Plenty of researchers have investigated why people cheat on their partners. A new study asked how they stay together. One reason, say the researchers, may be related to an unconscious “turn-off” mechanism: People in committed relationships adjust their view of attractive individuals who could threaten their relationship by perceiving them to be less attractive than…
Brain Signatures Of Spontaneous Thoughts
Without prompting, they fill our stream of consciousness. Sudden amusement at a joke you heard yesterday, or a flash of panic over an important meeting that slipped your mind. Spontaneous thoughts constitute the majority of our mental landscape, yet little is known about how they arise. Because these events are harder to predict, manipulate or…
Parkinson’s Symptoms And Stomach Infections Link Found
A common bacteria that infects the human stomach has significant links with worsened symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, researchers have found. Researchers at the University of Malaya analysed a small group of Parkinson’s disease patients with and without a common infection of the stomach lining caused by the bacterium Helicobacter pylori. Their results showed that those…
How Does Your Brain Combine The Five Senses?
Using information from all the senses is vital to construct a robust, rich representation of our surroundings. But with the wealth of multisensory information constantly bombarding us, how does our brain know which signals go together and thus need to be combined? And how does it integrate such related signals? A computational model that explains…
Tinnitus In Teens A Growing Problem, Warns Researcher
New research into tinnitus, the ringing-ear condition, indicates an alarming level of early, permanent hearing damage in young people who are exposed to loud music. The finding has prompted a warning from a leading Canadian researcher in the field. Larry Roberts of McMaster’s Department of Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour, author of a paper published in…
NMNAT2 Enzyme May Protect Against Neurodegeneration
An enzyme known as NMNAT2 may help protect against the debilitating effects of certain degenerative brain diseases, including Alzheimer’s, research led by biomedical researchers at Indiana University has found. Many neurodegenerative disorders are caused by accumulation of proteins in the brain. These conditions, called proteinopathies, occur when proteins “misfold,” causing them to grow “sticky” and…
Hormone Impairs Cognition Following Social Stress
How does stress affect our ability to think? Scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich have investigating this issue, and now, for the first time, they have identified a brain mechanism that explains why the cognitive performance of mice is reduced after being exposed to social stress. The finding will help to…
Zika Virus Directly Infects Brain Cells, Evades Immune Detection
Zika, the mosquito-borne virus linked to microcephaly and other neurological problems in newborns of affected mothers, directly infects the brain progenitor cells destined to become neurons, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers report in a new study. The research team used a strain of Zika virus currently impacting the Americas, and found that the virus infects…
Chronic Pain And Depression: Which Comes First?
It’s easy to imagine that people with persistent pain have cause to become depressed. After all, it’s a problem that affects every part of life, not just the bit that got injured. But like so much to do with persistent pain, it becomes harder to unravel exactly what the relationship is when one digs a…