Researchers have discovered that activated brain regions of congenitally blind individuals and activated brain regions of sighted individuals share common regions when recognizing human hand gestures. They indicated that a region of the neural network that recognizes others' hand gestures is formed in the same way even without visual information. Does a distinctive mechanism work in the brain of congenitallyRead more

 Risky decisions in life are influenced by a chemical in the brain, a new research from the University of British Columbia suggested. The rise and fall of dopamine plays a key role in decisions involving risk and reward, from a baseball player trying to steal a base to an investor buying or selling a stock. Previous studies have shown thatRead more

A new study in the Journal of Neuroscience finds that kids who take music lessons for at least two years may be better at language comprehension. The study took place at a nonprofit called the Harmony Project in Los Angeles, Calif. that runs an after-school music program for low-income communities. Neurobiologist Nina Kraus, who runs the Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory atRead more

Kids with ADHD may benefit from a morning exercise routine prior to school. According to a new study, daily before-school aerobic activities helped calm attention deficit problems in at-risk schoolchildren both in the classroom and at home. "Early studies suggest that physical activity can have a positive effect on children who suffer from ADHD," said researcher Alan Smith, chairperson ofRead more

A new study links benzodiazepines, a popular class of drugs used to treat anxiety and insomnia, with a increased risk of developing Alzheimer's. The study -- published today in the online journal The BJM -- found the correlation especially strong among long-term users. During the large and long-term case-control study, a team of French and Canadian researchers -- from theRead more

On Tuesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a new study showing 9 out 10 children eats too much salt. In fact, the report shows kids 6-18 eat an average of 3,300 milligrams of salt per day, before salt is added at the table. The report shows that is way higher than the daily recommended intake of salt,Read more

 A new study has vindicated fat and sugar -- two of a nutrition's most reviled boogeymen and long blamed for being not just unhealthy but also addictive. Not so, scientists say. Instead, the evidence suggests that while eating itself my be psychologically addictive, fat and sugar don't act like drugs. The conclusion was drawn by a team of international scientistsRead more

 When people practice simple word classification tasks before nodding off -- knowing that a "cat" is an animal or that "flipu" isn't found in the dictionary, for example -- their brains will unconsciously continue to make those classifications even in sleep. The findings, reported in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on September 11, show that some parts of theRead more

For the first time, a study has shown those with psychopathic tendencies and high intelligence can and do manipulate tests designed to reveal their true psychopathic selves. Perhaps more remarkably, the groundbreaking research was conceived and carried out by an undergraduate student at the University of Huddersfield, in England. Carolyn Bate, who has since graduated with First Class Honors andRead more

Cyclic bursts of a STAT3 inhibitor can replenish muscle stem cells and promote their differentiation into muscle fibers, scientists report. The findings are an important step toward developing and maintaining new muscle to treat muscle diseases. Researchers at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute (Sanford-Burnham) have developed a novel technique to promote tissue repair in damaged muscles. The technique also creates aRead more