Medicine articles

Scientists find obesity alone does not cause arthritis in animals
The link between obesity and osteoarthritis may be more than just the wear and tear on the skeleton caused by added weight.

Where religious belief and disbelief meet in the brain
When it comes to religion, believers and nonbelievers appear to think very differently. But at the level of the brain, is believing in God different from believing that the sun is a star or that 4 is an even number?

A woman in space
In the early years of the "space race" (1957-1975) two men sought to test a scientifically simple yet culturally complicated theory: that women might be innately better suited for space travel than men.

A simple way for middle aged and older adults to assess how stiff their arteries are: reach for their toes
How far you can reach beyond your toes from a sitting position - normally used to define the flexibility of a person's body - may be an indicator of how stiff your arteries are.

Micro-gravity a health hazard for astronauts
Australian scientists may have pinpointed the cause of muscle wasting and bone-density loss experienced by astronauts who fly lengthy missions under the weightless conditions of space, new research reveals.

Body posture affects confidence in your own thoughts
Sitting up straight in your chair isn't just good for your posture - it also gives you more confidence in your own thoughts, according to a new study.

Cocaine vaccine shows promise for treating addiction
Immunization with an experimental anti-cocaine vaccine resulted in a substantial reduction in cocaine use in 38 percent of vaccinated patients in a clinical trial supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), a component of the National Institutes of Health. The study, published in the October issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry, is the first successful, placebo-controlled demonstration of a vaccine against an illicit drug of abuse.

Learning to speak: toddlers develop individualized rules for grammar
Using advanced computer modeling and statistical analysis, a University of Texas at Austin linguistics professor has found that toddlers develop their own individual structures for using language that are very different from what we traditionally think of as grammar.

Candy bar or healthy snack? Free choice not as free as we think
If you think choosing between a candy bar and healthy snack is totally a matter of free will, think again. A new study in the Journal of Consumer Research shows that the choices we make to indulge ourselves or exercise self-control depend on how the choices are presented.

'ECG for the mind' could diagnose depression in an hour
An innovative diagnostic technique invented by a Monash University researcher could dramatically fast-track the detection of mental and neurological illnesses.

Scientists give flies false memories
By directly manipulating the activity of individual neurons, scientists have given flies memories of a bad experience they never really had, according to a report in the October 16th issue of the journal Cell, a Cell Press publication.

Do 3 meals a day keep fungi away?
The fact that they eat a lot - and often - may explain why most people and other mammals are protected from the majority of fungal pathogens, according to research from Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University.

Gentle touch may aid multiple sclerosis patients
While gripping, lifting or manipulating an object such as drinking from a cup or placing a book on a shelf is usually easy for most, it can be challenging for those with neurological diseases such as multiple sclerosis or Parkinson's, or for people who had a stroke. For them, the tight gripping can cause fatigue, making everyday tasks difficult.

Skills tests like 'connect the dots' may be early Alzheimer's indicator
A study of mental decline in the years prior to diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease suggests that changing the focus of testing may allow physicians to detect signs of the disease three years earlier.

Momentum influences baby name choices, cognitive scientists find
Like momentum traders in the stock market, parents today appear to favor names that recently have risen in popularity relative to names that are on the decline, say cognitive science researchers from Indiana University and New York University.

Like humans, monkeys fall into the 'uncanny valley'
Princeton University researchers have come up with a new twist on the mysterious visual phenomenon experienced by humans known as the "uncanny valley." The scientists have found that monkeys sense it too.

First-time Internet users find boost in brain function after just 1 week
You can teach an old dog new tricks, say UCLA scientists who found that middle-aged and older adults with little Internet experience were able to trigger key centers in the brain that control decision-making and complex reasoning after just one week of surfing the Web.

Looking for the origins of music in the brain
Music serves as a natural and non-invasive intervention for patients with severe neurological disorders to promote long-term memory, social interaction and communication. However, there is currently no plausible explanation of its neural basis for why and how music affects physical and psychosocial responses.

Anti-cancer agent could be used to prevent premature birth
Trichostatin A, an agent initially investigated in the laboratory as a possible cancer therapy, has been shown to inhibit contractions in muscle from the uterus and could have a role in preventing premature labour.

Mobile microscopes illuminate the brain
By building a tiny microscope small enough to be carried around on a rats` head, scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tübingen, Germany, have found a way to study the complex activity of many brain cells simultaneously while animals are free to move around. With this new technology scientists can actually see how the brain cells operate while the animal is behaving naturally, giving rise to immense new insights into the understanding of perception and attention.