Scientists have investigated how our eyes and brain react when we see emotionally charged or neutral faces. She combined eye-tracking and electroencephalography (EEG). The result: reflex-like eye movements are independent of the expression a face shows; our attention is drawn to them just as fast.
Read moreThe walking speed of 45-year-olds can be used as a marker of their aging brains and bodies. The evidence was there in neurocognitive testing these individuals took at age 3 to indicate who would become the slower walkers. At 45, slower walkers have 'accelerated aging' on a 19-measure scale devised by researchers, and their lungs, teeth and immune systems tended to be in worse shape than the people who walked faster.
Read moreThe neural circuit basis for motor learning tasks when myelination is impaired has been illuminated for the first time. Researchers also succeeded in compensating for the impaired motor learning process by pairing appropriate actions with brain photo-simulation to promote synchronization of neuronal activities. This could contribute to future treatments for neurological and psychiatric diseases in which white matter function is impaired.
Read moreThe largest study of its kind into childhood developmental disorders has discovered that jumping genes cause genetic changes in some patients with undiagnosed neurodevelopmental diseases. The research enabled genetic diagnoses for three children with previously undiagnosed rare developmental diseases, enrolled in the Deciphering Developmental Disorders project. Reported in Nature Communications, these diagnoses will help the families access support and understand the disease risks for any future children.
Read moreWhen people become stressed, their bodies can respond by sweating. Now, researchers are monitoring how much adolescents severely affected by autism sweat in order to better understand when behavioral issues, such as aggression, are likely to occur.
Read moreA new analysis of how people prioritize their attention when determining safety and danger in busy settings, such as crossing a road, suggests that a person will pay more attention to something if they learn it is associated with danger.
Read moreNew brain imaging research debunks a controversial theory about dyslexia that can impact how it is sometimes treated. The cerebellum, a brain structure traditionally considered to be involved in motor function, has been implicated in the reading disability, developmental dyslexia, however, this 'cerebellar deficit hypothesis' has always been controversial. The new research shows that the cerebellum is not engaged during reading in typical readers and does not differ in children who have dyslexia.
Read moreA study reveals for the first time that three-year-olds use gestural and prosodic precursors in the expression of uncertainty, which they will express after five years of age through lexical cues.
Read moreResearchers have found that a readiness test can predict kindergarteners' success in school after 18 months.
Read moreIncreased equality has a positive effect on mothers and fathers. Thanks to greater freedom to strike an individual balance between caring for children and working in paid employment, mothers and fathers today are happier with their lives than parents were 20 or 30 years ago, a study by sociologists has shown.
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