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Neuroscience news

Genetics

Why the human brain matures slower than its primate relatives

The human brain is a fascinating and complex organ that supports numerous sophisticated behaviors and abilities that are observed in no other animal species. For centuries, scientists have been trying to understand what is ...

Neuroscience

Alzheimer's disease can be reversed in animal models to achieve full neurological recovery

For over a century, Alzheimer's disease (AD) has been considered irreversible. Consequently, research has focused on disease prevention or slowing, rather than recovery. Despite billions of dollars spent on decades of research, ...

HIV & AIDS

Brain chemistry can reactivate or suppress dormant HIV

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infections are still fairly common and an estimated 40 million people worldwide are currently living with this condition. The HIV virus attacks the body's immune system and thus makes those ...

Psychology & Psychiatry

Humans could have as many as 33 senses

Stuck in front of our screens all day, we often ignore our senses beyond sound and vision. And yet they are always at work. When we're more alert, we feel the rough and smooth surfaces of objects, the stiffness in our shoulders, ...

Neuroscience

To flexibly organize thought, the brain makes use of space

Our thoughts are specified by our knowledge and plans, yet our cognition can also be fast and flexible in handling new information. How does the well-controlled and yet highly nimble nature of cognition emerge from the brain's ...

Neuroscience

How age affects recovery from spinal cord injury

A study published in Neurology looks at how age may affect recovery for people with spinal cord injuries. "With population growth and improvements in medicine, the number of people diagnosed with spinal cord injury is increasing ...

Neuroscience

Why there's always room for dessert—an anatomist explains

You push back from the table after Christmas lunch, full from an excellent feast. You really couldn't manage another bite—except, perhaps, a little bit of pudding. Somehow, no matter how much you've eaten, there always ...

Oncology & Cancer

How brain tumor cells influence neurons and vice versa

Gliomas are cancers that originate directly in the brain, instead of spreading to the brain from other parts of the body. These cancers cannot be cured with conventional cancer treatments, as they spread into healthy brain ...

Psychology & Psychiatry

Exploring why some people tend to persistently make bad choices

When people learn that surrounding visuals and sounds may signify specific choice outcomes, these cues can become guides for decision making. For people with compulsive disorders, addictions, or anxiety, the associations ...

Psychology & Psychiatry

Brain injuries linked with potential risk of suicide

Adults who experience a head injury face a substantially higher risk of attempting suicide compared to those without such injuries, according to the findings from a new UK-based study.

Neuroscience

Exploring how children with hearing loss learn to speak

Cochlear implants give children with profound hearing loss a much better chance to learn spoken language. However, the sounds from a cochlear implant aren't as clear as natural hearing, making it harder for children to connect ...

Neuroscience

Restless leg syndrome's connection to Parkinson's disease

Three research hospitals in the Republic of Korea are reporting that restless leg syndrome was associated with an increased risk of Parkinson's disease, with 1.6% of patients with restless leg syndrome developing Parkinson's ...

Psychology & Psychiatry

Body illusion helps unlock memories, new study finds

New research has discovered that briefly altering how we perceive our own body can help unlock autobiographical memories—potentially even those from the early stages of childhood.

Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes

Potential link between chronic pain, immune condition found

University of Arizona researchers may have uncovered a connection between chronic pain and a somewhat uncommon immune condition, opening the door to future research on immune biomarkers for chronic pain.

Neuroscience

Pain during opioid addiction treatment tied to worse outcomes

Though rarely considered during treatment for opioid use disorder, uncontrolled pain is strongly linked to less success in treatment outcomes, a lower quality of life, and mental health issues, a new study led by a Virginia ...

Neuroscience

Brain 'pacemaker' helps alleviate stuttering in patient case

While stuttering was believed to have purely psychological causes up until about 30 years ago, scientists today attribute it to a variety of factors capable of contributing to its development. For instance, several genes ...

Psychology & Psychiatry

Newly discovered brain cells are wired for uncertainty

Newly identified brain cells evolved along the theme, "Life is uncertain; Eat dessert first." The neurons, located in the front part of the brain, are most active when the outcome of a decision is uncertain, suggesting that ...