Neuroscience

Fragile X Mental Retardation Protein Linked To Both Addiction And Autism

In a new paper,  researchers used animal models to show that the fragile X mental retardation protein, or FMRP, plays a critical role in the development of addiction-related behaviors. FMRP is also the protein that is missing in Fragile X Syndrome, the le ...

Article - News Staff - May 9 2014 - 8:33pm

Changes That May Occur In Neural Circuits Due To Addiction Identified

A research team from the Friedman Brain Institute of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai has published evidence which finds that subtle changes of inhibitory signaling in the reward pathway can change how animals respond to drugs such as cocaine. ...

Article - News Staff - May 12 2014 - 6:52pm

A Genetic Marker For OCD?

Are you a control freak?  Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is something else entirely. It is a condition marked by thoughts and images that chronically intrude in the mind and by engaging in repetitive behaviors aimed at reducing the associated anxiety ...

Article - News Staff - May 13 2014 - 9:30am

Concentrative Or Nondirective Meditation? Which Does Science Say Works Better?

Mindfulness. Zen. Meditation drumming. Chakra. Buddhist and transcendental meditation. It evokes eastern mystics and hip elites in California pretending to to leave their corporeal forms behind and achieve some higher state of being. But what about poor s ...

Article - News Staff - May 15 2014 - 10:30am

How Infants Understand Speech

A new study demonstrates the importance of considering developmental differences when creating programs for cochlear implants in infants. Cochlear implants, which are surgically placed in the inner ear, provide the ability to hear for some people with sev ...

Article - News Staff - May 19 2014 - 2:26pm

Brain Change: Cerebral Blood Flow Different By Gender Beginning At Puberty

Puberty is the defining process of adolescent development and it leads to  variety of changes throughout the body- even including the brain. Writing in  in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS), researchers find that cerebral blood flow (C ...

Article - News Staff - May 27 2014 - 8:52am

Gender Dysphoria: Brain Reaction To Male Odor Shifts At Puberty

Men with gender dysphoria, commonly called gender identity disorder, are born as males but behave as and identify with women and want to change sex. Around puberty, the testes of men start to produce androstadienone, a musky-smelling steroid produced by m ...

Article - News Staff - May 28 2014 - 5:06pm

OCD, Compulsive Eaters And Addicts Share Common Pattern And Brain Structure

People who engage in binge eating, substance abuse and obsessive compulsive disorder all share a common pattern of decision making and similarities in brain structure, according to a  new paper in  Molecular Psychiatry. ...

Article - News Staff - May 29 2014 - 11:00am

'Free Will' Can Be Altered Through Brain Stimulation

How much free will do you really have? Hypnosis is silly and there is no "Manchurian Candidate" scenario happening any time soon, but we're all inductance when you get right down to it. And that could be a future path in neuroscience. A stu ...

Article - News Staff - May 29 2014 - 1:27pm

Not Just Neurons: Leptin Also Influences Other Cells That Control Appetite

Twenty years after the hormone leptin was found to regulate metabolism, appetite, and weight through brain cells called neurons, a new study in Nature Neuroscience says that the hormone also acts on other types of cells to control appetite. Leptin, a natu ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 1 2014 - 10:00pm