February 22, 2022
by Patricia Tomasi
Up to one billion people worldwide suffer from neurological disorders. In the United States, more than one million adults are diagnosed annually with a chronic brain disease or disorder. Studying the brain is difficult but new tools are emerging. A recent study published in the Journal of Molecular Psychiatry looked at how genetically encoded sensors enable micro and nano-scopic decoding of transmission in healthy and diseased brains.
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January 31, 2022
by Elizabeth Pratt
Botulinum toxin is a medicine that is often used for wrinkles, to help ease migraines, for muscle spasms, and to assist with incontinence.
Now research published in Scientific Reports has found that people who had botox injections across four different areas of the body reported less anxiety than their peers.
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January 25, 2022
by Patricia Tomasi
A new study published in the Journal of Neuroscience looked at visual processes in the brain. “We were focusing particularly in the older part of the brain or mid-brain, which is important for lower-order animals such as frogs, lizards, and birds,” study author Masatoshi Kasai told us. “The superior colliculus is the center for sensory integration and sensory-motor transformation.”
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December 28, 2021
by Patricia Tomasi
Two new studies published in the Journal of Biological Psychiatry and BioRxiv focused on understanding how the frontal part of the cortex known as the prefrontal cortex (PFC) develops. “We were interested in studying this regions as it is important for higher order cognition (think problem solving, planning complex actitivies), regulating emotion and social behaviors, which are most advanced in humans and behaviors disrupted in most neuropsychiatric disorder,” studies author Kartik Pattabiraman told us. “Furthermore, the PFC is greatly expanded in primates and are further specialized i.e. unique connections and cellular properties in humans. For example, excitatory neurons in human PFC form more connections with other neurons than neurons in monkeys and other animals.”
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December 14, 2021
by Patricia Tomasi
A new study published in the Society for Research in Child Development looked at Perceptual Access Reasoning (PAR) in developing a representational theory of mind. “My colleagues and I studied how young children develop a theory of mind, which refers to our common sense understanding that people’s outward behavior is caused by their internal mental states, such as their desires, perceptions, knowledge, memories, and beliefs,” study author William V. Fabricius told us. “Young children have to learn what the different kinds of mental states are, and how they work together to produce people’s behavior. It is so very important for children to understand these connections, because it lays the foundation upon which they learn how to get along with others.”
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November 30, 2021
by Patricia Tomasi
A new study published in the Journal of Science looked at active learning. “The notion of active learning has been receiving a lot of attention recently,” study author Nesra Yannier told us. "Especially with COVID-19, the importance of engaging students with novel ways of learning has become even more apparent. While schools and teachers are trying to adapt by incorporating new techniques and technologies, quarantine has also been having psychological effects on students such as social isolation, restlessness and attention problems.”
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November 28, 2021
by Elizabeth Pratt
The reason why siblings with the same upbringing and genetics can exhibit such different behavior has long puzzled psychologists, neuroscientists and researchers alike.
Now, a team of researchers from the universities of Bath and Southampton in the UK may have an answer as to why some siblings from the same family may develop antisocial behavior when others do not.
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November 16, 2021
by Patricia Tomasi
A new study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology looked at miscalibrated expectations and how they create a barrier to deeper conversation. “In this research, we wanted to understand why people often engage in small talk in everyday life rather than initiate deeper and more intimate conversations that might strengthen their social relationships,” study author Michael Kardas told us. “We reasoned that people's decisions about what topics to discuss in conversation are guided by their expectations about the likely outcomes of the conversation.”
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November 9, 2021
by Patricia Tomasi
A new study published in the Journal of Child Development looked at infant exuberant object play at home. “Researchers have long considered play to be a primary context of infant learning,” study author Catherine Tamis-LeMonda told us. “However, studies of play are confined to laboratory tasks. Our study is about how infants interact with objects spontaneously at home. We wanted to know how much infants interacted with objects outside from the laboratory confines, with the objects that they typically have access to in their everyday environments."
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November 2, 2021
by Patricia Tomasi
A recent study published in the Journal of Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience looked at white matter in infancy and its association with language outcomes in kindergarten. “Our study conducted a five-year longitudinal investigation of children from infancy to examine how early brain structure (here focusing on white matter axonal connections between different brain areas) relates to children’s later language outcomes at the start of formal schooling (i.e., kindergarten),” study author Dr. Jennifer Zuk told us.
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