.

The researchers, led by Professor Stephan Lewandowsky of Bristol's School of Experimental Psychology and the Cabot Institute, examined 40 peer-reviewed scientific articles published between 2009 and 2014 that specifically addressed the presumed 'hiatus' and found no consistent or agreed definition of such a 'hiatus', when it began and how long it lasted.

Food odors activate impulse area of the brain in obese children

CHICAGO - The area of the brain associated with impulsivity and the development of obsessive-compulsive disorder is activated in obese children when introduced to food smells, according to a study being presented next week at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).

Neuroscientists gain insight into cause of Alzheimer's symptoms

Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute scientists have uncovered a mechanism in the brain that could account for some of the neural degeneration and memory loss in people with Alzheimer's disease.

Anti-fat attitudes shaped early in life

New findings from New Zealand's University of Otago suggest older toddlers--those aged around 32 months old--are picking up on the anti-fat attitudes of their mothers.

The study, involving researchers from New Zealand, Australia, and the US, comes on the back of studies showing that obesity prejudice and discrimination are on the rise.

Professor Ted Ruffman, from Otago's Department of Psychology, says "anti-fat prejudice is associated with social isolation, depression, psychiatric symptoms, low self-esteem and poor body image".

Sensor sees nerve action as it happens

DURHAM, N.C. - Researchers at Duke and Stanford Universities have devised a way to watch the details of neurons at work, pretty much in real time.

Every second of every day, the 100 billion neurons in your brain are capable of firing off a burst of electricity called an action potential up to 100 times per second. For neurologists trying to study how this overwhelming amount of activity across an entire brain translates into specific thoughts and behaviors, they need a faster way to watch.

Loneliness triggers cellular changes that can cause illness, study shows

Loneliness is more than a feeling: For older adults, perceived social isolation is a major health risk that can increase the risk of premature death by 14 percent.

Researchers have long known the dangers of loneliness, but the cellular mechanisms by which loneliness causes adverse health outcomes have not been well understood. Now a team of researchers, including UChicago psychologist and leading loneliness expert John Cacioppo, has released a study shedding new light on how loneliness triggers physiological responses that can ultimately make us sick.

First-of-kind dopamine measurements in human brain reveal insights into how we learn

Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute scientists have reported measurements of dopamine release with unprecedented temporal precision in the brains of people with Parkinson's disease. The measurements, collected during brain surgery as the conscious patients played an investment game, demonstrate how rapid dopamine release encodes information crucial for human choice.

The findings may have widespread implications not just for Parkinson's disease, but for other neurological and psychiatric disorders as well, including depression and addiction.

Military data supporting damage control resuscitation has altered civilian practice

A new study that surveyed Trauma Medical Directors (TMD's) at 245 trauma centers has found that damage control resuscitation (DCR) practices that originated in military settings have been widely adapted in civilian practices across the United States. The study, "Military to civilian translation of surgical battlefield innovations in surgical trauma care," is published in the December issue of Surgery.

Stem cell treatment mediates immune response to spinal cord injury in pre-clinical trials

When a blunt-force blow injures the spinal cord, the body's immune system can be both friend and foe. Sensing the injury, the immune system dispatches an inflammatory response composed of specialized cells called macrophages to dispose of dead tissue. However, together with the debris and blood from the initial injury, the macrophages also clear away healthy tissue, resulting in a larger lesion size at the injury site and additional spinal cord injury loss of function.

Laboratory study: Scientists explore a new approach to prevent newborn epilepsies

Using the substance bumetanide in newborn mice, the scientists succeeded in attenuating the disease progression, allowing the animals to develop almost normally. These research results could pave the way for the development of new therapeutic strategies in humans.

Teaching problem-solving, leadership to young African-American girls lowers relational aggression

A new study from the Violence Prevention Initiative at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) suggests that educators, particularly in urban schools, should teach elementary school-aged girls problem-solving skills and provide them leadership opportunities as a way to reduce their relational aggression. Relational aggression includes using gossip and social exclusion to harm others, which is the most common form of aggression among girls.

New protein biomarker identifies damaged brain wiring after concussion

PHILADELPHIA--Physicians and others now recognize that seemingly mild, concussion-type head injuries lead to long-term cognitive impairments surprisingly often. A brain protein called SNTF, which rises in the blood after some concussions, signals the type of brain damage that is thought to be the source of these cognitive impairments, according to a study led by researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK.

Fruit flies provide new insight into body's rhythms

Researchers from the University of Bristol have gained a new insight into how the circadian clock responds to changes in temperature.

With collaborators from University College London, the University of Lausanne, and the University of Cambridge, the researchers discovered that a protein called Ionotropic Receptor 25a (IR25a), an evolutionary relative of Ionotropic Glutamate Receptors have a key role in entraining the brains of fruit flies to react to small changes in temperature.

Their findings were recently published in the journal Nature.

Children who take ADHD medicines have trouble sleeping, new study shows

Lincoln, Neb., Nov. 23, 2015 -- Stimulant medications for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) cause sleep problems among the children who take them, a new study from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln concludes.

The study addresses decades of conflicting opinions and evidence about the medications' effect on sleep.

In what's known as a "meta-analysis," researchers from the UNL Department of Psychology combined and analyzed the results from past studies of how ADHD medications affect sleep.

High-fat diet prompts immune cells to start eating connections between neurons

AUGUSTA, Ga. - When a high-fat diet causes us to become obese, it also appears to prompt normally bustling immune cells in our brain to become sedentary and start consuming the connections between our neurons, scientists say.

The good news is going back on a low-fat diet for just two months, at least in mice, reverses this trend of shrinking cognitive ability as weight begins to normalize, said Dr. Alexis M. Stranahan, neuroscientist in the Department of Neuroscience and Regenerative Medicine at the Medical College of Georgia.