brains

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For These 5, Alzheimer's Was Medically Acquired
Medical Miscue May Have
Given Patients Alzheimer's
NEW STUDY

Medical Miscue May Have Given Patients Alzheimer's

Study suggests disease was triggered by human growth hormone shots derived from cadavers

(Newser) - Doctors once sought to make very short children taller by injecting them with growth hormone taken from the brains of dead people. The procedure was banned 40 years ago—and cadaver-derived pituitary growth hormone (c-hGH) replaced with a synthetic version—when scientists discovered patients had also received bits of protein...

Rats Have Imaginations, Too


Rats Have
Imaginations,
Just Like
We Do
new study

Rats Have Imaginations, Just Like We Do

Study has wide-ranging implications, and not just for rodents

(Newser) - Humans aren't the only creatures in the animal kingdom with imaginations, a new study suggests. It seems that rats are in the club, too, reports Scientific American . In a series of remarkable experiments, researchers at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Virginia concluded that rats are capable of visualizing...

In Largest Brain Study of Young Athletes, a 'Remarkable' Find
In Largest Brain Study of Young
Athletes, a 'Remarkable' Find
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

In Largest Brain Study of Young Athletes, a 'Remarkable' Find

Researchers find 41% of late players under 30 showed signs of CTE

(Newser) - Diagnoses of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) have been found in pro football players , pro soccer players , and pro hockey players . Now, a new study out of Boston University's CTE Center focuses on a new demographic affected by CTE: mainly amateurs playing on the youth, high school, and college circuits....

Her Fetus Needed Care ASAP. She Agreed to In Utero Surgery

Little Denver is doing great after rare vein of Galen malformation was picked up on 30-week ultrasound

(Newser) - When Louisiana's Kenyatta Coleman went for a 30-week ultrasound while pregnant with daughter Denver, she was hoping for a routine checkup, as the previous ones had been. What doctors noticed at that visit, however, led to what looks to be the United States' first brain surgery on a baby...

At Musk's 'Show and Tell,' New Demo of Brain Implant Device

Billionaire says human trials of device from his Neuralink company are imminent

(Newser) - Elon Musk held a "show and tell" event Wednesday night, but it had nothing to do with his most recent Twitter troubles . Instead, the billionaire showed off a brain implant device developed by one of this other companies, Neuralink—a device he says will link the human brain to...

Dying Man's Brain Suggests Life Could Flash Before Our Eyes

87-year-old patient was hooked up to EEG machine at time of death

(Newser) - The last moments of a dying 87-year-old have raised something that researchers write in the journal Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience is "intriguing to speculate" about: that it's possible our life really could flash before our eyes as we die. They came to that conclusion somewhat accidentally. The patient...

Giving Cash to Poor Moms May Help Babies' Brains
Cash Aid to Moms May
Result in Smarter Babies
new study

Cash Aid to Moms May Result in Smarter Babies

Study shows gains in development for infants

(Newser) - It's a study loaded with political implications—researchers say giving cash aid to low-income mothers appears to help the brain development of their babies. The New York Times reports the difference spotted after one year is modest, the equivalent of "moving to the 75th position in a line...

Mystery Ailment Strips Bears of Their Fear of Humans

It's also causing fatal brain inflammation in bears out West

(Newser) - Wildlife officials in California are worried about a strange ailment that appears to strip young bears of their fear of humans—and also is causing fatal brain inflammation. Cases have been turning up in the state since at least 2014, including four in the last year, reports CBS Sacramento . As...

Vesuvius May Have Turned Victim's Brain to Glass
Study of Vesuvius Victim's
Skull Reveals a Surprise
in case you missed it

Study of Vesuvius Victim's Skull Reveals a Surprise

Researchers say his brain turned to glass

(Newser) - The eruption of Mount Vesuvius may have most famously destroyed Pompeii, but the nearby town of Herculaneum endured a similar fate. Now a new study suggests that at least one of the town's residents suffered a remarkable, if grisly, fate: His brain essentially turned to glass, reports Live Science...

You're Going to Die. Good Luck Telling Your Brain
Your Brain Is Awesome
at Avoiding One Big Thing
in case you missed it

Your Brain Is Awesome at Avoiding One Big Thing

Recognition that you're going to die

(Newser) - Researchers say they've discovered a nifty little trick of the brain—it tries really hard to present the illusion that death is something that happens to that other guy, not you. It seems to be a defense mechanism of sorts, say researchers at Israel's Bar Ilan University, per...

Breakthrough Study Blurs Line Between Life and Death
Scientists Make History
With Work on Dead Brains
new study

Scientists Make History With Work on Dead Brains

Yale scientists breathed some life into them

(Newser) - Scientists say they've managed to revive cellular activity in a group of dead brains—a development that could lead to new health treatments and even blur our notions of life and death, the New York Times reports. The Yale University team obtained freshly decapitated pig heads from a slaughterhouse,...

Women's Brains May Have Unique Edge Over Men's
In One Unique Way, Women's
Brains Have Edge Over Men's
in case you missed it

In One Unique Way, Women's Brains Have Edge Over Men's

Study suggests they're a few years 'younger' than male brains, in terms of metabolism

(Newser) - Women's brains seem to age better than men's, at least by one key measure. That's one of the main takeaways of a new study out of the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The researchers found that if you compared a male and female brain...

Women's Brains More Active Than Men's in 2 Key Areas

Those managing self-control and focus, as well as mood disorders

(Newser) - In the latest "men are from Mars, women are from Venus" debate, neuroscience jumps into the fray. In what UPI deems the "largest functional brain imaging survey ever," researchers from California's Amen Clinics used a type of 3D imaging to determine that women's brains are...

Musk: I Want to Link Brains to Computers in 4 Years

SpaceX CEO's new Neuralink firm would initially do this to help brain-injured humans

(Newser) - Elon Musk might be somewhat skittish at the prospect of artificial intelligence (or at least at its more nefarious potential), but that hasn't curbed his latest goal: merging human brains with computers by the time we reach the next presidential inauguration, Reuters reports. In what TechCrunch calls "the...

Elon Musk's New Project Will Merge Brains, Computers

He wants to make 'neural lace' a reality

(Newser) - Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk's new venture isn't rocket science—it's brain surgery. The futurist entrepreneur's new company, Neuralink Corp., plans to merge human brains with computers, insiders tell the Wall Street Journal . The computer interface would become part of the brain with the help...

Female Fish Fight Bigger Penises With Bigger Brains
Female Fish Fight
Bigger Penises
With Bigger Brains
NEW STUDY

Female Fish Fight Bigger Penises With Bigger Brains

At least when it comes to mosquitofish, where males attack instead of court females

(Newser) - The tiny eastern mosquitofish, indigenous to the southern and eastern US, is unlike much of the rest of the animal kingdom when it comes to reproduction, starting with the differing objectives of the females and males of the species. Because they have to bear the burden of actually carrying the...

Bumble Bees Learn Trick, Surprise Researchers

Most figured out how to pull string for reward after seeing how it's done

(Newser) - Ever wondered how tiny a bumble bee's brain is? Imagine a sesame seed clinging to a burger bun, reports the Washington Post —in other words, it's about 0.0002% the volume of a human brain, as calculated by Science . But that doesn't mean you can't...

Surprise: Dodos Were Actually Pretty Smart
 Surprise: Dodos Were 
 Actually Pretty Smart 
NEW STUDY

Surprise: Dodos Were Actually Pretty Smart

They also had an unusually keen sense of smell

(Newser) - The poor dodo bird. It wasn't enough that the humans who happened upon the exotic creatures on the island of Mauritius in the late 1500s slaughtered them for food and brought about their extinction less than 100 years later, but we then started using their name to be synonymous...

Guy Who Sold Stolen Brains on eBay Sentenced

He took remains of mental patients from old hospital

(Newser) - A man who stole the preserved brains of mental patients from a former hospital for the insane and sold them on eBay has been sentenced by a judge who wants him to find a less macabre way to make a living. David Charles, 23, was ordered to obtain a high...

This Spider Can Eavesdrop on Its Sexual Rivals

Not only is courtship a learned behavior, but spiders pick it up quickly

(Newser) - It doesn't take much observational power to note that spiders have tiny brains. Really tiny. So the recent finding out of the University of Cincinnati —that they learn how to court mates by eavesdropping on the competition—is all the more impressive. "It’s a complex set...

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