In a review published in the journal Trends in Cognitive Science, Alvaro Pascual-Leone, MD, PhD, and colleagues describe how non-invasive brain stimulation – a technique he and others have pioneered to unlock the secrets of the brain – could shed light on the neurobiology underlying implicit bias.
Iowa State researchers want to know how the emotional connection we develop with physical activity as children influences behaviors throughout our lifetime. They suspect our prefrontal cortex, which regulates emotions, plays a significant role.
Researchers in the UNC Early Brain Development Study tracking the development of the brain’s emotion circuitry in infancy found that adult-like functional brain connections for emotional regulation emerge during the first year of life. And the growth of these brain circuits during the second year of life predicted the IQ and emotional control of the children at 4 years old, suggesting new avenues for early detection and intervention for children who are at risk for emotional problems.
Congenital muscular torticollis (CMT) is a common postural deformity in infants, and one that can be effectively treated by physical therapy. A set of updated, evidence-based recommendations for physical therapy management of CMT is presented in the October issue of Pediatric Physical Therapy. The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.
Although people often think about multiple-choice tests as tools for assessment, they can also be used to facilitate learning, suggests a news study from Washington University in St. Louis. Published in Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, the study offers straightforward tips for constructing multiple-choice questions that are effective at both assessing current knowledge and strengthening ongoing learning.
The extent to which sensory-specific parts of the brain are able to connect as a network, not necessarily anatomically, but functionally, during a child’s development predicts their reading proficiency, according to a new neuroimaging study from the University at Buffalo.
Researchers around the world are exploring the gut/brain axis in the quest for knowledge about mood disorders such as depression, neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s and chronic conditions such as Crohn’s disease.
A a new University of Washington study shows that 18-month-olds can make choices based on how much effort they want to expend, or on whether they like the people involved -- a form of toddler cost-benefit analysis.
Monkeys who learned how to gamble have helped researchers pinpoint an area of the brain key to one’s willingness to make risky decisions.
Your brain is structured to make the best possible decision given its limited resources, according to new research that unites cognitive science and information theory – the branch of mathematics that underlies modern communications technology.
Encouraging children “to help,” rather than asking them to “be helpers,” can instill persistence as they work to fulfill daily tasks that are difficult to complete, finds a new psychology study.
As childhood obesity rates rise and physical education offerings dwindle, elementary schools keep searching for ways to incorporate the federally mandated half-hour of physical activity into the school day.
The research will not only aid basic understanding of brain development, but also provide a foundation for understanding the cellular origins of brain disorders caused by errors in development. These anatomical defects include Joubert syndrome, Dandy-Walker malformation and pontocerebellar hypoplasia. The database will enable future studies tracing the cellular origins of childhood brain tumors such as medulloblastoma, astrocytoma and ependymoma. Researchers worldwide can interact with the data via an interface St. Jude has created called Cell Seek.
Older adults can help boost their memory and stay independent longer, with a little help and motivation.
Why don't you eat your friend's lunch when you are hungry? Cognitive control. Researcher at the School of Engineering & Applied Science and Arts & Sciences are working together to better understand this aspect of cognition.
A team of researchers has uncovered the distinct computations that occur when we switch between different languages, a finding that provides new insights into the nature of bilingualism.
Researchers have found a mechanism that links epigenetic changes to translational control during fear memory reconsolidation — several particular epigenetic changes in the hippocampus of the rat brain control downstream regulation of translation in brain neurons, acting through a gene called Pten.
Parents always worry about whether their children will do well in school, but their kids probably were born with much of what they will need to succeed.
New research from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business finds that people significantly underestimate the positive impact a letter of gratitude has on its recipient.
Teens are more prone to addiction because it’s a form of learning. Just as it’s easier for a younger brain to pick up new languages, athletic techniques, or musical instruments, it’s easier for them to pick up addictions.
Routine oral care to treat gum disease (periodontitis) may play a role in reducing inflammation and toxins in the blood (endotoxemia) and improving cognitive function in people with liver cirrhosis. The study is published ahead of print in the American Journal of Physiology—Gastrointestinal and Liver Physiology.
Scientists at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) have identified the brain networks that allow you to think of an object name and then verbalize that thought. The study appeared in the July issue of BRAIN. It represents a significant advance in the understanding of how the brain connects meaning to words and will help the planning of brain surgeries.
Accurate Diagnosis and Proper Management Could Improve Outcomes
We may not be able to change recent events in our lives, but how well we remember them plays a key role in how our brains model what’s happening in the present and predict what is likely to occur in the future, finds new research in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.
A new study by Cornell University neuroscientists suggests that, to some degree, we can blame limited savings on our brains in addition to our bills. According to the study, humans have a cognitive bias toward earning, which makes us unconsciously spend more brain power on earning than on saving. The cognitive bias is so powerful that it can even warp our sense of time.
Researchers have found a surprising way to help boost the skills of children with language impairment: Pay their parents to read to them.
Contrary to popular belief across college campuses, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) medications may fail to improve cognition in healthy students and actually can impair functioning, according to a study by researchers at the University of Rhode Island and Brown University.
A new study published in PLOS ONE by researchers from New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development examined the long-term impacts of an early childhood program in Chicago, IL called the Chicago School Readiness Project (CSRP) and found evidence suggesting that the program positively affected children’s executive function and academic achievement during adolescence.
New research suggests how distancing yourself from a decision may help you make the choice that produces the most benefit for you and others affected.
Researchers at the Institute for Autism Research (IAR) at Canisius College were awarded an $880,431 grant from the U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences (IES), to fully fund a three-year study of the long-term beneficial impacts from an innovative school intervention for high-functioning children with autism spectrum disorder (HFASD) developed by the IAR research team.
Researchers used brain imaging to gauge how the hand, foot and lips are represented in the brains of 2-month-olds – a much younger age than has been studied previously. It is believed to be the first to reveal the greater neurological activity associated with the lips than with other body parts represented in the infant brain. It also indicates how soon infants’ brains begin to make sense of their bodies, a first step toward other developmental milestones.
Brain activity is driven by encounters with external stimuli and situations, simultaneously occurring with internal mental processes. A team of researchers from Stanford University, with funding from the NIH BRAIN Initiative, has discovered how the brain dynamically handles cognitive tasks while it also is engaged in internal mental processes.
A monthly roundup of research briefs showcasing recent scientific advances led by Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center faculty.
Special training for teachers may mean big results for students with autism spectrum disorder, according to Florida State University and Emory University researchers.
For many students, essay tests are a source of dread and anxiety. But for professors, these tests provide an excellent way to assess a student’s depth of knowledge and critical-thinking skills. At the American Physiological Society’s (APS’s) Institute on Teaching and Learning in Madison, Wis., Andrew Petzold, PhD, of the University of Minnesota Rochester Center for Learning Innovation, will discuss how a game of chance can lead to increased student preparation and motivation.
Before online learning existed, the traditional lecture format was the only option for college courses. Students who skipped class risked missing out on valuable information presented in-person. Researchers from the University of Iowa found that online content presentation accompanied by weekly interactive class meetings—a “blended” course format—may improve academic achievement in students at risk for failing. In addition, fewer students withdrew from the class when the content was presented in a blended format. The findings will be presented today at the American Physiological Society’s (APS’s) Institute on Teaching and Learning in Madison, Wis.
Forgetting names, skills or information learned in class is often thought of as purely negative. However unintuitive it may seem, research suggests that forgetting plays a positive role in learning: It can actually increase long-term retention, information retrieval and performance. The findings will be presented today at the American Physiological Society’s (APS’s) Institute on Teaching and Learning in Madison, Wis.
One year after researchers published their work on a physiological test for autism, a follow-up study confirms its exceptional success in assessing whether a child is on the autism spectrum.
A pair of recent studies performed by researchers at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and the University of Pennsylvania represents a significant step forward in understanding the role of the brain’s “reward circuit” and certain hallmarks of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), namely difficulty interpreting or engaging in typical social behavior and restricted or repetitive interests or behaviors.
New preclinical research shows a gene already linked to a subset of people with autism spectrum disorder is critical to healthy neuronal connections in the developing brain, and its loss can harm those connections to help fuel the complex developmental condition. Scientists report in Developmental Cell their data clarify the biological role of the gene CHD8 and its protein CHD8 in developing oligodendrocytes, cells that form a protective insulation around nerves.
Using MRI measurements of the brain's neural connections, or “white matter,” UW researchers have shown that, in struggling readers, the neural circuitry strengthened — and their reading performance improved — after just eight weeks of a specialized tutoring program. The study, published June 8 in Nature Communications, is the first to measure white matter during an intensive educational intervention and link children's learning with their brains' flexibility.
An experimental model of HIV infection in mice, developed by Mount Sinai researchers, has shown that HIV causes learning and memory dysfunction, a cognitive disease that is now observed in about half of HIV infected people that worsens with age, and is currently incurable.
Columbia Engineers have discovered a new fundamental feature of brain oscillations: they actually move rhythmically across the brain, reflecting patterns of neuronal activity that propagate across the cortex. The researchers also found that the traveling waves moved more reliably when subjects performed well while performing a working memory task, indicating traveling waves are important for memory and cognition: the waves play a significant role in supporting brain connectivity.
A study published in the journal Acta Diabetologica reports that people with diabetes and prediabetes who have lower sleep efficiency – a measure of how much time in bed is actually spent sleeping – have poorer cognitive function than those with better sleep efficiency.“The cognitive effects of poor sleep quality are worse for this population, which we know is already at risk for developing cognitive impairment as a result of having diabetes,” said Dr.
At the threshold of what we call consciousness is a brain function that makes you feel confidently aware that you are actually seeing what you see. Psychologists at Georgia Tech have observed mechanisms involved in making it work.
Autism screening app is a novel, parent-friendly, and scalable way to collect scientifically valid data.
Detecting patterns is an important part of how humans learn and make decisions. Now, researchers have seen what is happening in people’s brains as they first find patterns in information they are presented.
As the first step toward predicting cerebral palsy in premature infants, scientists have identified a panel of microRNAs that are changed in babies who later develop abnormal muscle tone. MicroRNAs are small, noncoding RNA molecules that are important regulators of gene expression affecting developmental processes. Searching for microRNAs that could serve as early biomarkers – biological signs of disease – scientists for the first time have demonstrated that it is feasible to evaluate over 750 microRNAs using only one-half milliliter of blood collected from babies weighing less than 1500 grams (or under three pounds). Results were published in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation – International.
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