Jan 25, 2010

Made-to-Order Heart Cells

Madison, WI-based Cellular Dynamics International (CDI) began shipping heart cells derived from a person's own stem cells. The cells could be useful to researchers studying everything from the toxicity of new or existing drugs to the electrodynamics of both healthy and diseased cardiac cells.


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Jan 17, 2010

How to Train the Aging Brain

Many longheld views, including the one that 40 percent of brain cells are lost, have been overturned.

Memories may not have vanished but have simply been hidden; similarity in sounds can jump-start a brain connection.

Continued brain development and a richer form of learning may require that you "bump up against people and ideas" that are different.

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Neuroengineers silence brain cells with multiple colors of light

Neuroscientists have developed a way to turn off abnormally active brain cells using multiple colors of light.

This research could prove useful for managing disorders including chronic pain, epilepsy, brain injury and Parkinson's disease.

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Jan 16, 2010

Stem Cells Restore Cognitive Abilities Impaired By Brain Tumor Treatment

Human embryonic stem cells could help people with learning and memory deficits after radiation treatment for brain tumors, suggests a new UC Irvine study.

Research with rats found that transplanted stem cells restored learning and memory to normal levels four months after radiotherapy. In contrast, irradiated rats that didn't receive stem cells experienced a more than 50 percent drop in cognitive function.

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Seats of emotional intelligence found in the brain

Head injuries sustained by Vietnam veterans have revealed parts of the brain vital for two types of emotional intelligence.

The dorsolateral ventromedial prefrontal cortex of the brain is related to "experiential" emotional intelligence (the capacity to judge emotions in other people), while the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is related to "strategic" emotional intelligence (the ability to plan socially appropriate responses to situations).

Damage to these regions didn't affect cognitive intelligence, suggesting that emotional and general problem-solving tasks are handled independently in the brain.

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Disconnect Between Brain Regions in ADHD

Two brain areas fail to connect when children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder attempt a task that measures attention, according to researchers at the UC Davis Center for Mind and Brain and M.I.N.D. Institute.

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Giving Electronic Commands With Body Language

In the coming months, companies will begin selling gesture-powered devices that will allow people to flip channels on the TV or move documents on a computer monitor with simple hand gestures.


Stand in front of a TV armed with a gesture technology camera, and you can turn on the set with a soft punch into the air. Flipping through channels requires a twist of the hand, and raising the volume occurs with an upward pat. If there is a photo on the screen, you can enlarge it by holding your hands in the air and spreading them apart and shrink it by bringing your hands back together.

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Jan 10, 2010

Cell phone exposure may protect against and reverse Alzheimer's disease

A surprising new study in mice provides the first evidence that long-term exposure to electromagnetic waves associated with cell phone use may actually protect against, and even reverse, Alzheimer's disease. The study, led by University of South Florida researchers at the Florida Alzheimer's Disease Research Center (ADRC), was published today in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease.

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Where Did the Time Go?

New research suggests why time seems to speed up or slow down.

In experiments, psychologists found that subjects underestimated how much time had passed by three months, but the more intervening related developments came to mind, the longer away the original event seemed.

They also found that when people were tricked into believing that more time had passed than was really the case, they assumed they must have been having more fun. The perception heightened their enjoyment of music and eased their annoyance at doing menial tasks.

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