Brain and mind news and Brain Teasers

A Loss of Plasticity of the Brain? - Why is it that only some drug users become addicts? This is the question that has been addressed by the teams of Pier Vincenzo Piazza and Olivier Manzoni, at the Neurocentre Magendie in Bordeaux (Inserm unit 862). June 28, 2010

Songbirds Learn Their Songs During Sleep - When zebra finches learn their songs from their father early in life, their brain is active during sleep. June 21, 2010

Improving Recovery from Spinal Cord Injury - Once damaged, nerves in the spinal cord normally cannot grow back and the only drug approved for treating these injuries does not enable nerve regrowth. June 14, 2010

Video Game Research Project to Help Blind Children Exercise - VI Fit, a project at the University of Nevada, Reno, helps children who are blind become more physically active and healthy through video games. June 7, 2010

Researcher Decodes Rembrandt's Magic - A University of British Columbia researcher has uncovered what makes Rembrandt's masterful portraits so appealing. May 31, 2010

Reality TV High on Aggression - All the gossip, insults and dirty looks add up fast on popular reality shows, far outpacing the level seen in equally popular dramas, comedies and soap operas according to a new Brigham Young University study. May 24, 2010

Neural Evidence for Sudden Insight - A recent study provides intriguing information about the neural dynamics underlying behavioral changes associated with the development of new problem solving strategies. May 17, 2010

Sleeping Well at 100 Years of Age - A study in the May 1 issue of the journal Sleep is the first to examine sleep issues in a large sample of exceptionally old adults, including nearly 2,800 people who were 100 years of age and older. May 3, 2010

Uncovering Early Stages of Alzheimer's Disease - A major Australian study has provided new insights into the loss of structure in regions of the brain and its potential association with Alzheimer's Disease. April 19, 2010

Poor Sleep for Obese Adolescents - Obese adolescents go to bed later and sleep less than their lighter contemporaries. This is the finding of a study published in the April issue of Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health. April 12, 2010

Brain Scans Could Be Marketing Tool Of The Future - Using advanced tools to see the human brain at work, a new generation of marketing experts may be able to test a product's appeal while it is still being designed. March 22, 2010

Why Surprises Temporarily Blind Us - Reading this story requires you to willfully pay attention to the sentences and to tune out nearby conversations, the radio and other distractions. March 15, 2010

To Remember The Good Times, Reach For The Sky - Using advanced tools to see the human brain at work, a new generation of marketing experts may be able to test a product's appeal while it is still being designed. March 9, 2010

Brain Scans Could Be Marketing Tool Of The Future - Using advanced tools to see the human brain at work, a new generation of marketing experts may be able to test a product's appeal while it is still being designed. March 8, 2010

Predicting The Progression Of Alzheimer's - An assessment has been developed which reliably predicts future performance in cognition and activities of daily living for patients with Alzheimer's disease. March 5, 2010

Learning Keeps Brain Healthy - UC Irvine neurobiologists are providing the first visual evidence that learning promotes brain health - and, therefore, that mental stimulation could limit the debilitating effects of aging on memory and the mind. March 4, 2010

Violent Video Game Play Makes More Aggressive Kids - Iowa State University Distinguished Professor of Psychology Craig Anderson has made much of his life's work studying how violent video game play affects youth behavior. March 2, 2010

Genes Responsible For Ability To Recognize Faces - The ability to recognise faces is largely determined by your genes, according to new research at UCL (University College London). February 26, 2010

More Alcohol Sales Sites Mean More Neighborhood Violence - More alcohol sales sites in a neighborhood equates to more violence, and the highest assault rates are associated with carry-out sites selling alcohol for off-premise consumption. February 23, 2010

Study Finds That Bonobos Share Like Humans - New research suggests that the act of voluntarily sharing something with another may not be entirely exclusive to the human experience. February 17, 2010

Selective Brain Damage Modulates Human Spirituality - New research provides fascinating insight into brain changes that might underlie alterations in spiritual and religious attitudes. February 12, 2010

Brain Location For Fear Of Losing Money Pinpointed - Two patients with rare lesions to the brain have provided direct of evidence of how we make decisions - and what makes us dislike the thought of losing money. February 10, 2010

Uncorrelated Activity In The Brain - Interconnected networks of neurons process information and give rise to perception by communicating with one another via small electrical impulses known as action potentials. February 9, 2010

Ability To Navigate May Be Linked To Genes - Imagine that you are emerging from the subway and heading for your destination when you realize that you are going in the wrong direction. February 4, 2010

Right-Handed And Left-Handed People Do Not See The Same Bright Side Of Things - Despite the common association of "right" with life, correctness, positiveness and good things, and "left" with death, clumsiness, negativity and bad things, recent research shows that most left-handed people hold the opposite association. February 3, 2010

Men Feel Less Guilt - Although changing social and cultural contexts mean guilt has less power today than it once did, a new study has shown that in the West this emotion is "significantly higher" among women. January 28, 2010

Researchers Identify Universal Emotions - The study, conducted with people from Britain and Namibia, suggests that basic emotions such as amusement, anger, fear and sadness are shared by all humans. January 27, 2010

Human Brain Uses A Grid To Represent Space - Grid cells that act like a spatial map in the brain have been identified for the first time in humans, according to new research by UCL scientists which may help to explain how we create internal maps of new environments. January 26, 2010

Size Of Brain Structures Predicts Success - Researchers can predict your performance on a video game simply by measuring the volume of specific structures in your brain, a multi-institutional team reports this week. January 22, 2010

Face Recognition Ability Inherited Separately From IQ - Recognizing faces is an important social skill, but not all of us are equally good at it. Some people are unable to recognize even their closest friends, while others have a near-photographic memory for large numbers of faces. January 21, 2010

Gene Linked To Schizophrenia May Reduce Cancer Risk - People who inherit a specific form of a gene that puts them on a road to schizophrenia may be protected against some forms of cancer, according to a new study by scientists at The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research. January 20, 2010

Listeners' Brains Second-Guess The Composer - Have you ever accidentally pulled your headphone socket out while listening to music? What happens when the music stops? January 18, 2010

Why Do People 'Play the Longshot' but Buy Insurance? - Why do some people like to take risks by playing "longshot" payoffs while, on the other hand, taking the opposite tack by buying insurance to reduce risks? January 15, 2010

New Stroke Therapy Successful In Rats - People with impaired mobility after a stroke soon may have a therapy that restores limb function long after the injury, if a supplemental protein works as well in humans as it does in paralyzed rats. January 14, 2010

Sedentary TV Time May Cut Life Short - Couch potatoes beware: every hour of television watched per day may increase the risk of dying earlier from cardiovascular disease. January 13, 2010

Brain Imaging May Help Diagnose Autism - Children with autism spectrum disorders process sound and language a fraction of a second slower than children without ASDs, and measuring magnetic signals that mark this delay may become a standardized way to diagnose autism. January 11, 2010

Silencing Brain Cells With Yellow And Blue Light - Neuroscientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a powerful new class of tools to reversibly shut down brain activity using different colors of light. January 8, 2010

Fewer Headaches On The Horizon - If you're one of the millions of headache sufferers around the world, more effective relief might be on the way in years to come. January 7, 2010

Scans Show Learning 'Sculpts' The Brain's Connections - Spontaneous brain activity formerly thought to be "white noise" measurably changes after a person learns a new task, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the University of Chieti, Italy, have shown. January 6, 2010

A Facial Expression Is Worth A Thousand Words - Communication is a central aspect of everyday life, a fact that is reflected in the wide variety of ways that people exchange information, not only with words, but also using their face and body. January 1, 2010

Differences In Human And Chimp Brain Function - Humans share at least 97 percent of their genes with chimpanzees, but, as a new study of transcription factors makes clear, what you have in your genome may be less important than how you use it. December 31, 2009

Seeing Without Looking - Like a spotlight that illuminates an otherwise dark scene, attention brings to mind specific details of our environment while shutting others out. December 30, 2009

Why Some Continue to Eat When Full - The premise that hunger makes food look more appealing is a widely held belief - just ask those who cruise grocery store aisles on an empty stomach, only to go home with a full basket and an empty wallet. December 29, 2009

Synesthetic Experiences Are Real and Automatic - For as many as 1 in 20 people, everyday experiences can elicit extra-ordinary associated sensations. December 28, 2009

Why Texting While Driving Is So Dangerous - A timely study in the journal Human Factors suggests why texting while driving is riskier than talking on a cell phone or with another passenger. December 24, 2009

Could Acetaminophen Ease Psychological Pain? - Headaches and heartaches. Broken bones and broken spirits. Hurting bodies and hurt feelings. We often use the same words to describe physical and mental pain. December 23, 2009

Preschoolers in Child Care Centers Not Active Enough - Many young children in child care centers are not getting as much active playtime as they should, according to new research from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. December 22, 2009

Disordered Eating May Affect 10 To 15 Percent Of Women - Several maladaptive eating behaviors, beyond anorexia, can affect women. Indeed, some 10 to 15 percent of women have maladaptive eating behaviours and attitudes. December 21, 2009

Scientists Decode Memory-Forming Brain Cell Conversations - The conversations neurons have as they form and recall memories have been decoded by Medical College of Georgia scientists. December 17, 2009

The Importance of Attractiveness Depends on Where You Live - Do good-looking people really benefit from their looks, and in what ways? December 16, 2009

Are Angry Women More Like Men? - "Why is it that men can be bastards and women must wear pearls and smile?" wrote author Lynn Hecht Schafran. The answer, according to an article in the Journal of Vision, may lie in our interpretation of facial expressions. December 15, 2009

How Can Some Athletes Play on Through Intense Pain? - How can some sportsmen and women, in the heat of the moment, play on through pain that would floor anyone else? December 14, 2009

Brain Activity Exposes Those Who Break Promises - Scientists from the University of Zurich have discovered the physiological mechanisms in the brain that underlie broken promises. December 11, 2009

How To Read Brain Activity With An EEG - The electroencephalogram (EEG) is widely used by physicians and scientists to study brain function and to diagnose neurological disorders. December 10, 2009

Brain Waves Can 'Write' on a Computer in Early Tests - Neuroscientists at the Mayo Clinic campus in Jacksonville, Fla., have demonstrated how brain waves can be used to type alphanumerical characters on a computer screen. December 8, 2009

Learning By Imagining - Elisa Tartaglia of the Laboratory of Psychophysics at Switzerland's Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne and team show that perceptual learning - learning by repeated exposure to a stimulus - can occur by mental imagery as much as by the real thing. December 7, 2009

Music and Speech Based on Human Biology - A pair of studies by Duke University neuroscientists shows powerful new evidence of a deep biological link between human music and speech. December 4, 2009

Binge Drinking Youths Find Getting Old a Drag - Young men who believe that happiness declines with age are more likely to engage in risky health behaviors such as binge drinking. December 3, 2009

Patients Say 'No Thanks' to Risky Medical Treatments - A recent study suggests that increasing patient responsibility for making medical decisions may decrease their willingness to accept risky treatment options. December 2, 2009

Men and Women May Respond Differently To Danger - Researchers using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study brain activation have found that men and women respond differently to positive and negative stimuli. November 30, 2009

Yoga Boosts Heart Health - Heart rate variability, a sign of a healthy heart, has been shown to be higher in yoga practitioners than in non-practitioners. November 27, 2009

Fat Around the Middle Increases the Risk of Dementia - Women who store fat on their waist in middle age are more than twice as likely to develop dementia when they get older, reveals a new study from the Sahlgrenska Academy. November 25, 2009

Blindness Causes Structural Brain Changes - Visually impaired people appear to be fearless, navigating busy sidewalks and crosswalks, safely finding their way using nothing more than a cane as a guide. November 20, 2009

Depression as Deadly as Smoking - A study by researchers at the University of Bergen, Norway, and the Institute of Psychiatry (IoP) at King's College London has found that depression is as much of a risk factor for mortality as smoking. November 19, 2009

Potential Treatment for Huntington's Disease - Investigators have found that normal synaptic activity in nerve cells protects the brain from the misfolded proteins associated with Huntington's disease. November 17, 2009

Dopamine Enhances Expectation of Pleasure in Humans - Enhancing the effects of the brain chemical dopamine influences how people make life choices by affecting expectations of pleasure. November 16, 2009

Dark Chocolate Helps Ease Emotional Stress - The "chocolate cure" for emotional stress is getting new support from a clinical trial published online in ACS' Journal of Proteome Research. November 13, 2009

Wireless Phones Can Affect The Brain - A study at Örebro University in Sweden indicates that mobile phones and other cordless telephones have a biological effect on the brain. November 12, 2009

Handwriting Is Real Problem For Children With Autism - Handwriting skills are crucial for success in school, communication, and building children's self-esteem. November 10, 2009

Early Scents Really Do Get 'Etched' In The Brain - Common experience tells us that particular scents of childhood can leave quite an impression, for better or for worse. November 9, 2009

Vast Right Arm Conspiracy? - There are areas in the brain devoted to our arms, legs, and various parts of our bodies. The way these areas are distributed throughout the brain are known as "body maps" and there are some significant differences in these maps between left- and right-handed people. November 6, 2009

Coffee And Nighttime Jobs Don't Mix - Night-shift workers should avoid drinking coffee if they wish to improve their sleep, according to research published in the journal Sleep Medicine. November 4, 2009

Facial Structure Linked To Aggressive Tendencies - Angry words and gestures are not the only way to get a sense of how temperamental a person is. November 3, 2009

Sleep Disturbances Improve After Retirement - A new study in the journal Sleep shows that retirement is followed by a sharp decrease in the prevalence of sleep disturbances. November 2, 2009

Bad Driving May Have Genetic Basis - Bad drivers may in part have their genes to blame, suggests a new study by UC Irvine neuroscientists. October 30, 2009

Clean Smells Promote Moral Behavior - People are unconsciously fairer and more generous when they are in clean-smelling environments. October 27, 2009

Time-keeping Brain Neurons Discovered - Keeping track of time is one of the brain's most important tasks. As the brain processes the flood of sights and sounds it encounters, it must also remember when each event occurred. October 26, 2009

Regulating Emotion After Experiencing A Sexual Assault - After exposure to extreme life stresses, what distinguishes the individuals who do and do not develop posttraumatic stress disorder? October 23, 2009

Are Humans Still Evolving? - Although advances in medical care have improved standards of living over time, humans aren't entirely sheltered from the forces of natural selection, a new study shows. October 21, 2009

Juggling Enhances Connections In The Brain - Learning to juggle leads to changes in the white matter of the brain, an Oxford University study has shown. October 19, 2009

Chocolate, Water Reduce Pain Response To Heat - People often eat food to feel better, but researchers have found that eating chocolate or drinking water can blunt pain, reducing a rat's response to a hot stimulus. October 15, 2009

Red Card For Faking Footballers - The game is up for football’s (soccer's) divers: A new study by Dr Paul Morris from the University of Portsmouth could help referees know when a top player has genuinely been fouled or taken a dive. October 13, 2009

Researchers Probe Computer 'Commonsense Knowledge' - Challenge a simple pocket calculator at arithmetic and you may be left in the dust. October 12, 2009

Exercise Improves Body Image For Fit And Unfit Alike - Attention weekend warriors: the simple act of exercise and not fitness itself can convince you that you look better, a new University of Florida study finds. October 9, 2009

Nerve Cells Live Double Lives - In animals and humans, a looming threat triggers the same kind of behavior - freezing followed by flight. October 8, 2009

Color Plays Musical Chairs In The Brain - Color is normally thought of as a fundamental attribute of an object: a red Corvette, a blue lake, a pink flamingo. October 5, 2009

Gun Possession Of Questionable Value In An Assault - In a first-of its-kind study, epidemiologists at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine found that, on average, guns did not protect those who possessed them from being shot in an assault. October 2, 2009

How We Know A Dog Is A Dog - A new study explores how our brains synthesize concepts that allow us to organize and comprehend the world. September 24, 2009

Blood-brain Barrier As Therapy Delivery System - The blood brain barrier is generally considered an obstacle to delivering therapies from the bloodstream to the brain. September 23, 2009

Moody Memories? Mood Has Limited Effect On Memory - Whether we're deciding to return to a restaurant or to purchase a DVD, many consumers rely on memory when they're making decisions. September 22, 2009

Scary Music Is Scarier With Your Eyes Shut - The power of the imagination is well-known: it's no surprise that scary music is scarier with your eyes closed. September 17, 2009

Neurons Found To Be Similar To U.S. Electoral College - A tiny neuron is a very complicated structure. Its complex network of dendrites, axons and synapses is constantly dealing with information, deciding whether or not to send a nerve impulse, to drive a certain action. September 16, 2009

Expectations Influence Sense Of Taste - Wine tastes different to those who are given information on the product before a wine tasting, tests where the test people received information on the wine before and after the tasting have shown. September 15, 2009

Star-shaped Cells In Brain Help With Learning - Every movement and every thought requires the passing of specific information between networks of nerve cells. September 14, 2009

You Can Believe Your Eyes - Scientists may have discovered a way to glean information about stored memories by tracking patterns of eye movements, even when an individual is unable to report what they remember. September 11, 2009

Memories Exist Even When Forgotten - A woman looks familiar, but you can't remember her name or where you met her. New research by UC Irvine neuroscientists suggests the memory exists - you simply can't retrieve it. September 10, 2009

Knowing Me, Myself And I - How well do you know yourself? It's a question many of us struggle with, as we try to figure out how close we are to who we actually want to be. September 9, 2009

Evolutionary Biologists Show Crying Can Strengthen Relationships - Medically, crying is known to be a symptom of physical pain or stress. But now a Tel Aviv University evolutionary biologist looks to empirical evidence showing that tears have emotional benefits and can make interpersonal relationships stronger. September 8, 2009

Human Brain Could Be Replicated In 10 Years - A model that replicates the functions of the human brain is feasible in 10 years according to neuroscientist Professor Henry Markram of the Brain Mind Institute in Switzerland. September 7, 2009

Those Blinded By Brain Injury May Still 'See' - Except in clumsy moments, we rarely knock over the box of cereal or glass of orange juice as we reach for our morning cup of coffee. September 4, 2009

Why Don't Brain Tumors Respond To Medication? - Malignant brain tumors often fail to respond to promising new medication. Researchers in Heidelberg have discovered a mechanism and a tumor marker for the development of this resistance. September 3, 2009

No Such Thing As Ethnic Groups, Genetically Speaking - Central Asian ethnic groups are more defined by societal rules than ancestry. September 2, 2009

Psychological Link Between 'Weight' And 'Importance' - Weighty. Heavy. What do these words have to do with seriousness and importance? Why do we weigh our options, and why does your opinion carry more weight than mine? September 1, 2009

First Close Look At Stimulated Brain - For over a century, scientists have been using electrical stimulation to explore and treat the human brain. August 31, 2009

Blast Waves May Cause Human Brain Injury - New research on the effects of blast waves could lead to an enhanced understanding of head injuries and improved military helmet design. August 28, 2009

Adolescent Risky Behavior May Signal Mature Brain - A long-standing theory of adolescent behavior has assumed that this delayed brain maturation is the cause of impulsive and dangerous decisions in adolescence. August 27, 2009

Media Multitaskers Pay Mental Price - People who are regularly bombarded with several streams of electronic information do not pay attention, control their memory or switch from one job to another as well as those who prefer to complete one task at a time. August 26, 2009

Why Sleep? Snoozing May Be Strategy To Increase Efficiency - Bats, birds, box turtles, humans and many other animals share at least one thing in common: They sleep. Humans, in fact, spend roughly one-third of their lives asleep, but sleep researchers still don't know why. August 24, 2009

Nostrils Alternate To Process Competing Odors - When the nose encounters two different scents simultaneously, the brain processes them separately through each nostril in an alternating fashion. August 21, 2009

Links Between Video-game Playing And Health Risks - While video gaming is generally perceived as a pastime for children and young adults, research shows that the average age of players in the United States is 35. August 19, 2009

Taking Up Music So You Can Hear - Anyone with an MP3 device - just about every man, woman and child on the planet today, it seems - has a notion of the majesty of music, of the primal place it holds in the human imagination. August 18, 2009

Brain Innately Separates Living And Non-living Objects - For unknown reasons, the human brain distinctly separates the handling of images of living things from images of non-living things, processing each image type in a different area of the brain. August 17, 2009

Sound And Vision Wired Through Same 'Black Box' - Sounds and images share a similar neural code in the human brain, according to a new Canadian study. August 14, 2009

Researchers Unravel Mystery Behind Long-lasting Memories - A new study by researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine may reveal how long-lasting memories form in the brain. August 13, 2009

Chinese Acupuncture Affects Brain's Ability To Regulate Pain - Acupuncture has been used in East-Asian medicine for thousands of years to treat pain, possibly by activating the body's natural painkillers. But how it works at the cellular level is largely unknown. August 12, 2009

Non-invasive Brain Surgery Moves A Step Closer - A team of researchers working at the MR-Center of the University Children's Hospital in Zürich has completed a pilot study using transcranial MR-guided focused ultrasound to treat 10 patients with neuropathic pain. August 10, 2009

Brain Difference In Psychopaths Identified - Professor Declan Murphy and colleagues Dr Michael Craig and Dr Marco Catani from the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London have found differences in the brain which may provide a biological explanation for psychopathy. August 7, 2009

Temptation More Powerful Than Individuals Realize - Whether it's highlighted in major news headlines about Argentinean affairs and Ponzi schemes, or in personal battles with obesity and drug addiction, individuals regularly succumb to greed, lust and self-destructive behaviors. August 5, 2009

Why We Learn More From Our Successes Than Our Failures - If you've ever felt doomed to repeat your mistakes, researchers at MIT's Picower Institute for Learning and Memory may have explained why: Brain cells may only learn from experience when we do something right and not when we fail. August 4, 2009

Poor Sleep In Children May Have Prenatal Origins - A new study found that alcohol consumption during pregnancy and small body size at birth predict poorer sleep and higher risk of sleep disturbances in 8-year-old children born at term. August 3, 2009

Adult Brain Can Change Within Seconds - The human brain can adapt to changing demands even in adulthood, but MIT neuroscientists have now found evidence of it changing with unsuspected speed. July 31, 2009

'Brain-reading' Methods Developed - It is widely known that the brain perceives information before it reaches a person’s awareness. But until now, there was little way to determine what specific mental tasks were taking place prior to the point of conscious awareness. July 28, 2009

Brain Develops Motor Memory For Prosthetics - "Practice makes perfect" is the maxim drummed into students struggling to learn a new motor skill - be it riding a bike or developing a killer backhand in tennis. July 27, 2009

Can Brain Scans Read Your Mind? - Can neuroscience read people's minds? Some researchers, and some new businesses, are banking on a brain imaging technique known as functional magnetic resonance imaging to reveal hidden thoughts, such as lies, truths or deep desires. July 24, 2009

Chimps, Like Humans, Focus On Faces - A chimp's attention is captured by faces more effectively than by bananas. A series of experiments suggests that the apes are wired to respond to faces in a similar manner to humans. July 23, 2009

Brain's Center For Perceiving 3-D Motion Is Identified - Ducking a punch or a thrown spear calls for the power of the human brain to process 3-D motion, and to perceive an object moving in three dimensions is critical to survival. It also leads to a lot of fun at 3-D movies. July 22, 2009

New Mechanism Controlling Neuronal Migration Discovered - The molecular machinery that helps brain cells migrate to their correct place in the developing brain has been identified by scientists at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. July 21, 2009

Delinquent Behavior Among Boys Contagious - Impulsive boys with inadequate supervision, poor families and deviant friends are more likely to commit criminal acts that land them in juvenile court. July 20, 2009

Entirely New Way To Study Brain Function Developed - Scientists at Duke University and the University of North Carolina have devised a chemical technique that promises to allow neuroscientists to discover the function of any population of neurons in an animal brain, and provide clues to treating and preventing brain disease. July 17, 2009

White Matter Changes May Predict Dementia Risk - Elderly people with no memory or thinking problems are more likely to later develop thinking problems if they have a growing amount of "brain rust," or small areas of brain damage. July 16, 2009

Map Of Your Brain May Reveal Early Mental Illness - John Csernansky wants to take your measurements. Not the circumference of your chest, waist and hips. No, this doctor wants to stretch a tape measure around your hippocampus, thalamus and prefrontal cortex. July 13, 2009

Neuroscientists Locate Where It Is Stored In The Brain - Fear is a powerful emotion, and neuroscientists have for the first time located the neurons responsible for fear conditioning in the mammalian brain. July 9, 2009

Songbirds Reveal How Practice Improves Performance - Learning complex skills like playing an instrument requires a sequence of movements that can take years to master. July 8, 2009

DNA Variations Linked To Brain Tumors - Mayo Clinic researchers and colleagues at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) have found a connection between DNA alterations on human chromosome 9 and aggressive brain cancer known as glioblastoma. July 7, 2009

Overweight Kids Experience More Loneliness - As childhood obesity rates continue to increase, experts agree that more information is needed about the implications of being overweight as a step toward reversing current trends. July 6, 2009

Lack Of Sleep Could Be More Dangerous For Women Than Men - Women who get less than the recommended eight hours sleep a night are at higher risk of heart disease and heart-related problems than men with the same sleeping patterns. July 2, 2009

Promises Come At A Price - Be careful what you promise people. You are not just obliging yourself to keep your promises; other people will hold you to account for them as well. July 1, 2009

Site For Alcohol's Action In The Brain Discovered - Alcohol's inebriating effects are familiar to everyone. But the molecular details of alcohol's impact on brain activity remain a mystery. June 30, 2009

Evidence Of Memory Seen In Songbird Brain - When a zebra finch hears a new song from a member of its own species, the experience changes gene expression in its brain in unexpected ways, researchers report. June 29, 2009

Gene Predicts How Brain Responds To Fatigue - New imaging research in the June 24 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience helps explain why sleep deprivation affects some people more than others. June 26, 2009

Need Something? Talk To My Right Ear - We humans prefer to be addressed in our right ear and are more likely to perform a task when we receive the request in our right ear rather than our left. June 25, 2009

Smoking Linked To Brain Damage - New research which suggests a direct link between smoking and brain damage will be published in the July issue of the Journal of Neurochemistry. June 24, 2009

Social Competition May Be Reason For Bigger Brain - For the past 2 million years, the size of the human brain has tripled, growing much faster than other mammals. June 23, 2009

Brain Detects Happiness More Quickly Than Sadness - Our brains get a first impression of people's overriding social signals after seeing their faces for only 100 milliseconds (0.1 seconds). June 22, 2009

First Image Of Memories Being Made - The ability to learn and to establish new memories is essential to our daily existence and identity; enabling us to navigate through the world. June 19, 2009

Dad's Overworked And Tired While Mom's Potentially Fired - If dad looks exhausted this Father's Day it could be due to his job, suggests new research that found many male employees are now pressured to work up to 40 hours of overtime-often unpaid- per week to stay competitive. June 18, 2009

Better Sleep Is Associated With Improved Academic Success - Getting more high-quality sleep is associated with better academic performance. The positive relationship is especially relevant to performance in math. June 16, 2009

How Cancers Spread To The Brain - Research has shown for the first time how cancers that spread to the brain establish themselves and begin to grow. June 15, 2009

Nintendo Wii May Enhance Parkinson's Treatment - The Nintendo Wii may help treat symptoms of Parkinson's disease, including depression, a Medical College of Georgia researcher says. June 12, 2009

Nightmares Predict Elevated Suicidal Symptoms - Self-reported nightmares among patients seeking emergency psychiatric evaluation uniquely predicted elevated suicidal symptoms. June 11, 2009

Television Watching Before Bedtime Can Lead To Sleep Debt - According to new research presented at Sleep 2009, the 23rd Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies, television watching may be an important determinant of bedtime, and may contribute to chronic sleep debt. June 9, 2009

Easily Grossed Out? You Might Be A Conservative! - Are you someone who squirms when confronted with slime, shudders at stickiness or gets grossed out by gore? Do crawly insects make you cringe or dead bodies make you blanch? June 5, 2009

People Who Wear Rose-colored Glasses See More - A University of Toronto study provides the first direct evidence that our mood literally changes the way our visual system filters our perceptual experience suggesting that seeing the world through rose-coloured glasses is more biological reality than metaphor. June 4, 2009

Brain's Object Recognition System Activated By Touch Alone - Portions of the brain that activate when people view pictures of objects compared to scrambled images can also be activated by touch alone. June 1, 2009

Flipping The Brain's Addiction Switch Without Drugs - When someone becomes dependent on drugs or alcohol, the brain's pleasure center gets hijacked, disrupting the normal functioning of its reward circuitry. May 29, 2009

Male Or Female? Coloring Provides Gender Cues - Our brain is wired to identify gender based on facial cues and coloring, according to a new study published in the Journal of Vision. May 28, 2009

Virtual Smart Home Controlled By Your Thoughts - Light switches, TV remote controls and even house keys could become a thing of the past thanks to brain-computer interface technology being developed in Europe that lets users perform everyday tasks with thoughts alone. May 27, 2009

Money Worries Make Women Spend More - At times of crisis women are more inclined to spend themselves out of misery than at stable times, a new survey suggests. Psychologists say that the recession could force more women to overspend or increase their risk of mental illness. May 26, 2009

People By Nature Are Universally Optimistic - Despite calamities from economic recessions, wars and famine to a flu epidemic afflicting the Earth, a new study from the University of Kansas and Gallup indicates that humans are by nature optimistic. May 25, 2009

Some People Really Never Forget A Face - Some people say they never forget a face, a claim now bolstered by psychologists at Harvard University who've discovered a group they call "super-recognizers": those who can easily recognize someone they met in passing, even many years later. May 21, 2009

'Singing Brain' Offers Epilepsy And Schizophrenia Clues - Studying the way a person's brain 'sings' could improve our understanding of conditions such as epilepsy and schizophrenia and help develop better treatments, scientists at Cardiff University have discovered. May 20, 2009

New Tool Can Help Predict Risk Of Alzheimer's In Elderly - A new tool can help predict whether people age 65 and older have a high risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. May 19, 2009

Brain's Organization Switches As Children Become Adults - Any child confronting an outraged parent demanding to know "What were you thinking?" now has a new response: "Scientists have discovered that my brain is organized differently from yours." May 18, 2009

Can Happiness Be Inherited? - A new study suggests that our feelings in our lifetime can affect our children. May 15, 2009

Body Movements Can Influence Problem Solving - Swinging their arms helped participants in a new study solve a problem whose solution involved swinging strings, researchers report, demonstrating that the brain can use bodily cues to help understand and solve complex problems. May 14, 2009

Meditation May Increase Gray Matter - Push-ups, crunches, gyms, personal trainers - people have many strategies for building bigger muscles and stronger bones. But what can one do to build a bigger brain? May 13, 2009

Brain's Problem-solving Function At Work When We Daydream - A new University of British Columbia study finds that our brains are much more active when we daydream than previously thought. May 12, 2009

Job Loss Can Make You Sick - In the face of rising unemployment and businesses declaring bankruptcy, a new study has found that losing your job can make you sick. May 11, 2009

Babies Brainier Than Many Imagine - A new study from Northwestern University shows what many mothers already know: their babies are a lot smarter than others may realize. May 8, 2009

Estrogen Controls How The Brain Processes Sound - Scientists at the University of Rochester have discovered that the hormone estrogen plays a pivotal role in how the brain processes sounds. May 6, 2009

Texting While Driving Can Be Deadly - A new study confirms what most people already know: sending text messages and driving are a potentially lethal combination. May 5, 2009

Mechanisms Of Self-control Pinpointed In Brain - When you're on a diet, deciding to skip your favorite calorie-laden foods and eat something healthier takes a whole lot of self-control an ability that seems to come easier to some of us than others. May 4, 2009

Why Are Some Young Victims Of Domestic Violence Resilient? - More than 10 million U.S. children witness domestic violence yearly, resulting in a range of emotional and behavioral problems. April 30, 2009

Putting The Brain's Soundtracks To Work - Every brain has a soundtrack. Its tempo and tone will vary, depending on mood, frame of mind, and other features of the brain itself. April 29, 2009

Now Where Did I Leave My Car? - When we emerge from a supermarket laden down with bags and faced with a sea of vehicles, how do we remember where we've parked our car and translate the memory into the correct action to get back there? April 28, 2009

The Price Of Pain And The Value Of Suffering - During these trying financial times, the cost of healthcare and how much we are willing to pay for it is at the top of our economic concerns. April 27, 2009

Inherited Impulsivity Predicts Alcoholism - Solving the age-old chicken and the egg dilemma, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis researchers report that genetic predisposition to impulsivity is a trait predictive of alcoholism. April 24, 2009

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