Neuroscience

Yawning Is Not About Blood Oxygen, It Is About Cooling The Brain

Why do we yawn? It's unclear. One hypothesis is that yawning helps to increase the oxygen supply but there no association between yawning and blood oxygen levels has been found. Psychologists now have a different notion- that yawning cools the brain. ...

Article - News Staff - May 6 2014 - 9:22am

Left Brain: Musical Training Increases Blood Flow

A new study looked into the modulatory effects that musical training could have on the use of the different sides of the brain when performing music and language tasks.  It found that brief musical training can increase the blood flow in the left hemisphe ...

Article - News Staff - May 8 2014 - 12:30am

KLOTHO Longevity Gene Variant May Boost Brain Power

People who have a variant of a longevity gene called KLOTHO also have improved brain skills such as thinking, learning and memory regardless of their age, sex, or whether they have a genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's disease. Correlation but not ca ...

Article - News Staff - May 9 2014 - 3:30pm

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