News by Subject Medicine & Health

Researchers at UC San Francisco have observed a new feature of neural activity in the hippocampus - the brain's memory hub - that may explain how this vital brain region combines a diverse range of inputs into a multi-layered memories that can later be recalled.

While it has been said that the eyes are a window to the soul, a new study shows they could be a means for understanding diseases of the brain. According to new research by scientists at the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences, retinal scans can detect key changes in blood vessels that may provide an early sign of Alzheimer's, while offering important insights into how one of the most common Alzheimer's risk genes contributes to the disease.

A new study on political polarization led by a Brown University team showed how an aversion to uncertainty is often associated with black-and-white political views.

A new University of California, Irvine-led study finds low serum levels of the sugar N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc), is associated with progressive disability and neurodegeneration in multiple sclerosis (MS).

In the largest study of the associations between smoking and cardiovascular disease on cognitive function, researchers at the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), an affiliate of City of Hope, found both impair the ability to learn and memorize; and that the effects of smoking are more pronounced among females, while males are more impaired by cardiovascular disease. The results appear today in the journal Scientific Reports.

People who work nontraditional work hours, such as 11 p.m.-7 a.m., or the "graveyard" shift, are more likely than people with traditional daytime work schedules to develop a chronic medical condition -- shift work sleep disorder -- that disrupts their sleep. According to researchers at the University of Missouri, people who develop this condition are also three times more likely to be involved in a vehicle accident.

As we move through the world, what we see is seamlessly integrated with our memory of the broader spatial environment. How does the brain accomplish this feat? A new study from Dartmouth College reveals that three regions of the brain in the posterior cerebral cortex, which the researchers call "place-memory areas," form a link between the brain's perceptual and memory systems. The findings are published in Nature Communications.

People with healthier heart structure and function appear to have better cognitive abilities, including increased capacity to solve logic problems and faster reaction times, according to research led by Queen Mary University of London and the Radcliffe Department of Medicine at University of Oxford.

Researchers from the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience have discovered a new brain circuit underlying curiosity and novelty seeking behavior. Using several innovative techniques, a whole path of multiple brain regions was uncovered that converts curiosity into action in mice. The results were published in Science.