People with learning disabilities continue to die prematurely—and although there are some early signs of improvements, there are still considerable differences compared to the general population, according to a new report published today.
Flickering screens may help children with reading and writing difficulties
Previous studies have shown that children with attention difficulties and/or ADHD solve cognitive tasks better when they are exposed to auditory white noise. However, this is the first time that such a link has been demonstrated between visual white noise and cognitive abilities such as memory, reading and non-word decoding in children with reading and …
Researchers find brain area responsible for craving protein
New research from scientists at the Universities of Aberdeen and Leicester has identified an area of the brain that drives cravings for protein-rich food.
Unusual copper and iron found forming in brains of Alzheimer’s patients
A team of researchers associated with several institutions in the U.K., Germany and the U.S. has found evidence of an unusual kind of copper and iron in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients. In their paper published in the journal Science Advances, the group describes their discovery of the metals in two Alzheimer’s patients and what …
A psychologist’s take on what happens when your ‘life flashes before your eyes’
At the age of 16, when Tony Kofi was an apprentice builder living in Nottingham, he fell from the third storey of a building. Time seemed to slow down massively, and he saw a complex series of images flash before his eyes.
‘Bad fat’ suppresses killer T cells from attacking cancer
In order for cancer to grow and spread, it has to evade detection by our immune cells, particularly specialized “killer” T cells. Salk researchers led by Professor Susan Kaech have found that the environment inside tumors (the tumor microenvironment) contains an abundance of oxidized fat molecules, which, when ingested by the killer T cells, suppresses …
Changing community networks impact disease spread
The COVID-19 pandemic has made clear the importance of understanding precisely how diseases spread throughout networks of transportation. However, rigorously determining the connection between disease risk and changing networks—which either humans or the environment may alter—is challenging due to the complexity of these systems. In a paper publishing on Thursday in the SIAM Journal on …
In Cell commentary, NIH outlines commitment to addressing structural racism in biomedicine
Earlier this year, the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) acknowledged the impact of structural racism on biomedical science and committed to doing more to dismantle it. Now, in a commentary appearing June 10 in the journal Cell, NIH Director Francis Collins and colleagues describe the NIH’s UNITE initiative and how it differs from the …
Giving a voice to child victims of family abuse and neglect
Children with documented child protection concerns are four times as likely to die before they reach their 16th birthday, according to confronting new research from the University of South Australia.
Study offers new insight into one of the mysteries of natural immunity to malaria
In the first and largest global metabolomic study of African children before and after malaria infection, NYU Abu Dhabi Assistant Professor of Biology Youssef Idaghdour and his colleagues at the Centre National de Recherche et de Formation sur le Paludisme in Burkina Faso have advanced the understanding of the molecular mechanisms in play during human …