During the day, we experience a series of physical, mental and behavioural changes know as circadian rhythms. These changes are governed by a central clock, located in the hypothalamus, which lies in the centre of the brain. This clock is responsible for synchronizing our tissues to ensure that their functions are coordinated and that they …
Concussion symptoms–such as loss of balance, hazy comprehension, sleep disturbance and ability to walk straight–can be reversed by a new type of magnetic stimulation, research at the University of Saskatchewan (USask) shows. Magnetic stimulation using a laptop-style device for 20 minutes per day improved the ability of rodents with concussion to walk in a straight …
Cranberries are highly sought after for their tangy taste and the antioxidants they contain, but a new study published in the journal Advanced Science provides evidence that they could also help in the fight against bacteria. When treated with molecules derived from cranberries, pathogenic bacteria become more sensitive to lower doses of antibiotics. What’s more, …
Stress is often called “the silent killer” because of its stealthy and mysterious effects on everything from heart disease to mental health. Now researchers at the University of Cincinnati have developed a new test that can easily and simply measure common stress hormones using sweat, blood, urine or saliva. Eventually, they hope to turn their …
A combination of visual training and a recently developed brain stimulation technique boosts learning in healthy adults and cortically blind patients, according to research published in JNeurosci. Lorella Battelli at the IIT-Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia and collaborators Krystel Huxlin and Duje Tadin at the University of Rochester demonstrate enhanced learning in healthy men and women …
Should I first respond to e-mails, then write invoices and when that gets boring, carry on working on the concept for a new advertising campaign, then when I run out of ideas go back to my routine tasks? Or should I first finish off my routine tasks and then focus on my creative tasks during …
During the height of the Civil War, the Confederate Surgeon General commissioned a guide to traditional plant remedies of the South, as battlefield physicians faced high rates of infections among the wounded and shortages of conventional medicines. A new study of three of the plants from this guide — the white oak, the tulip poplar …
Researchers at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have discovered that blocking a specific protein, may be a promising strategy to prevent the spread of castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). Under the direction of BUSM’s Gerald V. Denis PhD, researchers have long studied a family of three closely related proteins, called BET bromodomain proteins, composed of …
Exposure to environmental pollutants can cause alterations in brain development that affect sexual development and fertility for several generations, according to findings to be presented in Lyon, at the European Society of Endocrinology annual meeting, ECE 2019. The offspring of pregnant rats exposed to a mixture of common endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs), at doses equivalent to …
When making a complex decision, we often break the problem down into a series of smaller decisions. For example, when deciding how to treat a patient, a doctor may go through a hierarchy of steps — choosing a diagnostic test, interpreting the results, and then prescribing a medication. Making hierarchical decisions is straightforward when the …