Brain And Consciousness Research - July 2008 Archives

Statins May Protect Against Memory Loss (7/31/2008)

Commonly used cholesterol-fighting drugs called statins may protect against dementia and memory loss ...> Full Article

Improved estrogen reception may sharpen fuzzy memory (7/31/2008)

Estrogen treatments may sharpen mental performance in women with certain medical conditions, but University of Florida researchers suggest that recharging a naturally occurring estrogen receptor in the brain may also clear cognitive cobwebs. ...> Full Article

Obesity predisposition traced to the brain's reward system (7/30/2008)

The tendency toward obesity is directly related to the brain system that is involved in food reward and addictive behaviors ...> Full Article

How carrots help us see the color orange (7/30/2008)

One of the easiest ways to identify an object is by its color -- perhaps it is because children’s books encourage us to pair certain objects with their respective colors. Why else would so many of us automatically assume carrots are orange, grass is green and apples are red? ...> Full Article

Reflecting on values promotes love, acceptance (7/29/2008)

Just a few minutes of writing about an important value can reduce defensiveness ...> Full Article

Autism's social struggles due to disrupted communication networks in brain (7/29/2008)

Faulty brain connections conceal intentions of others in autism ...> Full Article

Mindfulness meditation slows progression of HIV, study shows (7/28/2008)

Reducing stress can bolster immune system in HIV-positive adults, others ...> Full Article

Older people may need less sleep, study finds (7/27/2008)

Along with all the other changes that come with age, healthy older people also lose some capacity for sleep ...> Full Article

Memory impairment associated with sound processing disorder (7/26/2008)

Mild memory impairment may be associated with central auditory processing dysfunction, or difficulty hearing in complex situations with competing noise, such as hearing a single conversation amid several other conversations ...> Full Article

Closing coal-burning power plant in China and improved cognitive development in children (7/25/2008)

Study shows benefits of closing plants on early childhood neurodevelopment ...> Full Article

Water-diffusion technology identifies brain regions damaged by prenatal alcohol exposure (7/25/2008)

A new study has used diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to identify several specific white matter regions as well as deep gray matter areas of the brain that appear sensitive to prenatal alcohol exposure. ...> Full Article

Magic is the trick to understanding the mind (7/24/2008)

Elements of human cognition and perception that are not yet fully understood by scientists may receive greater insight by analysing tricks and techniques used by magicians ...> Full Article

Aggressive preschoolers found to have fewer friends than others (7/24/2008)

Preschoolers who are aggressive, angry, and inattentive tend to have fewer playmates than their non-aggressive classmates, whether they are boys or girls. ...> Full Article

Team creates touch-based illusion (7/23/2008)

Mind trick yields new insights on perception ...> Full Article

Suckling infants trigger surges of trust hormone in mothers' brains (7/23/2008)

When a baby suckles at a mother's breast, it starts a chain of events that leads to surges of the "trust" hormone oxytocin being released in their mothers' brains. ...> Full Article

Obsessive compulsive disorder linked to brain activity (7/22/2008)

Researchers have discovered that measuring activity in a region of the brain could help to identify people at risk of developing obsessive compulsive disorder ...> Full Article

Brain switch clues to drug addiction (7/21/2008)

In the quest to find the biological route of drug addiction, research at Cambridge University is revealing what makes some people more vulnerable than others. ...> Full Article

Old eyes can learn new tricks; findings offer hope for adults with 'lazy eye' (7/20/2008)

New evidence that the brain regions responsible for vision are capable of adapting in adults offers new hope for those with an untreated condition commonly known as lazy eye ...> Full Article

Positive Thinking is Prescription for the Heart (7/20/2008)

Optimism is good for heart health, at least among men, a new study shows. ...> Full Article

Electrifying mind matter part of new research (7/19/2008)

For suffers of neurological disorders such as Parkinson's disease daily trembling and shaking can be unbearable however, new research could assist in helping patients regain control. ...> Full Article

Do we think that machines can think? (7/19/2008)

When our PC goes on strike again we tend to curse it as if it was a human. The question of why and under what circumstances we attribute human-like properties to machines and how such processes manifest on a cortical level was investigated in a new project ...> Full Article

Decisions under pressure: it's all in the heart beat (7/18/2008)

A person's heart rate can reveal a lot about how they make decisions when feeling stressed ...> Full Article

Money Makes the Heart Grow Less Fond ... but More Hardworking (7/18/2008)

Researchers found that participants' personal performance improved, and interpersonal relationships and sensitivity towards others declined, when they were reminded of money. ...> Full Article

'Unlearn' old ways to learn new skills (7/17/2008)

The skill of unlearning old workplace practices is just as important as learning new ones and can impact a company's productivity ...> Full Article

Touch Can Trump Taste, According to New Retail Research (7/17/2008)

or some consumers, the way a cup of mineral water tastes has more to do with the container than the contents. Especially for consumers who are less likely to enjoy touching items or products before deciding to buy them. ...> Full Article

Much can be gleaned from reaction to baby's smile (7/16/2008)

The baby's smile that gladdens a mother's heart also lights up the reward centers of her brain ...> Full Article

Scientists uncover basis of attention span (7/16/2008)

Scientists have uncovered the chemical basis of attention span ...> Full Article

Research reveals passive learning imprints on the brain just like active learning (7/15/2008)

Researchers determined that people can acquire motor skills through the "seeing" as well as the "doing" form of learning. ...> Full Article

Brain activity encodes reward magnitude and delay during choice (7/13/2008)

Good things may come to those who wait, but research has proven that humans and animals actually prefer an immediate rather than a delayed reward. ...> Full Article

Children are naturally prone to be empathic and moral (7/13/2008)

Research using fMRI scans shows tendencies toward kindness ...> Full Article

Statins Have Unexpected Effect on Pool of Powerful Brain Cells - URMC Press Room (7/12/2008)

Cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins have a profound effect on an elite group of cells important to brain health as we age ...> Full Article

Keeping hands where you can see 'em alters perception, study finds (7/12/2008)

Hands on steering wheel may help keep eyes on road ...> Full Article

Are men or women more likely to have memory problems in very old age? (7/11/2008)

Women over age 90 are significantly more likely to have dementia compared to men in their 90s ...> Full Article

Children born after donor insemination should be told as soon as possible about their conception (7/11/2008)

It is better for children conceived by donor insemination to be told of their origins at an early age ...> Full Article

Early-Life Nutrition May Be Associated With Adult Intellectual Functioning (7/10/2008)

Adults who had improved nutrition in early childhood may score better on intellectual tests, regardless of the number of years they attended school ...> Full Article

Thin line between desire and dread: Dopamine controls both (7/9/2008)

The chemical dopamine induces both desire and dread in adjacent regions of the brain ...> Full Article

Will our future brains be smaller? (7/9/2008)

The speed at which we react to threatening situations can have life or death implications ...> Full Article

Perception of hole size influenced by performance (7/8/2008)

Golfers who play well are more likely to see the hole as larger than their poor-playing counterparts ...> Full Article

Spiritual effects of hallucinogens persist (7/7/2008)

Related report gives safety guidelines for hallucinogen research ...> Full Article

New 'Everyday Cognition' Scale Tracks How Older Adults Function in Daily Life (7/6/2008)

Short screening test can reveal status of basic mental abilities and follow changes over time ...> Full Article

The perils of overconfidence (7/6/2008)

Overestimating one's abilities can have hazardous consequences ...> Full Article

Seizures in newborns can be detected with small, portable brain activity monitors (7/5/2008)

Compact, bedside brain-activity monitors detected most seizures in at-risk infants ...> Full Article

Researchers study woman who acquires new accent after stroke (7/5/2008)

A woman in southern Ontario is one of the first cases in Canada of a rare neurological syndrome in which a person starts speaking with a different accent ...> Full Article

Get smart about what you eat and you might actually improve your intelligence (7/4/2008)

Researchers offer tantalizing evidence on how to make people smarter, naturally ...> Full Article

New study shows persistence of anxiety (7/4/2008)

New research indicates that the brains of those suffering from anxiety and severe shyness in social situations consistently respond more strongly to stress and show signs of being anxious even in situations that others find safe. ...> Full Article

New book examines the mixed-up senses of synaesthesia (7/3/2008)

Do letters have colors? Does music have flavor? Can you see shapes when you think of numbers? For one in twenty people, the answer to one or more of these questions is "Yes!" ...> Full Article

Team finds language without numbers (7/3/2008)

Amazonian tribe has no word to express 'one,' other numbers ...> Full Article

When using gestures, rules of grammar remain the same (7/3/2008)

The mind apparently has a consistent way of ordering an event that defies the order in which subjects, verbs, and objects typically appear in languages ...> Full Article

New hope for sufferers of social anxiety (7/3/2008)

Young people and adults who experience social anxiety may benefit from a revolutionary new study ...> Full Article

Mothers' influence is decisive in tots' first year (7/2/2008)

Study says parenting style and babys' temperament predict challenging behavior in later childhood ...> Full Article

New map IDs the core of the human brain (7/2/2008)

An international team of researchers has created the first complete high-resolution map of how millions of neural fibers in the human cerebral cortex -- the outer layer of the brain responsible for higher level thinking -- connect and communicate ...> Full Article

Implicit Political Attitudes Can Predict Future Voting Behavior (7/1/2008)

People's future voting decisions are to a significant degree determined by their current automatic mental associations ...> Full Article