Brain | Page 416 | Science Codex

Wish sandwich: 'Imaginary meal' tricks the body into losing weight

Salk researchers have developed an entirely new type of pill that tricks the body into thinking it has consumed calories, causing it to burn fat. The compound effectively stopped weight gain, lowered cholesterol, controlled blood sugar and minimized inflammation in mice, making it an excellent candidate for a rapid transition into human clinical trials.

Unlike most diet pills on the market, this new pill, called fexaramine, doesn't dissolve into the blood like appetite suppressants or caffeine-based diet drugs, but remains in the intestines, causing fewer side effects.

Innate behavior: why some people jerk so much steering a car

Researchers have solved a 70 year old mystery in traffic research - inexplicable jerkiness when we steer a vehicle. The discovery may lead to safety systems in cars that can correct dangerous steering movements before they occur.

Exercise helps people with Parkinson's disease

Exercise helps people with Parkinson's disease improve their balance, ability to move around and quality of life. It is a net positive, even if it does not reduce their risk of falling, according to a new study in the journal Neurology.

Pets help children with autism be more assertive

Dogs and other pets play an important role in individuals' social lives, and they can act as catalysts for social interaction, previous research has shown. Although much media attention has focused on how dogs can improve the social skills of children with autism, a University of Missouri researcher recently found that children with autism have stronger social skills when any kind of pet lived in the home.

Why do ants show left bias when exploring mazes?

Temnothorax albipennis ants explore nest cavities and negotiate through branching mazes and show bias when doing it, finds a new study.

They found that ants were significantly more likely to turn left than right when exploring new nests. Such left bias was also present when the ants were put in branching mazes, though this bias was initially obscured by wall-following behavior.

So why do the majority of rock ants turn left when entering unknown spaces?

This holiday, have kids play Tchaikovsky's 'Nutcracker' and their brains may improve

Children who play the violin or study piano could be learning more than just Mozart, finds a child psychiatry team. They say that musical training might also help kids focus their attention, control their emotions and diminish their anxiety.

Thanks to smartphones, your thumbs are developing superpowers

When people spend time interacting with their smartphones via touchscreen, it actually changes the way their thumbs and brains work together, according to a report in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on December 23. More touchscreen use in the recent past translates directly into greater brain activity when the thumbs and other fingertips are touched, the study shows.

Riluzole may prevent foggy 'old age' brain

Forgetfulness, it turns out, is all in the head. Scientists have shown fading memory and clouding judgment, the type that comes with advancing age, show up as lost and altered connections between neurons in the brain. But new experiments suggest an existing drug, known as riluzole and already on the market as a treatment for ALS, may help prevent these changes.

E-books before bedtime can adversely impact sleep

Use of a light-emitting electronic device (LE-eBook) in the hours before bedtime can adversely impact overall health, alertness, and the circadian clock which synchronizes the daily rhythm of sleep to external environmental time cues, according to researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) who compared the biological effects of reading an LE-eBook compared to a printed book. These findings of the study are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on December 22, 2014.

iPads and other Light-emitting e-readers detrimentally shift circadian clock

You may think your e-reader is helping you get to sleep at night, but it might actually be harming your quality of sleep, according to researchers. Exposure to light during evening and early nighttime hours suppresses release of the sleep-facilitating hormone melatonin and shifts the circadian clock, making it harder to fall asleep at bedtime.

Cardiorespiratory fitness improves memory in older adults

Older adults who have greater heart and lung health also have better memory recall and cognitive capabilities. The study, which appears online in the Journal of Gerontology, examines the relationship between cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF), memory and cognition in young and older adults.

Aging is associated with decline in executive function (problem solving, planning and organizing) and long-term memory for events. CRF has been associated with enhanced executive function in older adults, but the relationship with long-term memory remains unclear.

Using light to understand the brain

UCL researchers have developed an innovative way to understand how the brain works by using flashes of light, allowing them to both 'read' and 'write' brain signals.

Research shows E.B. White was right in 'Charlotte's Web'

Before Charlotte the spider spelled the word "humble" in her web to describe Wilbur the pig, she told Templeton the rat that the word meant "not proud."

That's probably what most people say if you put them on the spot. But if you give them time to think about it deeply, like a new study just did, other themes emerge that have a lot to do with learning.

And these intellectual dimensions of humility describe the spider as well or better than the pig.

Lost memories might be able to be restored, new UCLA study indicates

New UCLA research indicates that lost memories can be restored. The findings offer some hope for patients in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease.

For decades, most neuroscientists have believed that memories are stored at the synapses -- the connections between brain cells, or neurons -- which are destroyed by Alzheimer's disease. The new study provides evidence contradicting the idea that long-term memory is stored at synapses.

Early exposure to antidepressants affects adult anxiety and serotonin transmission

About 15 percent of women in the United States suffer from anxiety disorders and depression during their pregnancies, and many are prescribed antidepressants. However little is known about how early exposure to these medications might affect their offspring as they mature into adults.

The answer to that question is vital, as 5 percent of all babies born in the U.S. - more than 200,000 a year - are exposed to antidepressants during gestation via transmission from their mothers.