ScienceDaily: Mind & Brain News

Emotion-recognition among people with disorders such as Parkinson's disease or schizophrenia may be affected by changes in the levels dopamine in the brain, say researchers.

Modern anesthesia is one of the most important medical achievements. Whereas before, patients had to suffer hellish agonies during every operation, today anesthesia enables completely painless procedures. One feels nothing and can remember nothing afterwards. It is already known from electroencephalography (EEG) studies on patients that during anesthesia the brain is put into a deep sleep-like state in which periods of rhythmic electrical activity alternate with periods of complete inactivity. This state is called burst-suppression. Until now, it was unclear where exactly this state happens in the brain and which brain areas are involved.

Watching too much TV is associated with increased risk of coronary heart disease regardless of an individual's genetic makeup, say scientists. The researchers show that -- assuming a causal link -- 11% of cases of coronary heart disease could be prevented if people watched less than an hour of TV each day.

The desire for a son could mean Nepali mothers stop breastfeeding infant daughters sooner, says new research. Girls in Nepal are breastfed for fewer months than boys on average, with girls with older sisters but no brothers being the most disadvantaged, says the study. And this shorter breastfeeding time is linked to a greater risk of death for Nepali infants in the study.

A computer-guided approach to design can propose more solutions and balance out human inexperience and design fixation.

Researchers found that people might not be 'addicted' to social media. Instead they get stuck in a state of dissociation, like what happens when you are reading a good book.

Scientists have shown that small aggregates function as temporary RNA repositories, which are regulated by neural activity.

Sometimes, even the alteration of a single nucleotide in a gene can cause serious disease. In a young boy with epilepsy, this kind of mutation has not just affected the functioning of the protein in question -- it could also curb the functioning of several closely related proteins.

The drug gabapentin, currently prescribed to control seizures and reduce nerve pain, may enhance recovery of movement after a stroke by helping neurons on the undamaged side of the brain take up the signaling work of lost cells, new research in mice suggests.

A research project provides a new understanding of what can be defined as normal and excessive crying among infants.