My mornings used to be like a space shuttle launch: 3-2-1… woosh! I’d jump out of bed, check email before heading into the shower, respond to email while drying my hair and eat breakfast on the way to my first appointment. I had so much to do that I couldn’t imagine wasting even one second. […]

Childhood neglect leads to harmful changes in the brain, a new study says. In new research published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics, researchers looked at brain differences between Romanian children who were either abandoned or institutionalized, sent to institutions and then to foster families, or were raised in biological families. (January 27, 2015) Read the […]

Atherosclerosis—hardening and narrowing of the arteries—can be caused by fat build up that causes plaque deposits, and is one of the main causes of cardiovascular disease. Jessica Yue, a newly recruited researcher in the Department of Physiology in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry, has shown a link between how the brain can regulate fat […]

A new study suggests that the female hormones estrogen and estradiol may protect the brain against the toxic effects of lead. It found that young boys with higher levels of lead in their blood performed worse on cognition tests than those with lower levels, while this was not the case for girls, who appeared hardly […]

People who carry a mutated gene linked to longer lifespan have extra tissue in part of the brain that seems to protect them against mental decline in old age. The finding has shed light on a biological pathway that researchers now hope to turn into a therapy that slows the progression of Alzheimer’s disease and […]

Thinking of a new career? Buying a home? Have you consulted your amygdala? These almond-shaped clusters of neurons deep in the brain may play a vital part in long-term planning, said a study published Monday. Experiments conducted on lab monkey amygdala may also help the search for new treatments for depression, drug addiction, binge eating […]

A study by scientists from the Gladstone Institutes shows that decreasing the number of A2A adenosine receptors in a particular type of brain cells called astrocytes improved memory in healthy mice. What’s more, reducing receptor levels also prevented memory impairments in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease. Published today in Nature Neuroscience, the findings suggest […]

Young women who regularly exercise may have more oxygen circulating in their brains — and possibly sharper minds, a small study suggests. The findings, from a study of 52 healthy young women, don’t prove that exercise makes you smarter, researchers said. On the other hand, it’s “reasonable” to conclude that exercise likely boosts mental prowess even when […]

A social and emotional learning program started by Academy Award winning actress Goldie Hawn to help school children improve their learning abilities, be more caring, and less stressed is now backed by new scientific evidence. In a study from the University of British Columbia, researchers from across multiple disciplines – a neuroscientist, developmental pediatrician, developmental […]

We live in a time of transformation in the way scientific breakthroughsare created. Or more correctly, we all feel like it is time we will be living in times in which there is a transformation in the way scientific breakthroughs are created. People are more informed then ever and the free flow of information seems […]