Adolescents are known for their risk taking. Health experts in privileged countries like ours cite preventable, often self-inflicted mishaps as the biggest risk to teenage well-being. But while the negative effects of peer pressure are well-known, less known are the more positive characteristics (faster learning and self exploration) attributed to the risks associated with group [...]
To exercise your mind you have to exercise your body, say the results of a newly released MRI study that was 20 years in the making. The study, published February 10 in the journal of Neurology, has its roots in the 1990s when 1,583 middle-aged (average age 40 years) participants took a treadmill test and a [...]
Doctors initially told the parents of Teegan Lexcen, a baby girl born with one lung and half a heart four months ago in Minnesota, that her case was inoperable. Determined to help their daughter live, her parents sought out the help of a team of doctors at Nicklaus Children's Hospital in Miami, who applied ingenious [...]
The hashtags #backtowork and the less subtle #backtoworkblues appeared across Twitter on Monday as millions of people bade the holiday season farewell and settled back into their routines. While it's natural to begrudge getting up early after an extended break of sleep-ins and visits with loved ones, is there something about the holiday season that [...]
A mobile MRI truck followed long distance runners over 4, 487 kilometres as they participated in the Trans Europe Foot Race (TEFR), a trek which begins in southern Italy and finishes in Norway's North Cape. Although the runners ran for 64 consecutive days without a day's rest. The findings, published in an MRI study presented [...]
Could differences in male-female behaviours simply be social conditioning? One thing's for sure, they're not anatomical; a new MRI study has found no distinct differences between male and female brains. The study, entitled Sex beyond the genitalia: The human brain mosaic was published Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The researchers, based at Tel-Aviv University, scanned over [...]
Self-help literature abounds with the quest for happiness: what causes it and how can you get some of your own? But what does neuroscience have to say on the subject? A new MRI study from Korean researchers offers new information to the happiness market. The study, entitled The structural neural substrate of subjective happiness, was [...]
Chimpanzees, famous for their abilities to learn sign language and use tools, have long been a source of fascination for humans. While chimps are one of the smartest animals on the planet and show remarkable capacity for learning new skills, their cognitive achievements are relatively small when compared with the human brain. New research has [...]
What is so disturbing about screams? Aside from the obvious--that they represent a fellow human's pain or fear of mortal peril? While it may seem clear on an emotional level why a scream is an upsetting sound to hear, scientifically, it appears that screams and other rapid changes in volume trigger the fear centres within [...]
Dementia is on the rise, but fortunately so are solutions for preventing it. A new MRI study has linked smaller size of certain brain structures--such as hippocampi--to an increased risk for dementia. People who are aware that they may be at higher risk may then make greater efforts to fight it--strengthening the brain through cerebral exercises and [...]