Tag: Brain
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Nation & World
Eight weeks to a better brain
Harvard researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital find that participating in an eight-week mindfulness meditation program appears to make measurable changes in brain regions associated with memory, sense of self, empathy, and stress.
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Nation & World
NARSAD awards $720,000 to Harvard researchers
Twelve from Harvard are among 214 researchers named NARSAD Young Investigators.
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Nation & World
Early marijuana use a bigger problem
Researchers at Harvard-affiliated McLean Hospital have shown that those who start using marijuana at a young age are more impaired on tests of cognitive function than those who start smoking at a later age.
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Nation & World
Promising therapy for stroke patients
A noninvasive electric stimulation technique administered to both sides of the brain can help stroke patients who have lost motor skills in their hands and arms, according to a new study led by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
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Nation & World
Thinking like an octopus
A philosophy professor’s summer of diving in Sydney Harbour has gotten him thinking about what octopus intelligence might mean.
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Nation & World
Major moral decisions use general-purpose brain circuits to manage uncertainty
Harvard researchers have found that humans can make difficult moral decisions using the same brain circuits as those used in more mundane choices related to money and food. These circuits,…
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Nation & World
What’s right for me?
In a new study, Harvard scientists find that humans can make difficult moral decisions using the same brain circuits as those used on more mundane choices such as money or food.
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Nation & World
Exercise, calorie restrictions can rejuvenate older synapses
Harvard researchers have uncovered a mechanism in mice through which caloric restriction and exercise delay some of the debilitating effects of aging by rejuvenating the connections between nerves and the muscles that they control.
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Nation & World
Building a better brain
New book chronicles how the mind works and how we can influence that to help ourselves succeed.
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Nation & World
Around the Schools: Harvard Graduate School of Education
Harvard University students have launched the first collegiate Sarah Jane Brain Club, to explore issues surrounding pediatric traumatic brain injury, at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
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Nation & World
Alzheimer’s-associated protein may be part of the innate immune system
Amyloid-beta protein – the primary constituent of the plaques found in the brains of Alzheimer’s disease patients – may be part of the body’s first-line system to defend against infection.…
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Nation & World
It’s all in the cortex
Research suggests that the brain’s lateral prefrontal cortex plays an important role in showing how well someone can rebound emotionally the day after an argument.
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Nation & World
Finding the seat of language?
A team of Harvard and University of California, San Diego (UCSD), researchers report having pinpointed an area of the brain where three essential components of language — word identification, grammar,…
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Nation & World
In Milliseconds, Brain Zips From Thought To Speech
An unusual experiment is offering some tantalizing clues about what goes on in the brain before we speak. The study found that it takes about half a second to transform something we think into something we say. And three very different kinds of processing needed for speech are all happening in a small part of…
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Nation & World
Neural response to electrical currents isn’t localized, as previously believed
For more than a century, scientists have been using electrical stimulation to explore and treat the human brain. The technique has helped identify regions responsible for specific neural functions and has been used to treat a variety of conditions from Parkinson’s disease to depression. Yet no one has been able to see what actually happens…
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Nation & World
Fragile period of childhood brain development could underlie epilepsy
A form of partial epilepsy associated with auditory and other sensory hallucinations has been linked to the disruption of brain development during early childhood, according to a study led by…
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Nation & World
An unusual collection: A brain tumor tissue bank
Five years ago, as she was walking into Caritas Holy Family Hospital and Medical Center in Methuen, Mass., Patricia Fay saw a priest she knew and cornered him. “I’m like…
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Nation & World
Shining light on leptin’s role in brain
In investigating the complex neurocircuitry behind weight gain and glucose control, scientists have known that the hormone leptin plays a key role in the process. But within the myriad twists…
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Nation & World
‘Super-recognizers’ never forget a face
Some people say they never forget a face, a claim now bolstered by psychologists at Harvard University who’ve discovered a group they call “super-recognizers”: those who can easily recognize someone…
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Nation & World
Lighting up Parkinson’s disease research
Most people do not think of jellyfish at the mention of Parkinson’s disease research. But, at the MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease (MIND), researchers Pamela McLean and Bradley Hyman are…
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Nation & World
Modification of mutant Huntington’s protein increases its clearance from brain cells
A new study has identified a potential strategy for removing the abnormal protein that causes Huntington’s disease (HD) from brain cells, which could slow the progression of the devastating neurological…
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Nation & World
Angiogenesis inhibitor improves brain tumor survival by reducing swelling
The beneficial effects of anti-angiogenesis drugs in the treatment of the deadly brain tumors called glioblastomas appear to result primarily from reduction of edema – the swelling of brain tissue…
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Nation & World
Hearing could hold key to unlocking schizophrenia mystery
Measuring brain waves in response to hearing a variety of tones appears to be a useful way to begin understanding the underlying genetic abnormalities associated with schizophrenia, says a study…
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Nation & World
Higher temperatures lead to more severe headaches
Although large numbers of headache sufferers, particularly individuals who struggle with migraines, attribute their pain to the weather, there has been little scientific evidence to back up their assertions. Now,…
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Nation & World
New ALS gene identified
A collaborative research effort spanning nearly a decade between Harvard researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and King’s College London (KCL) has identified a novel gene for inherited amyotrophic lateral…
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Nation & World
Alzheimer’s-associated plaques may have impact throughout the brain
The impact of the amyloid plaques that appear in the brains of patients with Alzheimer’s disease may extend beyond the deposits’ effects on neurons — the cells that transmit electrochemical…
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Nation & World
Predicting risk of stroke from one’s genetic blueprint
A new statistical model could be used to predict an individual’s lifetime risk of stroke, according to the results of a study by Harvard researchers at the Children’s Hospital Boston Informatics Program.