Academic learning is about gaining new knowledge and skill, but only recently has it been possible to see new knowledge appear in a human brain. A new study from Carnegie Mellon University researchers using multiple imaging modalities shows that learning scientific information results in changes in the actual structure of memory-related areas of the brain,…
Oxytocin has been the focus of intense research around autism spectrum disorder (ASD) due to the hormone’s reported positive effects on anxiety, empathy, social interaction, and maternal behavior. ASD is characterized by early onset of behavioral and cognitive alterations, and by low plasma levels of oxytocin. The enzyme CD38 was recently demonstrated to be critical…
Seemingly overnight, healthy children develop mysterious, potentially disabling symptoms. When children finally receive a diagnosis, often after weeks of tests and office and hospital visits, the parents may be shocked to learn that they have multiple sclerosis — a potentially disabling autoimmune disease once believed to affect only adults. “For many years, the tagline for…
As bacteria continue to demonstrate powerful resilience to antibiotic treatments — posing a rising public health crisis involving a variety of infections — scientists continue to seek a better understanding of bacterial defenses against antibiotics in an effort to develop new treatments. Now, researchers at the University of California San Diego who combine experiments and…
In diffuse cutaneous leishmanisis (DCL), a rare form of leishmaniasis, parasites grow uncontrolled in skin lesions across the body. For the first time, researchers reporting in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases have now profiled how the human immune system responds to a DCL infection and, in turn, how Leishmania amazonensis adapts to the human host. American…
Yo-yo dieting may make it harder for women to control a variety of heart disease risk factors, according to preliminary research presented at the American Heart Association’s Epidemiology and Prevention | Lifestyle and Cardiometabolic Health Scientific Sessions 2019, a premier global exchange of the latest advances in population-based cardiovascular science for researchers and clinicians. “Achieving…
Researchers have harnessed the latest nanofabrication techniques to create bug-shaped robots that are wirelessly powered, able to walk, able to survive harsh environments and tiny enough to be injected through an ordinary hypodermic needle. “When I was a kid, I remember looking in a microscope, and seeing all this crazy stuff going on. Now we’re…
Brown University researchers have developed a new antibacterial coating for intravascular catheters that could one day help to prevent catheter-related bloodstream infections, the most common type of hospital-acquired infection. “These kinds of infections are a major burden for hospitals, health care providers and most of all for patients,” said Anita Shukla, an assistant professor of…
The age a woman begins menstruation is associated with having high blood pressure later in her life, according to a team of researchers at the University of Georgia. Specifically, researchers found that early onset menstruation significantly increased risk of hypertension in late adulthood, even after controlling for independent social economic factors, lifestyle behaviors, and other…
The West African chimpanzee population has declined by nearly 80 percent in recent decades. Habitat loss is threatening their livelihoods across the continent, and especially in Senegal, where corporate mining has started eating up land in recent years. The geographical distribution of West African chimps overlaps almost perfectly with gold and iron ore deposits, and…