Summary: New research indicates that, on average, women must exert more effort to breathe during intense exercise than men. These findings clarify how biological sex can influence respiratory mechanics during exertion and may help explain sex differences in airway conditions such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Source: Experimental Biology Overview Although both … Read more

Summary: New research shows that people unconsciously adopt others’ tendencies toward prudence, impatience, or laziness. Source: PLOS People tend to unconsciously copy others’ tendencies for prudence, impatience, or laziness, new study in PLOS Computational Biology finds. Behaviors described as “prudence,” “impatience,” or “laziness” are often considered stable personality traits that shape how individuals trade off … Read more

Summary: Low-level visual details of experiences—such as color saturation and brightness—tend to dim in memory over time, even as negative emotion can boost the subjective sense of vividness. Source: Boston College Memories lose visual richness with time, much like old photographs lose their color. Researchers at Boston College discovered that as recollections age they not … Read more

Summary: Researchers report that listening to music while exercising shifts brainwave patterns, reducing focused attention on bodily sensations but increasing energy, arousal and enjoyment. Source: Brunel University Headphones are now a familiar sight in gyms and on running routes, and many studies have shown that music can transform the exercise experience. Early work, including influential … Read more

Summary: After twelve days of daily sugar intake, researchers observed significant changes in both the brain’s dopamine and opioid systems in pigs. Opioid-system changes appeared immediately after the very first exposure to sugar. Source: Aarhus University The debate over whether certain foods can be addictive remains contentious. Researchers at Aarhus University investigated how repeated sucrose … Read more

Summary: Researchers have created a machine-learning model that estimates a person’s “brain age” from their sleep EEG. The model identifies subtle brain-wave features that predict future dementia risk, suggesting sleep recordings could become a noninvasive early-detection tool for cognitive decline years before clinical symptoms appear. The study shows that when a person’s EEG-derived brain age … Read more

Neural Basis of Social Behavior: Key Findings Presented at Neuroscience 2019 Summary: Recent brain imaging and neural recording studies presented at Neuroscience 2019 reveal new insights into how the human brain supports social behaviors such as empathy, touch-based communication, team flow, and theory of mind. These results advance our understanding of normal social functioning and … Read more

Summary: In animals made deaf early in life, connections between a specific sensory cortex region and the superior colliculus are reduced, while other auditory and limbic inputs to the superior colliculus increase. Cats deaf from an early age show altered cortical outputs to a midbrain center that orients the animal in space. A new study … Read more

Each year, millions of people worldwide experience chronic lower back and neck pain. To address that widespread problem, biomedical engineers at Cornell University in Ithaca and neurosurgeons at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City have developed a biologically based spinal implant that may one day offer a safer, more natural option for patients … Read more

Summary: New reanalysis indicates that ordinary television exposure in early childhood does not, by itself, increase the risk that toddlers will develop attention-deficit problems. Source: APS A rigorous re-examination, published in the journal Psychological Science, revisits prior research that purported a direct causal link between early television viewing and later attention problems in children. The … Read more