Brain/Neuroscience
Meditation may reduce anxiety, stress levels by altering brain’s white matter
Researchers believe they have created the world’s first mouse model of meditation by using light to trigger brain activity similar ...
New frontier in fight against Alzheimer’s, epilepsy opens with discovery of learning mechanism
Researchers have discovered a brand new mechanism that controls the way nerve cells in our brain communicate with each other ...
Tired of overeating? ‘Fullness’ gene could lead to appetite-supressing drug
Scientists claim to have discovered a gene that triggers a feeling of fullness and could help prevent the urge to ...
Autism could be detected as early as 1 year old, with MRI scans
Children with autism tend to be diagnosed around age 4, after a child begins to socialize and speak. But the earlier a ...
Fighting cancer by shifting the body’s immune system into overdrive
Gene-targeted treatments and immunotherapy offer great promise to cure cancer, but they work in less than half of patients and ...
Does poor motivation or ‘bad parenting’ cause ADHD? Studies say it’s in the brain structure
For the first time, scientists can point to substantial empirical evidence that people with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder have brain structures that differ ...
‘Brain fingerprints’: Will semantic memory identification replace fingerprints and passwords?
Semantic memory identification is an emerging ID technology based on the patterns of electrical signals that your brain puts out ...
Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s linked to body’s mishandling of ‘garbage’
A new study...may help explain how diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s spread in the brain. Sometimes when neurons dispose of ...
Epigenetics Around the Web: Engineering better humans? Fearmongering in Canada? Fake autism treatments?
Epigenetics Around the Web is a weekly roundup of studies and news in the field of epigenetics presented by GLP ...
Is there a metabolic on-off switch that could prevent chronic fatigue syndrome?
Evidence is mounting that chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is caused by the body swapping to less efficient ways of generating ...
Brain implants might soon restore vision to the blind, improve digestion, relieve PTSD symptoms
[Brain implant experiments] like those that let a paralyzed person swig coffee using a robotic arm, or that let blind ...
Without Glyphosate, What Would Farming Look Like?
Dave Walton--who grows corn, soybeans, alfalfa and hay, and is director of the Iowa Soybean Association—discusses the ecological consequences if ...
Harvard School of Public Health accused of scare mongering about conventional food, promoting organics
[Editor's note: Kevin Folta is a molecular geneticist and chair of the horticultural sciences department at the University of Florida.] Apparently ...
Evolution of the mind: How termite colonies are models of the human brain
[Editor's note: Excerpts from an interview with Daniel Dennett, cognitive scientist and philosopher at Tufts University, who recently wrote From Bacteria ...
Autism risk higher for females with ‘male-like brains’
One feature of brain anatomy that is characteristic of males is associated with an increased risk of autism, according to ...
Enhancing humans: Becoming a cyborg could end up as a privilege of the wealthy
Within the next 200 years, humans will have become so merged with technology that we’ll have evolved into “God-like cyborgs” ...
Women may be buffered from traumatic stress by high estrogen levels
Whether a woman’s estrogen level is high or low could determine if she may be susceptible to developing post-traumatic stress ...
Fighting brain cancer with weaponized human skin cells?
Human skin can be morphed into genetically modified, cancer-killing brain stem cells, according to a new study. This latest advance ...
Sleep to forget: Downtime helps our brains refine, sharpen memories
[W]hile scientists have long understood that our memories rely on connections being built between neurons in our brains, it's not ...
Molecular ‘Rosetta Stone’ could provide insight into autism
Distinct sets of genetic defects in a single neuronal protein can lead either to infantile epilepsy or to autism spectrum ...
Annoyed by loud chewing? It may be all in your brain
Misophonia, a disorder which means sufferers have a hatred of sounds such as eating, chewing, loud breathing or even repeated ...
Resurgence in ‘mad cow disease’? Recent death sparks focus on mystery prion protein
The original wave of mad cow only infected a limited number of people with a very specific genetic signature. Can ...
Is human-pig stem cell chimera research ‘jumping ahead of ethical considerations’?
[Editor's note: Excerpts are from an opinion piece written by Lori Marino, executive director of the Kimmela Center for Animal Advocacy and a ...
Blacks found genetically more susceptible to opiate addiction, study says
Researchers say they've found a genetic variant associated with opioid addiction, and it might lead to personalized treatment for the ...
Gene-edited ants could shed light on human society, disease
[Daniel Kronauer of Rockefeller University and his colleagues] have manipulated the DNA of Cerapachys biroi ants, creating what Dr. Kronauer says are ...
Brain cancer in children: Unique ‘genetic drivers’ open door to precision medical treatments
In the past 30 years, childhood deaths from cancer have declined by 50 percent overall, but those from pediatric brain ...
Transplant breakthrough? Organs of one species grown inside an animal of another
It’s possible to grow organs of one species inside an animal of another species and then transplant that organ to ...
