Feature Channels: Cognition and Learning

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The naming of colors has long been a topic of interest in the study of human culture and cognition — revealing the link between perception, language, and the categorization of the natural world. A major question in the study of both anthropology and cognitive science is why the world’s languages show recurrent similarities in color naming. Linguists at Yale tracked the evolution of color terms across a large language tree in Australia in order to trace the history of these systems.

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Northwestern Medicine scientists have discovered for the first time that the rhythm of breathing creates electrical activity in the human brain that enhances emotional judgments and memory recall. These effects on behavior depend critically on whether you inhale or exhale and whether you breathe through the nose or mouth.

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Indiana University psychologists have shown that a baby's most likely first words are based upon their visual experience, laying the foundation for a new theory of infant language learning. The study appears in the journal of the Royal Society Philosophical Transactions B.

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Even if they don’t understand the words, infants react to the way their mother speaks and the emotions conveyed through speech. What exactly they react to and how has yet to be fully deciphered, but could have significant impact on a child’s development. Researchers in acoustics and psychology teamed up to better define and study this impact.

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Open office plans are becoming increasingly common in the workplace -- offering a way to optimize available space and encourage dialogue, interaction and collaboration among employees. However, a new study suggests that productive work-related conversations might actually decrease the performance of other employees within earshot -- more so than other random, meaningless noises.

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Slight gender variations in attention scores have been well documented, but a new study from Harvard Medical School suggests that these minor gaps widen significantly in places with lower gender equality. The findings, published Nov. 1 in PLOS One, reveal that gender variations in performance of tasks that require participants to exercise sustained attention control are closely tied to gender equality by country.

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Researchers at Stockholm University and Brooklyn College have combined knowledge from the fields of artificial intelligence, ethology and the psychology of learning to solve several problems concerning the behaviour and intelligence of animals.

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This study shows that when patients with PD experience a drop in blood pressure upon standing up – a condition known as orthostatic hypotension (OH) – they exhibit significant cognitive deficits. These deficits reverse when the individual lies down and their blood pressure returns to normal. As a result, these findings are important as clinical providers might miss an important target for intervention when not considering OH as a contributor to cognitive impairment.

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NIBIB-funded researchers have used fast fMR Ito image rapidly fluctuating brain activity during human thought. fMRI measures changes in blood oxygenation, which were previously thought to be too slow to detect the subtle neuronal activity associated with higher order brain functions. The new discovery is a significant step towards realizing a central goal of neuroscience research: mapping the brain networks responsible for human cognitive functions such as perception, attention, and awareness.

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Results from a new study show that online group therapy can be just as effective as face-to-face treatment, although the pace of recovery may be slower.

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Encouraging children to enjoy a wide variety of toys allows them to develop fully, says lecturer Elizabeth Sweet.

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In a study published this month in the journal Child Development, UW-Madison researcher Hilary Miller shows preschool age kids often skip location words and lean on other relevant information to describe important spatial details.

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Learning by taking practice tests, a strategy known as retrieval practice, can protect memory against the negative effects of stress, report scientists from Tufts University in a new study published in Science on Nov. 25.

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A study led jointly by research student Elham Taha from the laboratory of Prof. Kobi Rosenblum at the University of Haifa, and Christopher Heise from the laboratory of Professor Carlo Sala at the University of Milan, in cooperation with other European researchers. In a surprising finding, the study showed that a genetic change in the protein eEF2K creates resistance to epileptic attacks, thereby creating the possibility of a new treatment for the disease

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Although both group and individual therapy can ease post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms in active-duty military service members, individual therapy relieved PTSD symptoms better and quicker, according to a study led by a Duke University School of Medicine researcher. The randomized clinical trial is the largest to date to examine an evidence-based treatment for active-duty military service members, with 268 participants from the U.S. Army’s Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas. Findings will be published Nov. 23 in JAMA Psychiatry.

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Private speech is a good thing for a child’s cognitive development; however, it may be important that children monitor and repair errors in their speech, even when talking to themselves. Louis Manfra, assistant professor in the College of Human Environmental Sciences at the University of Missouri, found that children do, in fact, monitor their speech for errors, even without a listener. Manfra says parents and caregivers might encourage preschool-aged children to monitor their private speech by demonstrating such behavior in their own aloud private speech.

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• Kidney damage was linked with worse performance on tests of global cognitive function, executive function, memory, and attention. • Kidney damage may also be linked with structural abnormalities in the brain. • Research that uncovered these findings will be presented at ASN Kidney Week 2016 November 15–20 at McCormick Place in Chicago, IL.

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A new study explains brain mechanisms associated to the lack of sensitivity to music.

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It has long been known to science that women find it easier than men to multitask and switch between tasks. But identifying exactly which areas of male and female brains respond differently and why has so far been unclear.

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A study using Barbies and Transformers finds that men are better at recognizing Transformer faces while women are better at recognizing Barbie faces, supporting the theory that experience plays an important role in facial recognition.

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An Indiana University physicist and neuroscientist who studies how physical movement can be used to detect autism in children and adults has received support from the National Science Foundation. The $750,000 NSF grant to IU scientist Jorge V. José and collaborators will be used to apply analytical methods pioneered at IU and Rutgers University toward diagnosing, and possibly treating, a wider range of learning disabilities.

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A gene that regulates bone growth and muscle metabolism in mammals may take on an additional role as a promoter of brain maturation, cognition and learning in human and nonhuman primates, according to a new study led by neurobiologists at Harvard Medical School.

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UAB launches study to see if family caregivers for dementia patients can benefit and improve quality of life from learning strategies to alter care-resistant behavior, such as refusal to take a bath, take medicine, accept routine mouth care, abstain from alcohol or go to a medical appointment.

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Researchers provide unprecedented evidence that basal forebrain pathology precedes and predicts both entorhinal pathology and memory impairment in people with Alzheimer's disease.

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While schizophrenia is best known for episodes of psychosis – a break with reality during which an individual may experience delusions and hallucinations – it is also marked by chronic neurocognitive deficits, such as problems with memory and attention. A multi-site cognition study led by psychologists at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) found that these neurocognitive symptoms are evident prior to the onset of psychosis in a high-risk stage of the disorder called the prodromal phase. The findings suggest that these impairments may serve as early warning signs of schizophrenia, as well as potential targets for intervention that could mitigate the onset of the psychotic disorder and significantly improve cognitive function.

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Scientists at The University of Texas at Austin can now map what happens neurologically when new information influences a person to change his or her mind, a finding that offers more insight into the mechanics of learning.

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Researchers have developed a chemical compound that detects the Alzheimer’s protein amyloid beta better than current FDA-approved agents. The compound potentially could be used in brain scans to identify the signs of Alzheimer’s early, or to monitor response to treatment.

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UCLA Health experts are available to discuss a wide variety of topics of interest for the month of November.

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It's tempting to dip into the leftover Halloween treats, but new research out of York University has found eating plenty of fruits and vegetables, combined with regular exercise, leads to better cognitive functioning for younger and older adults, and may delay the onset of dementia.

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To improve access to quality health care for adults with IDD and to support the physician specialty of adult developmental medicine, UofL and the Lee Specialty Clinic are sponsoring the second annual Caring for Adults with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Conference Nov. 12 at UofL.

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The brain’s interpretation of sound is influenced by cues from other senses, explaining more precisely how we interpret what we hear at a particular moment, according to a report published in Nature Neuroscience online Oct. 31.

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A research team at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center has been awarded a three-year grant for $2 million by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) to compare the effectiveness of cognitive-behavior therapy and yoga on anxiety in older adults.

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High blood pressure in middle age can lead to impaired cognition and is a potential risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease.

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Many children are still learning to control their behavior as they enter kindergarten and may need educational support to develop that critical skill, indicates one of the most conclusive studies to date of early childhood self-regulation.

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Working with dot-counting mice running through a virtual-reality maze, scientists from Harvard Medical School have found that in order to navigate space rodent brains rely on a cascade of neural signals that culminate in a single decision that prompts the animal to choose one direction over another.

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Visual hallucinations ... everyone has heard of them, and many people have experienced the sensation of "seeing" something that isn't there. But studying the phenomenon of hallucinations is difficult: they are irregular, transitory, and highly personal--only the person experiencing the hallucination knows what he or she is seeing, and representations of what's being seen are limited to verbal descriptions or drawings.

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Ever worried that all the information you’ve crammed in during a study session might not stay in your memory? The answer might be going for a run, according to a new study published in Cognitive Systems Research.

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New study finds touch typists have a definite edge in speed over nonstandard typists but self-taught typists do nearly as well as long as they can see the keyboard.

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A sleep abnormality likely plays an important role in schizophrenia, according to sleep experts at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC). In a review of the growing body of evidence linking a reduction in sleep spindle activity to schizophrenia, the researchers suggested that a better understanding of this sleep abnormality’s genetic underpinnings opens the door to new treatments for the psychiatric disorder. Their paper appeared in the October 15 issue of Biological Psychiatry.

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Children who have been in the U.S. foster care system are at a significantly higher risk of mental and physical health problems – ranging from learning disabilities, developmental delays and depression to behavioral issues, asthma and obesity – than children who haven’t been in foster care, according to a University of California, Irvine sociologist.

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Results of new study led by Linda Pagani, professor at the University of Montreal’s School of Psychoeducation, show that young children who watch too much television are at risk of victimization and social isolation and adopting violent and antisocial behaviour toward other students at age 13.

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Bonobos, chimpanzees and orangutans understand that others can be convinced of something that is not true, says a study by researchers of Duke University, Kyoto University, the University of St. Andrews and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

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We all know that the way someone sees the world, and the way it really is, are not always the same. This ability to recognize that someone’s beliefs may differ from reality has long been seen as unique to humans. But new research on chimpanzees, bonobos and orangutans suggests our primate relatives may also be able to tell when something is just in your head. The study was led by researchers of Duke University, Kyoto University, the University of St. Andrews and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

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In a new study, scientists in London, Ontario have discovered that early marijuana use may result in abnormal brain function and lower IQ.

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Watching each other helps these social insects learn to pull strings for a sugar water reward.

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Hypertension, more commonly known as high blood pressure, has increased significantly in children, paralleling the current childhood obesity epidemic. Although we know that adult hypertension can affect the brain, little research has been done on the cognitive effects of childhood hypertension. In a new study scheduled for publication in The Journal of Pediatrics, researchers found that hypertension is associated with cognitive issues in children and adolescents.

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*Researchers from the Max Planck Institute in Germany and the University of Haifa used emotionally confusing video clips and revealed different neutral networks that operate when we perceive a situation as positive or negative*

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Researchers at Seattle Children’s Research Institute published a study in the journal Pediatrics showing a new intervention for adolescents with persistent post-concussive symptoms that improved health and wellness outcomes significantly. The approach combines cognitive behavioral therapy and coordinated care among providers, schools, patients and families.

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In a study that shatters a cornerstone concept in linguistics, an analysis of nearly two-thirds of the world’s languages shows that humans tend to use the same sounds for common objects and ideas, no matter what language they’re speaking.

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A neuroscientist maps brain cell activity that occurs during the delay between sensation and action.