



The more grey matter you have in the decision-making, thought-processing part of your brain, the better your ability to evaluate rewards and consequences. That may seem like an obvious conclusion, but a new study conducted at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory is the first to show this link between structure and function in healthy people - and the impairment of both structure and function in people addicted to cocaine. The study appears in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience…
A new study has revealed that immature neurones taken from healthy mouse embryos can repair damaged brain circuitry and partially normalise metabolism when transplanted into adult mice that have grown morbidly obese due to a genetic deficiency. This proof-of-principle discovery represents one step down a long road toward neuronal replacement therapy, which researchers hope might one day be used to repair brains that have been injured by trauma or disease…
Shakespeare was a master at portraying profound emotional upset in the physical symptoms of his characters, and many modern day doctors would do well to study the Bard to better understand the mind-body connection, concludes an analysis of his works, published in Medical Humanities…
Long-term coffee consumption may be associated with a reduced risk for endometrial cancer, according to a recent study in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research…
Experienced meditators seem to be able switch off areas of the brain associated with daydreaming as well as psychiatric disorders such as autism and schizophrenia, according to a new brain imaging study by Yale researchers…
A research team led by UT Southwestern Medical Centre scientists has identified an atypical metabolic pathway unique to some tumours, possibly providing a future target for drugs that could reduce or halt the spread of cancer…
A health supplement used by bodybuilders could be the key to treating a life-threatening muscular dystrophy affecting hundreds of Australian children, new research shows…
Most people understand that serious weight loss requires changing attitudes toward what they eat and how often they exercise. But, what if the process could be aided by simply chewing a stick of gum after meals? That's the question a team of scientists, led by Syracuse University chemist Robert Doyle, is trying to answer. In a groundbreaking new study, Doyle's team demonstrated, for the first time, that a critical hormone that helps people feel 'full' after eating can be delivered into the bloodstream orally…
An international team of researchers from Leeds, London and Berlin has discovered more about the function of muscle stem cells, thanks to next-generation DNA sequencing techniques…
Researchers have found long-sought genes in the sensory hair cells of the inner ear that, when mutated, prevent sound waves from being converted to electric signals - a fundamental first step in hearing. The team, co-led by Jeffrey Holt, PhD, in the department of otolaryngology at Children's Hospital Boston, and Andrew Griffith, MD, PhD, of the NIH's National Institute on Deafness and other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), then restored these electrical signals in the sensory cells of deaf mice by introducing normal genes…
An emergency brake in the brain
Timing is everything when it comes to childhood asthma