Social Sciences
That title alone should get this article on the front page of technology papers everywhere, but the comparisons are valid.
Though people feel they have rich visual experiences, researchers have found that the average person is only aware of about four things at a time. This short term capability varies from person to person but an individual’s capacity for short-term memory is a strong predictor of IQ and scholastic achievement. People with high IQs can think about more things at once.
For example, a four-gigabyte iPhone, the popular new Apple cell phone, might be able to hold about 1,000…
Scientists have made significant advances towards the development of a technique that could be used to confirm whether someone is infected with variant CJD.
The technique, which has so far been used mainly in animal models, works by mimicking and accelerating the replication of prions - abnormal proteins that progressively kill off brain tissue and are thought to cause the disease.
Prion aggregates in the brain in variant CJD - one is stained by a conventional stain (pink), the other is stained with an antibody that labels the abnormal prion protein (brown).
The method, known as known as…
The disease that causes tremors, rigidity and slowed movements in a million Americans also targets another brain network that regulates cognitive thought and the ability to carry out everyday tasks.
David Eidelberg, MD, head of the Center for Neurosciences at The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, and his colleagues measured and quantified this network of brain regions during a five-year study of newly diagnosed Parkinson’s patients who agreed to be followed several times over the course of the study. This is the first longitudinal study of Parkinson’s disease using a brain scan to…
A role for prion proteins, the much debated agents of mad cow disease and vCJD, has been identified. It appears that the normal prions produced by the body help to prevent the plaques that build up in the brain to cause Alzheimer’s disease. The possible function for the mysterious proteins was discovered by a team of scientists led by Medical Research Council funded scientist Professor Nigel Hooper of the University of Leeds.
Alzheimer’s and diseases like variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease follow similar patterns of disease progression and in some forms of prion disease share genetic features…
Anybody who’s tried to concentrate on work while suffering a headache knows that pain compellingly commands attention—which is how evolution helped ensure survival in a painful world. Now, researchers have pinpointed the brain region responsible for pain’s ability to affect cognitive processing. They have found that this pain-related brain region is distinct from the one involved in cognitive processing interference due to a distracting memory task.
To search for the region responsible for pain’s ability to usurp attention, Ulrike Bingel and colleagues at the University Medical Center Hamburg…
Older adults who have difficulty identifying common odors may have a greater risk of developing problems with thinking, learning and memory, according to a report in the July issue of Archives of General Psychiatry.
Mild cognitive impairment—or a decline in thinking, learning and memory abilities—is increasingly recognized as a precursor to Alzheimer’s disease, according to background information in the article. Impairments in the ability to recognize odors have been associated with more rapid cognitive decline and also with the development transition from mild cognitive impairment to…
The adaptive significance of the unique ability in many primates to distinguish red hues from green ones (i.e., trichromatic color vision) has always enticed debate among evolutionary biologists.
The conventional theory is that primates evolved trichromatic color vision to assist them in foraging, specifically by allowing them to detect red/orange food items from green leaf backgrounds.
However, the results from several empirical studies have called into question the extent to which trichromacy functions in foraging and if it provides a performance advantage over dichromatic primates (who…
A unique study by researchers at the University of York and Hull York Medical School has confirmed a link between depression and low levels of folate, a vitamin which comes from vegetables.
In research published in the July edition of the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, the York team led by Dr Simon Gilbody, concluded that there was a link between depression and low folate levels, following a review of 11 previous studies involving 15,315 participants.
Last month, the Food Standards Agency recommended to UK Health Ministers the introduction of mandatory fortification of either…
Researchers at the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT have, for the first time, reversed symptoms of mental retardation and autism in mice.
The mice were genetically manipulated to model Fragile X Syndrome (FXS), the leading inherited cause of mental retardation and the most common genetic cause of autism. The condition, tied to a mutated X chromosome gene called fragile X mental retardation 1 (FMR1) gene, causes mild learning disabilities to severe autism.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, FXS affects one in 4,000 males and one in 6,000 females of all races and…
CTS-21166, an experimental drug to treat Alzheimer's disease, began the first phase of human clinical trials this week.
"Millions of people suffer from this devastating disease and treatment options are very limited," said Arun Ghosh, a Purdue professor who led the creation of the treatment molecule. "Current drugs manage the symptoms, but this could be the first disease-modifying therapy. It may be able to prevent and reverse the disease."
Ghosh and Jordan Tang founded biopharmaceutical company Zapaq, which merged with Athenagen in 2006 to form CoMentis. CoMentis is handling the clinical…