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CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Infants 17 months of age expect leaders - but not others - to intervene when one member of their group transgresses against another, a new study reveals.

Contagious yawning is observed in many mammals, but there is no such report in human babies. Whether babies recognize yawning is an unanswered question.

A new study in Chuo University and Japan Women's University provides a new insight to this question. It suggested that 5- to 8-month-old babies show face-specific brain activity in response to yawning. This study was published online in Scientific Reports on July 23, 2019.

Blocking dopamine receptors in different regions of the amygdala reduces drug seeking and taking behavior with varying longevity, according to research in rats published in eNeuro.

The amygdala contains receptors for dopamine, a neurotransmitter involved in reward seeking, and has been shown to influence cocaine reward behaviors, making it a target for addiction treatment research.

Deep brain stimulation of the cingulate cortex worsens memory recall, according to research in epilepsy patients published in JNeurosci. The technique could be a way to target specific brain areas in the treatment of memory disorders.

Vaidehi Natu and colleagues at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center stimulated the posterior cingulate cortex, a brain region involved in memory, using electrodes inserted into the brains of epilepsy patients to treat seizures. The participants were shown a list of words, distracted, and then asked to recall the words.

BEER-SHEVA, Israel...July 29, 2019 - Babies show empathy for a bullied victim at only six months of age, according to researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and Hebrew University in Israel.

In a paper published in British Journal of Psychology, researchers through two experiments contributed to the debunking of the theory that babies only develop the ability to empathize after one year.

The researchers led by Profesoor Raphael Stoll therefore expect their results to form a basis for future therapeutic strategies to combat cancers caused by HMGA1a. They report in the journal Nucleic Acids Research on July, 24 2019.

The global price of ivory increased tenfold since its 1989 trade ban by the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), new research has found. The University of Bristol Veterinary School study, published in Biological Conservation [25 July], is the first to analyse trends in global ivory market values since the ban came into effect.

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia accounts for one in five adult leukemias, and is the most common pediatric cancer in the United States. While new immune therapies have helped improve survival rates, some patients are unresponsive to existing treatment regimens. In addition, drug-related toxicities and drug resistance are rampant for these patients, spurring an urgent need for new therapy options.

A new study spearheaded by Earth scientists at the University of Cologne's Institute of Geology and Mineralogy has constrained the age of the Moon to approximately 50 million years after the formation of the solar system. After the formation of the solar system, 4.56 billion years ago, the Moon formed approximately 4.51 billion years ago. The new study has thus determined that the Moon is significantly older than previously believed - earlier research had estimated the Moon to have formed approximately 150 million years after solar system's formation.

UMD researchers are connecting climate change to urban and suburban stormwater management, with the ultimate goal of increasing resiliency to major storm events. With models not only predicting more rain, but an increased frequency of particularly intense and destructive storms, flooding is a major concern in communities that are becoming more settled with more asphalt. Flooding doesn't just cause property damage, but it impacts the health of the Chesapeake Bay through increased nutrient runoff and pollution.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- Cryo-electron microscopy is now the most popular method for determining protein structures, which helps researchers develop drugs for different kinds of ailments. Over the last several decades, it has replaced X-ray crystallography because it can image proteins that can't easily be formed into large crystals. The new technique was so revolutionary that it won its developers the 2017 Nobel Prize in chemistry.

NASA's Aqua satellite took the temperature of Tropical Storm Flossie as it continued to strengthen and organize in the Eastern Pacific.

Tropical Depression 7E formed in the Eastern Pacific Ocean on Sunday, July 28 about 580 miles (930 km) south-southwest of Manzanillo, Mexico. On July 29 at 5 a.m. EDT (0900 UTC), the depression strengthened into a tropical storm and was renamed Flossie.

AMHERST, Mass. - In the latest paper from the Geobacter Lab led by microbiologist Derek Lovley at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, he and colleagues report "a major advance" in the quest to develop electrically conductive protein nanowires in the bacterium Geobacter sulfurreducens for use as chemical and biological sensors. Details appear in the current issue of the American Chemical Society journal, ACS Synthetic Biology.

When making choices, people tend either to go with what they know or try something new. We experience this trade-off every day, whether choosing a route to work or buying breakfast cereal. But does one strategy have an advantage over another? Researchers decided to examine this question by looking at fishing boat captains, who face this choice again and again when deciding where to fish.

Scientist have identified a link between exposure to high levels of oestrogen sex hormones in the womb and the likelihood of developing autism. The findings are published today in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.

The discovery adds further evidence to support the prenatal sex steroid theory of autism first proposed 20 years ago.