Summary: In a large U.S. cohort, children who spent more time than average playing video games showed an increase in measured intelligence—about 2.5 IQ points more than peers—while time spent watching television or using social media showed no clear impact on cognitive gains. Source: Karolinska Institute Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden examined how different … Read more

Summary: Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have secured NIH funding to advance a new neuroimaging system based on ultrahigh-field 7 Tesla MRI technology. Source: University of Pittsburgh. The University of Pittsburgh operates a whole-body 7 Tesla magnetic resonance imager (7T MRI), one of the most powerful human MRI systems in the world. This ultrahigh-field … Read more

Summary: The anterior cingulate cortex plays a central role in how the brain simulates the outcomes of different actions and selects the best choice. Source: Zuckerman Institute Our brains help us decide by imagining the future and predicting the consequences of our actions. For example, when you try to find a new restaurant near your … Read more

Depression and metabolic factors together raise the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, study finds Depression can significantly increase the likelihood of developing type 2 diabetes when it occurs alongside early metabolic warning signs such as obesity, high blood pressure and adverse cholesterol or triglyceride levels. Researchers from McGill University, Université de Montréal, the Institut … Read more

Discovery provides clues to development of neurological diseases and cancer. Researchers at the Salk Institute have revealed a surprising feature of early nervous system development that helps explain how complex neural wiring is programmed by a relatively small set of genes. Published in Cell, the study identifies how motor neuron axons interpret local cues during … Read more

Summary: Organ-on-a-chip models reveal how different tissues and the immune system interact to influence inflammatory diseases, including ulcerative colitis. Source: MIT MIT Engineers Build Multi-Tissue Organ-on-a-Chip to Study Immune Interactions MIT biological engineers have developed a multi-tissue microfluidic platform seeded with human cells that enables controlled study of organ-to-organ and immune interactions. Using so-called organ-on-a-chip … Read more

Summary: Researchers report they have pinpointed where the earliest signs of Alzheimer’s disease appear in the brain. Initial accumulation of Alzheimer’s-associated beta-amyloid was found in a core brain functional network known as the default mode network. Source: Lund University. Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have for the first time provided convincing evidence identifying the … Read more

Summary: Researchers using mathematical models to examine how the brain predicts and learns found that signals encoding prediction accuracy localize to the anterior insula, and that individual anxiety levels modify activity in this region. Source: ETH Zurich Mental health conditions are still diagnosed mainly from symptoms, making individual prognosis difficult. An ETH researcher aims to … Read more

Summary: Analysis of electronic health records for more than 62 million patients found that individuals who had their appendix removed were significantly more likely to be diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease later on. In this large retrospective study, patients with a prior appendectomy were more than three times as likely to develop Parkinson’s than those whose … Read more

Summary: Reduced levels of the HDAC4 enzyme caused mice to sleep longer and with greater depth than normal. Source: University of Tsukuba A good night’s sleep benefits both mind and body, but what determines how long we need to sleep and what controls sleep depth? A new study from researchers at the University of Tsukuba … Read more