Brain/Neuroscience
Genetic defect may render local anesthesia useless for some patients
Local anesthetic resistance is a rare condition that's so poorly researched that many medical professionals refuse to acknowledge that it's ...
Mini brains grown from teeth stem cells reveal secrets of sociability
Can tiny brains grown in a dish reveal the secrets of sociability? Balls of brain tissue generated from stem cells ...
Autism risk may be related to genes that influence sex-specific traits
Genetic variants that shape physical features that vary with sex, such as waist-to-hip ratio, may also affect autism risk, according ...
Piltdown Man evolution hoax reminds us about danger of confirmation bias
A 100-year-old hoax involving the "discovery" of a missing link in the human evolution chain provides insights into the pitfalls ...
Biology and genetic engineering innovations converging in 2017 to ‘blow our minds’
[DARPA's] new Biological Technologies Office (BTO) has a mission to “harness the power of biological systems” and design new defense ...
Genetics may have played a part in electing Trump president
Do our genetics influence whether we lean to the political left or right? It's obviously more complicated than that, but ...
Alzheimer’s linked gene may protect brain from parasites
People who carry one copy [of the ApoE4 gene] have a three-fold higher risk of Alzheimer’s than those with none...Even if ...
Premature babies show signs of abnormal brain activity before birth
Even before they are born, premature babies may display alterations in the circuitry of their developing brains, according to a ...
Aggressive brain tumors temporarily halted using genetically modified immune cells
One of the most deadly types of cancers are glioblastomas – a particularly aggressive form of brain tumor. Patients diagnosed ...
We did not evolve small teeth because of brain development or primitive food-cutting tools
The human brain and teeth have not evolved together in humans, unlike what past studies had suggested. ... Compared with ...
Transcranial magnetic stimulation: Can strong magnetics revive your sex drive?
If TMS, which is already FDA approved to treat depression, can reverse sexual dysfunction, it would be a boon particularly ...
‘Brain blobs’ genetically engineered from stem cells can track effects of Zika virus
[C]ombined with gene editing techniques like CRISPR, it seems like there’s almost nothing you can’t just whip up in a ...
Differences in brain wiring could explain why some people learn languages quicker
Babies' ability to soak up language makes them the envy of adult learners everywhere. Still, some grown-ups can acquire new ...
“Getting Risk Right”: Geoffrey Kabat on health, risk and bad science
Why do things that are unlikely to harm us get the most attention? Dr. Geoffrey Kabat, a cancer epidemiologist at ...
Discovery of gene mutations for motor disorder leads to treatment in children
Doctors have discovered a new genetic disorder that robs children of the ability to walk normally and makes it hard ...
Fast food ads may entice kids with obesity genes more than other children
Children with a genetic trait linked to obesity may be more likely than other kids to respond to fast-food commercials ...
Motherhood changes your brain to connect better with newborn
Elseline Hoekzema at Leiden University in the Netherlands and her team compared brain scans of 25 first-time mothers with those ...
Vampire therapy: Can blood from the young fight aging?
Billionaire venture capitalist Peter Thiel has expressed his reluctance to age quite vocally. He has also put his money where ...
“Early” intervention can be too late: Cancer cells spread much sooner than assumed
Cancer cells are able to spread from a nascent tumor much earlier than scientists long thought and are more adept than ...
Science and technology in food production can limit environmental footprint while increasing production
The Breakthrough Institute is in the midst of releasing a series of articles on the future of food. The latest article ...
Single gene may make deadly brain cancer more fatal
Scientists have identified a gene that is overactive in a deadly form of brain cancer known as glioblastoma, according to ...
Malfunctioning of 320 gene ‘epileptic network’ may trigger epilepsy
British scientists have identified a gene network in the brain that is associated with epilepsy, a discovery which may lead ...
Genes essential for healthy fetal development tied to autism
Genes known to be essential to life–the ones humans need to survive and thrive in the womb–also play a critical ...
Mystery of rare diseases: Why diagnoses remain elusive
Milo Loretzen is one of only three people in the world known to have been diagnosed with a mutation in ...
How one gene influences many diseases
In this new study the scientists show that the gene region which controls FADS1 appeared 6 million years ago and ...
DNA mutations can influence far away genes as easily as those close-by
A new chart of DNA’s loops and twists reveals its three-dimensional (3-D) structure in the developing brain. It shows that ...
Future of Alzheimer’s treatment? Flickering lights
[If neurons fire] 30 to 90 times [in a single second], that’s a gamma wave, which has been linked to ...