Neuroscience

Cannabis Use May Influence Brain Maturation In Young Males

Male teens who experiment with cannabis before age 16, and have a high genetic risk for schizophrenia, show a different brain development trajectory than low risk peers who use cannabis. The discovery, made from a combined analysis of over 1,500 youth, co ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 1 2015 - 8:00am

Why Suspenseful Movies Keep Your Eyes Glued To The Screen

By: Michael Greshko, Inside Science – Some filmmakers really know how to get into their audience’s heads, new research suggests. Last month, a team led by Matt Bezdek, a cognitive psychologist at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, found that ...

Article - Michael Greshko - Aug 28 2015 - 12:23pm

Neuron Responsible For Alcoholism Found

Scientists have pinpointed a population of neurons in the brain that influences whether one drink leads to two, which could ultimately lead to a cure for alcoholism and other addictions. A new study finds that alcohol consumption alters the structure and ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 3 2015 - 6:30am

New Mechanism Discovered Behind Infant Epilepsy

Scientists at Karolinska Institutet and Karolinska University Hospital in Sweden have discovered a new explanation for severe early infant epilepsy. Mutations in the gene encoding the protein KCC2 can cause the disease, hereby confirming an earlier theory ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 7 2015 - 10:00am

Not Just Behavior: Girls And Boys With Autism Differ In Brain Structure Also

Girls with autism display less repetitive and restricted behavior than boys do, according to a study by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine. The study also found that brain differences between boys and girls with autism help explain ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 7 2015 - 8:11am

A Barrier Against Brain Stem Cell Aging

Neural stem cells generate new neurons throughout life in the mammalian brain. However, with advancing age the potential for regeneration in the brain dramatically declines. Scientists from the University of Zurich now identified a novel mechanism of how ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 23 2015 - 8:00am

Genes, Schizophrenia, And Repairing The Brain

Researchhas linked the abnormal behavior of two genes (BDNF and DTNBP1) to the underlying cause of schizophrenia. These findings have provided a new target for schizophrenia treatment. Schizophrenia is a devastating mental disorder that affects nearly 1% ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 24 2015 - 6:30am

Spontaneous Rare Mutations Cause Half Of Autism

Researchers are saying a new analysis of data on the genetics of autism spectrum disorder disputes a commonly held belief that autism results from the chance combinations of commonly occurring gene mutations, which are otherwise harmless.  They find, inst ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 23 2015 - 6:30am

What Fossilized Ear Bones Tell Us About Ancient Human Hearing

How did the world sound to our ancient human relatives two million years ago? While we obviously don’t have any sound recordings or written records from anywhere near that long ago, we do have one clue: the fossilized bones from inside their ears. The int ...

Article - The Conversation - Aug 28 2019 - 12:16pm

Difficulty Processing Speech May Be An Effect Of Dyslexia, Not A Cause

The cognitive skills used to learn how to ride a bike may be the key to a more accurate understanding of developmental dyslexia. And, they may lead to improved interventions. Carnegie Mellon University scientists investigated how procedural learning- how ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 9 2015 - 6:30am