Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is a case where the death of an apparently healthy infant before their first birthday remains unexplained even after thorough investigation. Death generally seems to occur when infants are sleeping. While rare, it is the leading post-neonatal infant death in the United States today, occurring in...
It's well-known that people with type 2 diabetes are at an increased risk of developing Alzheimer's disease, but the reason why isn't fully understood and is an area of current research. Now, scientists at Wake Forest University School of Medicine have uncovered a novel mechanism that shows increased sugar intakeand elevations in blood...
Transthyretin-related cardiac amyloidosis is a progressive disease characterized by the deposition of amyloid protein fibrils in the heart. Amyloid fibril deposition thickens and stiffens the heart walls, and the disease is also known as stiff-heart syndrome. The accumulation of amyloid fibrils causes heart failure, and patients suffer from fluid retention,...
Researchers from University of California San Diego have found a way to distinguish among hand gestures that people are making by examining only data from noninvasive brain imaging, without information from the hands themselves. The results are an early step in developing a non-invasive brain-computer interface that may one day...
Drugs approved in the US require "substantial evidence" that they are effective. But an investigation by The BMJ into the recent approval of the antibiotic Recarbrio from Merck suggests that these standards are being bypassed. Peter Doshi, senior editor at The BMJ, describes how US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) scientists had serious doubts...
Sounds that we hear around us are defined physically by their frequency and amplitude. But for us, sounds have a meaning beyond those parameters: we may perceive them as pleasant or unpleasant, ominous or reassuring, and interesting and rich in information, or just noise. One aspect that affects the emotional 'valence'...
Researchers at UCLA Health and Harvard have identified 10 pesticides that significantly damaged neurons implicated in the development of Parkinson's disease, providing new clues about environmental toxins' role in the disease. While environmental factors such as pesticide exposure have long been linked to Parkinson's, it has been harder to pinpoint which pesticides may raise risk...
Combat-related injuries to bone are common in military personnel and can lead to pain and disability. Results from a new study in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research suggest that amputations for such injuries may negatively affect bone mass. In the study of 575 male adult UK military personnel with combat-related traumatic injuries and...
Shifted microbial composition across the prodromal and early stages of α-synucleinopathy. a Principal coordinates analysis (PCoA) of microbial communities across control (n = 108), RBD-FDR (n = 127), RBD (n = 170), and early PD (n = 36) based on Bray–Curtis distance matrix at the genus level. The label of each group indicates group centroid. Boxplots along the...
Researchers have long explored how music affects the mind. For example, can listening to music boost academic performance, alleviate depression or help kids become better learners? Several studies have shown that music can influence our ability to think, learn and remember – and even connect with the people around us. One fascinating area...
