A new MRI study has located the cingulate cortex as the brain region responsible for forming positive or negative associations with people's faces. The researchers also experimented with manipulating the emotional responses of their subjects, ie. inducing them to feel a certain way about certain faces. "Face recognition is a very important social function for [...]
Essential tremor, a neurological disorder that affects millions of people, is not a terminal condition but is one that greatly impedes upon quality of life. Characterized by continuous and rhythmic shaking, most often occurring in the hands or voice, sufferers of essential tremor are unable to perform routine tasks such as tying shoelaces or picking [...]
Packing on the pounds may increase your body mass index, but it won't increase brain volume, according to a new MRI study. Although the human brain inevitably shrinks as it ages, researchers have found that the brains of obese subjects appear 10 years older at middle age than their fitter counterparts. The UK study, entitled [...]
A Canadian MRI study has found similarities in the brain scans of children with autism, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and ADHD. The team of Toronto researchers imaged the white matter of 200 young participants in the landmark study. Up until now, autism, OCD and ADHD have been classified and studied as three separate disorders, despite [...]
You're not hungry, you're thirsty. It's almost too easy: dieters everywhere have heard this advice for decades, but now it's been backed up by MRI science. The study, conducted by Wageningen University in the Netherlands, worked with 19 participants to collect the data. Done in three parts, the research looked at MRI scans of the stomach, [...]
While there are injuries inherent in every sport, few expose players to such fast-paced stop-start motions in the lower joints the way basketball does. (Squash is another sport that exposes players to jerking movements, but it has nothing on basketball in terms of popularity!) A recent study published June 22 in the Clinical Journal of [...]
While unrestrained weight gain always brings with it a greater chance of cancer, new research into breast cancer in postmenopausal women has found a link between the type of fats being consumed. A highly occurrence of saturated fats (found mainly in meats, butter, cheeses, creams and palm oils) in the breasts has been linked to [...]
Few diseases are stigmatized as much as schizophrenia, or other similar mental health illnesses. But things are looking up: according to new MRI research, brains afflicted with schizophrenia show an ability to identify and fight off the disease. The study, entitled Dynamic cerebral reorganization in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia: a MRI-derived cortical thickness study, was [...]
Another brain fMRI study, another step closer to mind reading! Researchers from Berkeley have mapped out a "semantic atlas"--that is, an interactive map of which words activate what areas of the brain. The study, Natural speech reveals the semantic maps that tile human cerebral cortex, has just been published in Nature. Check out the video below to learn [...]
In the 1950s and 60s, researchers at the forefront of neuroscience and psychology experimented with LSD for PTSD and depression. Despite the positive effects of treatments (which came in small doses in controlled environments) the drug and corresponding research on its therapeutic benefits were banned in North America in the late sixties. Newly published research which used MRI for [...]