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New review explores relationship between yoga practice and brain health

Scientists have known for decades that aerobic exercise strengthens the brain and contributes to the growth of new neurons, but few studies have examined how yoga affects the brain.

12 Dec 2019

Study advances understanding of mechanisms involved in functional neurological disorder

Individuals with functional neurological disorder have symptoms not explained by traditional neurological conditions, including limb weakness, tremor, gait abnormalities, seizures and sensory deficits.

27 Nov 2019

Study of 'face blindness' provides clues to what goes wrong in the brain

People with prosopagnosia, or "face blindness," have trouble recognizing faces -- even those of close friends and family members.

19 Nov 2019

Study may shake up certain conventional theories on workings of sense of smell

Is a pair of brain structures called the olfactory bulbs, which are said to encode our sense of smell, necessary? That is, are they essential to the existence of this sense? Weizmann Institute of Science researchers recently showed that some humans can smell just fine, thank you, without olfactory bulbs.

11 Nov 2019

Study of young boys and girls finds no gender difference in brain function or math ability

In 1992, Teen Talk Barbie was released with the controversial voice fragment, "Math class is hard." While the toy's release met with public backlash, this underlying assumption persists, propagating the myth that women do not thrive in science, technology, engineering and mathematic fields due to biological deficiencies in math aptitude.

10 Nov 2019

Study shows how the complex neural map of human brain operates

Fans of the blockbuster movie "Iron Man 3" might remember the characters step inside the digital projection of a "big brain" and watch as groups of neurons are "lit up" along the brain's neural "map" in response to physical touch.

6 Nov 2019

Deep sleep can calm and reset the anxious brain

When it comes to managing anxiety disorders, William Shakespeare's Macbeth had it right when he referred to sleep as the "balm of hurt minds." While a full night of slumber stabilizes emotions, a sleepless night can trigger up to a 30% rise in anxiety levels, according to new research from the University of California, Berkeley.

4 Nov 2019

Sleep protects the brain against Alzheimer’s by washing it

Researchers have found that when in deep sleep, the brain waves within can start off a cleaning system within the brain that can protect it against Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative brain diseases. The study titled, “Coupled electrophysiological, hemodynamic, and cerebrospinal fluid oscillations in human sleep,” was published this week in the latest issue of the journal Science.

31 Oct 2019

UVA research sheds light on why infant seizures have lifelong effects

A doctor at University of Virginia Children's is using an elegant new approach to mapping brain activity to shed light on what happens during seizures in newborns that can lead to behavioral issues and learning disabilities much later.

30 Oct 2019

Gulf War Illness and chronic fatigue syndrome are two very distinct diseases of the brain

Gulf War Illness (GWI) and chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) share symptoms of disabling fatigue, pain, systemic hyperalgesia (tenderness), negative emotion, sleep and cognitive dysfunction that are made worse after mild exertion (postexertional malaise).

23 Oct 2019

How dementia spreads: new study says it’s through neural networks

Scientists have found out a way to forecast the spread of brain atrophy, using prior research that shows how brain networks connect with each other to form a continuously linked pathway.

14 Oct 2019

Dementia spreads via synaptic connections between brain networks

In a new study, UC San Francisco scientists used maps of brain connections to predict how brain atrophy would spread in individual patients with frontotemporal dementia, adding to growing evidence that the loss of brain cells associated with dementia spreads via the synaptic connections between established brain networks.

14 Oct 2019

Brain scans may be promising tool to identify suicide risk in people with mood disorders

Researchers at the University of Utah Health and University of Illinois at Chicago have identified brain circuitry differences that might be associated with suicidal behavior in individuals with mood disorders.

10 Oct 2019

Lack of sleep increases junk food cravings via nose-brain interactions

After a night without sleep, the hand reaches out almost automatically for anything rich, sweet and unhealthy – a change in food choice which could increase the body weight if practiced consistently over a significant period of time

9 Oct 2019

Intensive physical training can harm brain capacity, shows study

In top athletes, excess physical activity can be harmful, as cases of 'overtraining syndrome' suggest. It is associated with major fatigue and reduced athletic performances.

26 Sep 2019

Brain changes may help track people most likely to develop dementia

Even before dementia diagnosis, people with mild cognitive impairment may have different changes in the brain depending on what type of dementia they have, according to a study published in the September 11, 2019, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

11 Sep 2019

Brain maps show activity related to meaning and not mode of learning

A new brain mapping experiment shows that whether you read or listen to a book, the same parts of the brain are stimulated to help you understand and respond to the meaning of the words (or the ‘semantics’).

20 Aug 2019

Individual differences in pleasure are due to genetic variation, research suggests

Differences in how our brains respond when we're anticipating a financial reward are due, in part, to genetic differences, according to research with identical and fraternal twins published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

9 Aug 2019

Using mathematical model to trace brain transitions

Unique in its application of a mathematical model to understand how the brain transitions from consciousness to unconscious behavior, a study at The City College of New York's Benjamin Levich Institute for Physico-Chemical Hydrodynamics may have just advanced neuroscience appreciably.

18 Jul 2019

Researchers study blood flow bump that happens when the neurons get activated

When a group of our neurons get activated by thinking hard about a math problem or the vibrant colors of an exotic flower, within a single second blood flow to those brain cells increases a bit.

15 Jul 2019