The intelligence and cognitive capabilities of dolphins and their aquatic cousins have long fascinated the public and the scientific community, but the question of how and why they have such large brains has mostly gone unanswered. In the first-ever comprehensive analysis of its kind, a new Emory University study maps how brain size changed in dolphins and their relatives the past 47 million years, and helps to provide some answers to how the species evolved in relation to humans.
While promoting physical activity and encouraging people to limit the time they spend watching television are important throughout life, those efforts are critical before adolescence, a new University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill investigation concludes.
That’s because the physical activity picture worsens rather than improves as teens make the transition into young adulthood, UNC researchers found in the largest national study of changes in exercise patterns over time.
Ever catch a glimpse of someone but can’t quite fit a name to go with the face? While it’s something that happens to everyone, for older people especially, difficulty in retrieving names is a common frustration.
Scientists at the University of Arizona in Tucson are trying to determine what goes on inside the brain when it sees a face. How, for instance, does the brain recognize faces and retrieve the names to go with them? Also, how does the brain determine whether the
Cats, like humans, can develop stress-related illness, University of Edinburgh experts have found. Significant life-changes like moving house or the arrival of a new member of the family can lead to bladder problems in some cats, say the animal specialists. But the biggest stressor of all for a cat is when it doesn’t get along with other cats in the house, studies have shown.
Cat health professionals at the University’s Hospital for Small Animals studied the lifestyles of
Nearly 60 percent of American adults may have hypertension, or may be on the verge of suffering the condition, as measured by recently revised high blood pressure classifications.
The finding, reported in the Oct. 25 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine, comes from nationally representative health data analyzed by two University of Illinois at Chicago researchers. Youfa Wang, an assistant professor of human nutrition and Qiong Joanna Wang, a biostatistician at UIC’s Schoo
UO study shows the distinction between perception and action streams is oversimplified
A trusted mental map of your surroundings turns out to be slightly misaligned, skewing your orientation. Your ability to control the direction in which you move is similarly compromised, although in a manner opposite the map’s offset. Taken together, the errors cancel one another, and you end up exactly where you want to be. Contrary to the proverb, two wrongs do make a right. This exception
Researchers and policy makers could be doing more to prevent children’s injuries on farms, says a new study from the University of Alberta.
Published this month in Pediatrics, the study says there is a lack of evidence to show which programs are effective in preventing injuries to children on farms. Each year, three to four children under 15 years of age die, and more than 75 are hospitalized, as a result of injuries occurring on Alberta farms and ranches. “Given the magnitud
Common prostate cancer therapy disrupts brain’s hippocampal memory system
Oregon Health & Science University researchers studying how testosterone deprivation affects verbal memory found that men undergoing the prostate cancer therapy forget things faster than their healthy counterparts. Scientists in the OHSU School of Medicine’s departments of Behavioral Neuroscience and Medicine, and the OHSU Cancer Institute, in a study presented Sunday to the Society for Neuroscie
Two studies presented at Society for Neuroscience Meeting (NOTE: Thise release has been updated since its original post.)
Scientists at the OHSU Oregon National Primate Research Center and the University of Pittsburgh report significant stress early in life can have varying lifelong impacts depending of the timing of the stress exposure. The research also demonstrates that the impact can become even more profound when coupled with stress in adulthood. In a related but separate study
Highest ratings to Duke, Harvard, Stanford
A newly-commissioned study of 34 graduate school decision programs in the United States rated those at Duke University, Harvard University, and Stanford University the leading prescriptive programs in the field, according to researchers at the annual meeting of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS®).
The leading descriptive graduate programs cited were Carnegie Mellon University, University o
Incidence of ovarian cancer varies in Europe due to changing risk factors and improved treatment
Europe has one of the highest incidence rates of ovarian cancer in the world, making it an important public health issue. A new large-scale study of ovarian cancer trends found that while it is declining in most northern European countries, it is increasing in a few southern and eastern European countries. The study is published October 25, 2004 in the online edition of the Internati
Researchers are conducting a groundbreaking new study that may help stroke patients regain greater use of their hands or arms through treatment with electrical stimulation. Preliminary results of the feasibility study that precedes this new study have shown that the use of electrical stimulation, called motor cortex stimulation, may be both safe and effective, according to Robert Levy, M.D., Ph.D., a neurosurgeon at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago. Dr. Levy presented this feasibility
Male scientist are good at research because they have the hormone levels of women and long index fingers, a new study says.
A survey of academics at the University of Bath has found that male scientists typically have a level of the hormone oestrogen as high as their testosterone level. These hormone levels are more usual in women than men, who normally have higher levels of testosterone.
The study draws on research which suggests that these unusual hormone levels in many
Receptors in the brain that are highly sensitive to alcohol may function differently in a person with a family history of alcoholism, according to a Yale study published this month.
The study included 45 healthy subjects, some with a family history of alcoholism and others with no family history. None of the study participants had a drinking problem. All of the participants were administered a placebo or ketamine, an anesthetic that induces alcohol-like effects. Their behaviora
Warm workers work better, an ergonomics study at Cornell University finds.
Chilly workers not only make more errors but cooler temperatures could increase a worker’s hourly labor cost by 10 percent, estimates Alan Hedge, professor of design and environmental analysis and director of Cornell’s Human Factors and Ergonomics Laboratory.
When the office temperature in a month-long study increased from 68 to 77 degrees Fahrenheit, typing errors fell by 44 percent and typing ou
Ductal lavage is not an effective method for detecting breast cancer, according to a new study in the October 20 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
Ductal lavage–a method used to collect cells from the milk ducts of the breast–has been proposed as a screening tool for cancer detection because ducts that yield fluid were thought to be more likely to contain cancer cells. Interest in the procedure was spurred by a study in which ductal lavage detected cancer i
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