Judge Baker Children’s Center welcomes a groundbreaking research project that...
Harvard-affiliated Judge Baker Children’s Center is launching a research project to study autism. Jerome Kagan and Nancy Snidman, director and research director, respectively, of Harvard’s Infant and...
View ArticleBad times make for more accurate memories
Pleasurable experiences are more fun to relive than negative ones, but a new study by psychologists at Harvard University reveals that memories of good times can be less accurate than those of bad...
View ArticleScientists identify switch for brain’s natural anti-oxidant defense
Scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute report they have found how the brain turns on a system designed to protect its nerve cells from toxic “free radicals,” a waste product of cell metabolism that...
View ArticleMigraine auras and heart disease linked – risks high for women
Marsha T. saw the lights of pain coming. They flashed and zigzagged before her eyes. Her visual field shrank into a tunnel. A registered nurse, she knew what was next. In about 30 minutes, a familiar...
View ArticleTrial Turns Over New Leaf for Traditional Herb
If a painting’s worth were measured by the money it fetched, van Gogh’s famous rendering of his friend and physician Dr. Gachet would be among the most valuable in all of art. “Portrait of Dr....
View ArticleResearchers create colorful “Brainbow” images of the nervous system
By activating multiple fluorescent proteins in neurons, neuroscientists at Harvard University are imaging the brain and nervous system as never before, rendering their cells in a riotous spray of...
View ArticleEven in healthy elderly, brain systems become less coordinated
Some brain systems become less coordinated with age even in the absence of Alzheimer’s disease, according to a new study from Harvard University. The results help to explain why advanced age is often...
View ArticlePredicting risk of stroke from one’s genetic blueprint
A new statistical model could be used to predict an individual’s lifetime risk of stroke, according to the results of a study by Harvard researchers at the Children’s Hospital Boston Informatics...
View ArticleNew ALS gene identified
A collaborative research effort spanning nearly a decade between Harvard researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and King’s College London (KCL) has identified a novel gene for inherited...
View ArticleAlzheimer’s-associated plaques may have impact throughout the brain
The impact of the amyloid plaques that appear in the brains of patients with Alzheimer’s disease may extend beyond the deposits’ effects on neurons — the cells that transmit electrochemical signals...
View ArticleHigher temperatures lead to more severe headaches
Although large numbers of headache sufferers, particularly individuals who struggle with migraines, attribute their pain to the weather, there has been little scientific evidence to back up their...
View ArticleHearing could hold key to unlocking schizophrenia mystery
Measuring brain waves in response to hearing a variety of tones appears to be a useful way to begin understanding the underlying genetic abnormalities associated with schizophrenia, says a study headed...
View ArticleAngiogenesis inhibitor improves brain tumor survival by reducing swelling
The beneficial effects of anti-angiogenesis drugs in the treatment of the deadly brain tumors called glioblastomas appear to result primarily from reduction of edema – the swelling of brain tissue –...
View ArticleA mother’s criticism touches nerve in formerly depressed
Formerly depressed women show patterns of brain activity when they are criticized by their mothers that are distinctly different from the patterns shown by never-depressed controls, according to a new...
View ArticleModification of mutant Huntington’s protein increases its clearance from...
A new study has identified a potential strategy for removing the abnormal protein that causes Huntington’s disease (HD) from brain cells, which could slow the progression of the devastating...
View ArticleLighting up Parkinson’s disease research
Most people do not think of jellyfish at the mention of Parkinson’s disease research. But, at the MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease (MIND), researchers Pamela McLean and Bradley Hyman...
View Article‘Super-recognizers’ never forget a face
Some people say they never forget a face, a claim now bolstered by psychologists at Harvard University who’ve discovered a group they call “super-recognizers”: those who can easily recognize someone...
View ArticleShining light on leptin’s role in brain
In investigating the complex neurocircuitry behind weight gain and glucose control, scientists have known that the hormone leptin plays a key role in the process. But within the myriad twists and turns...
View ArticleNeuroimaging suggests truthfulness requires no act of will for honest people
A new study of the cognitive processes involved with honesty suggests that truthfulness depends more on absence of temptation than active resistance to temptation. Using neuroimaging, psychologists...
View ArticleAn unusual collection: A brain tumor tissue bank
Five years ago, as she was walking into Caritas Holy Family Hospital and Medical Center in Methuen, Mass., Patricia Fay saw a priest she knew and cornered him. “I’m like ‘Oh, Father Peter! And I sort...
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