The central analgesic mechanism of acupuncture for migraine remains poorly understood. Acupuncture has been shown to become a recommended treatment for migraine sufferers. However, a single acupuncture stimulus cannot be indicative of the cumulative effects of acupuncture treatment. Prof. Fanrong Liang and colleagues from Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine recruited migraine sufferers receiving 1 month of acupuncture treatment and explored the central analgesic mechanism of the cumulative effects of acupuncture for migraine.
Brain
University of Adelaide researchers have discovered the first evidence that the nerves in the stomach act as a circadian clock, limiting food intake to specific times of the day.
The discovery, published today in The Journal of Neuroscience, could lead to new information about how the gut signals to our brains about when we're full, and when to keep eating.
WASHINGTON, DC, December 2, 2013 — Despite working in more routine and less autonomous jobs, having fewer close friends at work, and feeling less supported by their coworkers, blacks report significantly more positive emotions in the workplace than whites, according to a new study in the December issue of Social Psychology Quarterly.
In the remote province of Niassa, Mozambique, a new species and genus of fossil vertebrate was found. The species is a distant relative of living mammals and is approximately 256 million years old. This new species belongs to a group of animals called synapsids. Synapsida includes a number of extinct lineages that dominated the communities on land in the Late Permian (260-252 million years ago), as well as living mammals and their direct ancestors.
After capturing the first brain images of two alert, unrestrained dogs last year, researchers at Emory University have confirmed their methods and results by replicating them in an experiment involving 13 dogs.
The research, published by the Public Library of Science One (PLOS One), showed that most of the dogs had a positive response in the caudate region of the brain when given a hand signal indicating they would receive a food treat, as compared to a different hand signal for "no treat."
Turns out the crocodile can be a shrewd hunter himself. A University of Tennessee, Knoxville, researcher has found that some crocodiles use lures to hunt their prey.
Vladimir Dinets, a research assistant professor in the Department of Psychology, is the first to observe two crocodilian species—muggers and American alligators—using twigs and sticks to lure birds, particularly during nest-building time.
When you are typing away at your computer, you don't know what your fingers are really doing.
That is the conclusion of a study conducted by a team of cognitive psychologists at Vanderbilt and Kobe Universities. It found that skilled typists can't identify the positions of many of the keys on the QWERTY keyboard and that novice typists don't appear to learn key locations in the first place.
MINNEAPOLIS – A vaccine used to prevent tuberculosis in other parts of the world may help prevent multiple sclerosis (MS) in people who show the beginning signs of the disease, according to a new study published in the December 4, 2013, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
MADISON – A University of Wisconsin-Madison research team reports today that the brain can produce and release estrogen — a discovery that may lead to a better understanding of hormonal changes observed from before birth throughout the entire aging process.
The new research shows that the hypothalamus can directly control reproductive function in rhesus monkeys and very likely performs the same action in women.
A new research study combining marine physiology, neuroscience, pharmacology, and behavioral psychology has revealed a surprising outcome from increases of carbon dioxide uptake in the oceans: anxious fish.
A growing base of scientific evidence has shown that the absorption of human-produced carbon dioxide into the world's oceans is causing surface waters to decline in pH, causing a rise in acidity. This ocean acidification is known to disrupt the growth of shells and skeletons of certain marine animals but other consequences such as behavioral impacts have been largely unknown.
SALT LAKE CITY, Dec. 4, 2013 –University of Utah and German biologists discovered how nerve cells recycle tiny bubbles or "vesicles" that send chemical nerve signals from one cell to the next. The process is much faster and different than two previously proposed mechanisms for recycling the bubbles.
SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 2, 2013 – Tongue twisters are not just fun to say; it turns out that these sound-related slip-ups can also open windows into the brain's speech-planning processes. A team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) will report new insights gleaned from a comparison of two types of tongue twisters at the 166th meeting of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA), held Dec. 2-6, 2013, in San Francisco, Calif.
Montréal, December 4, 2013 – A team of Montréal researchers at the IRCM led by Dr. Nabil G. Seidah, in collaboration with Dr. William C. Wetsel's team at Duke University in the United States, discovered that the protein PC7 plays a critical role in the brain by affecting certain types of cognitive performance such as anxiety, learning and emotional memory.
Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) antibody, protein kinase B (AKT) inhibitor, LY 294002, and glycogen synthase kinase 3β (GSK-3β) inhibitor, LiCl, were used by Yu He and colleagues from Nantong University, China to attenuate or augment the effects of the TLR4-phosphatidylinositol 3 kinase (PI3K)/AKT-GSK-3β signaling pathway so as to identify the participation of this signaling system in the apoptosis of hippocampal neurons. Their findings showed that the apoptotic ratio of hippocampal neurons stimulated by lipopolysaccharide was significantly higher compared with the control group.
Subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation can significantly improve the motor features of the Parkinson's disease in carefully selected patients. However, effects of subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation on the social adjustment, coping strategies and mental health-related quality of life of these patients remain unclear. In addition, an important concern has been that most studies have reported no improvement in social adaptation after subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation in some Parkinson's disease patients.