News

How do you encourage pupils to think about their own development? By getting the teachers to talk with them about their portfolio. An increasing number of schools are expecting a lot from a digital development portfolio. In this portfolio, pupils collect their own work with the associated reflections over a longer period of time. Research from the Netherlands has demonstrated that teachers can support pupils in their self-reflection process.

When given a choice, older people prefer to read negative news, rather than positive news, about young adults, a new study suggests. In fact, older readers who chose to read negative stories about young individuals actually get a small boost in their self-esteem, according to the results.

Researchers have tracked a cell-to-cell pathway that designates the future location of the ear's sensory organs in embryonic mice. The scientists succeeded in activating this signal more widely across the embronic tissue that forms the inner ear. Patches of sensory structures began growing in spots where they don't normally appear. The results suggest an avenue for further investigation in restoring hearing loss and correcting balance problems from nerve damage in the inner ear.

People at intermediate risk of cardiovascular disease who have high levels of high sensitivity C-reactive protein, a blood marker for inflammation, could benefit from cholesterol-lowering therapy even if their cholesterol is already at desirable levels. Data indicates that people with only a 5 percent to 20 percent risk of having heart disease in the next 10 years, but who have high levels of hsCRP could reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke by more than 40 percent.

On July 30, 2010, the Office for Research on Disparities and Global Mental Health (ORDGMH) in the Office of the Director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) invited students, post-doctoral trainees, and early stage investigators, as well as researchers, educators, practitioners, and federal government staff to discuss research careers in global mental health. This gathering of trainees and researchers occurred in response to the rapidly growing interest in global mental health as a career option.

The notion that cutting or burning oneself could provide relief from emotional distress is difficult to understand for most people, but it is an experience reported commonly among people who compulsively hurt themselves.

Canadian teenagers enjoy more freedom than French and Italian peers, according to a new study. The investigation examined how parents fashion emotional bonds and exert behavioral control with adolescents.

It's not just you -- everybody zones out when they're reading. Scientists recorded eye movements during reading and found that the eyes keep moving when the mind wanders -- but they don't move in the same way as they do when you're paying attention.

The medicinal use of cannabis has been debated by clinicians, researchers, legislators and the public at large for many years as an alternative to standard pharmaceutical treatments for pain, which may not always be effective and may have unwanted side effects. A new study provides evidence that cannabis may offer relief to patients suffering from chronic neuropathic pain.

Dr. Insel discusses the evolution of clinical research and changing priorities in clinical research funding.

Researchers have found the first ever genetic risk factor associated with common types of migraine. The team found that patients with the DNA variant have a significantly greater risk for developing migraine and suggest that an accumulation of a chemical known as glutamate in nerve cell junctions in the brain may play a key role in the initiation of migraine attacks. The research opens the door for new studies into migraine in humans.

Young adults who abuse amphetamines may be at greater risk of suffering a tear in the main artery leading from the heart.

For more than fifty years, the neuroscience community has been engaged in an intensive debate on how information is coded in the brain and transmitted reliably from one brain region to the next. Mutually exclusive coding systems have been proposed and are being energetically supported. Scientists in Germany have now demonstrated that earlier studies were based on rather extreme propositions.

Researchers have developed a system that can safely induce the sensory and mobility disturbances astronauts often experience when returning to Earth, making it an excellent operational training tool. The Galvanic vestibular stimulation system delivers small amounts of current to a person's vestibular nerve, mimicking sensorimotor disturbances that can affect an astronaut's ability to walk and stand and impact their ability to land a spacecraft.

Biologists and neuroscientists have identified a new genetic risk factor for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly known as ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease.

The Arizona Cognitive Test Battery can quickly assess the cognitive abilities of persons with Down syndrome. It gives clinicians and other researchers a tool to help determine the life trajectory of those with the genetic disorder as well as aid in the development of treatments.

Anger, depression and helplessness are the main psychological responses being seen in response to the catastrophic Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and they are likely to have long-lasting effects, according to experts.

A new study finds visits to emergency departments for concussions that occurred during organized team sports have increased dramatically over a 10-year period, and appear to be highest in ice hockey and football. The number of sports-related concussions is highest in high school-aged athletes, but the number in younger athletes is significant and rising.

Specifically asking young women during visits to family planning clinics whether their partners had attempted to force them to become pregnant -- a type of intimate-partner violence called reproductive coercion -- dramatically reduced the likelihood that the women would continue to experience such pressures, according to a new pilot study.

Researchers have developed a new "toolbox of MiniPromoters" for research and future therapies on brain, spinal cord and eye function.