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UCLA

·September 15, 2023·5 min read

Neighborhood Woes: How Living Conditions Impact Brain Structure and Diet

Living in disadvantaged neighborhoods not only influences food choices and weight gain but can also alter the brain's microstructure. Researchers found that poor food quality, high-calorie intake, and inactive environments common in such areas disrupt brain regions crucial for emotion, cognition, and reward processing.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology Visual Neuroscience

·September 6, 2023·4 min read

Jersey Numbers and Perception: How Numbers Impact Our View of Athlete Physique

A new study confirms that football wide receivers wearing jersey numbers between 10 and 19 are perceived as slimmer than those wearing 80-89, even with identical body sizes. This phenomenon suggests our brains use statistical associations between numbers and sizes to determine body size perception.

Featured Neuroscience

·July 31, 2023·6 min read

AI vs Human Reasoning: GPT-3 Matches College Undergraduates

In an eye-opening study, researcher revealed GPT-3, a popular artificial intelligence language model, performs comparably to college undergraduates in solving reasoning problems that typically appear on intelligence tests and SATs. However, the study's authors question if GPT-3 is merely mimicking human reasoning due to its training dataset, or if it's utilizing a novel cognitive process.

Autism Featured Neuroscience

·July 31, 2023·5 min read

Autism Study Unveils New Genetic Players and Role of Language Delay

Researchers shed new light on how genetics may influence the development of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The study, the largest ever to focus on families with multiple children diagnosed with autism, has revealed seven potential risk genes.

Featured Neurology Neuroscience

·June 17, 2023·3 min read

Pregnancy Hormone Estriol May Reverse Myelin Damage in Multiple Sclerosis

Treating a mouse model of multiple sclerosis (MS) with the pregnancy hormone estriol could reverse myelin breakdown in the brain's cortex, a primary area affected in MS. MS results in inflammation that damages the myelin coating around nerve fibers in the brain's cortex, leading to disability worsening.

Featured Neuroscience

·June 2, 2023·5 min read

Unlocking Memory Enhancement: Sleep-Based Deep-Brain Stimulation Shows Promise

Researchers provide evidence of how the brain consolidates memory during sleep. The study revealed that targeted deep-brain stimulation during a specific sleep phase can enhance memory consolidation.

This shows a man spraying pesticides in a field.

Featured Neurology Neuroscience

·May 18, 2023·5 min read

Identifying Pesticide Culprits in Parkinson’s Disease

Researchers pinpointed 10 pesticides that significantly damage neurons involved in the onset of Parkinson’s disease. The study utilized California's extensive pesticide use database and innovative testing methods to identify pesticides directly toxic to dopaminergic neurons, which are crucial for voluntary movement.

this is a diagram of lipid transportation.

Featured Neuroscience

·May 8, 2023·4 min read

How Omega-3 Fatty Acids Cross the Blood-Brain Barrier

Researchers have developed a zebrafish model that offers new insights into how the brain acquires essential omega-3 fatty acids, including DHA and ALA. Their findings could help in designing drug molecules capable of directly reaching the brain and shed light on disruptions that can lead to neurological conditions. The study provides detailed images of the structure of Mfsd2a, which transports omega-3 fatty acids into the brain. It shows how Mfsd2a transports these essential fatty acids and how other members of this transporter family regulate important cellular functions.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·April 24, 2023·5 min read

A Helping Hand: Small Acts of Kindness Occur Every Two Minutes

In a study of people from different countries and cultural backgrounds, researchers found people tend to ask for assistance with small tasks on average every two minutes. Across cultures, people tend to positively respond to the requests of others more often than they deny assistance. The findings suggest all cultures may have more similar cooperative behaviors than prior research has established.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·April 12, 2023·5 min read

The Brain’s Support Cells May Play a Key Role in OCD

A newly discovered cellular mechanism that involves astrocytes, as well as neurons, appears to be involved in repetitive behaviors and OCD.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·April 4, 2023·6 min read

Rodents Seem to Make the Same Logical Errors Humans Do

Like humans, rats fall prey to conjunction fallacies, or the incorrect assumption that if two events sometimes occur at the same time, they are more likely to occur together than either event is to occur alone.

Autism Featured Neuroscience

·April 3, 2023·4 min read

Higher Lithium Levels in Drinking Water May Raise Autism Risk

Women who drink tap water containing higher levels of lithium are at higher risk of their children being diagnosed with autism later in life. Researchers found as lithium concentrations increased in drinking water, so too did the risk of ASD diagnosis.