Most people listen to music throughout their day and often near bedtime to wind down. But can that actually cause your sleep to suffer? When sleep researcher Michael Scullin, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology and neuroscience at Baylor University, realized he was waking in the middle of the night with a song stuck in his …
What happens in the brain when people make music together?
Music is a tool that has accompanied our evolutionary journey and provided a sense of comfort and social connection for millennia. New research published today in the journal American Psychologist provides a neuroscientific understanding of the social connection with a new map of the brain when playing music.
‘Roadmaps’ of the brain reveal regions vulnerable to Alzheimer’s disease
Much like a supply truck crossing the countryside, the misfolded proteins that damage neurons in Alzheimer’s disease travel the “roads” of the brain, sometimes stopping and sometimes re-routing to avoid roadblocks, reports a study published in Science Advances by researchers at Van Andel Institute and University of Pennsylvania.
Like night and day: Animal studies may not translate to humans without time considerations
Imagine being woken up at 3 a.m. to navigate a corn maze, memorize 20 items on a shopping list or pass your driver’s test.
Saliva can be more effective than nasopharyngeal swabs for COVID-19 testing
The collection of nasopharyngeal swab (NPS) samples for COVID-19 diagnostic testing poses challenges including exposure risk to healthcare workers and supply chain constraints. Saliva samples are easier to collect but can be mixed with mucus or blood, and some studies have found they produce less accurate results. A team of researchers has found that an …
Case study shows patient on ketogenic diet living fully with IDH1-mutant glioblastoma
A British man who rejected the standard of care to treat his brain cancer has lived with the typically fatal glioblastoma tumor growing very slowly after adopting a ketogenic diet, providing a case study that researchers say reflects the benefits of using the body’s own metabolism to fight this particularly aggressive cancer instead of chemo …
Pinpointing how cancer cells turn aggressive
It’s often cancer’s spread, not the original tumor, that poses the disease’s most deadly risk.
Cell phone use while driving may be tied to other risky road behaviors in young adults
A new study from researchers at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Public Policy Center found that 18- to 24-year-olds who use cell phones while driving are more likely to engage in other risky driving behaviors associated with “acting-without-thinking,” a form of impulsivity. These findings suggest the importance of developing …
Children cannot understand sadness and happiness in people wearing facemasks
The U-Vip (Unit for Visually Impaired People) research team led by Monica Gori at the IIT- Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (Italian Institute of Technology) has recently published a study which shows for the first time how children aged from 3 to 5 years old have problems in recognizing the emotions of people wearing surgical masks. …
Medical school identifies placental protein as possible birthweight regulator
New findings from the University of Minnesota Medical School are helping uncover why some people are more likely to be overweight and develop Type 2 diabetes—and it starts in the womb.