Doc Blog

For the brain to achieve its intricate functions such as perception, action, attention and decision making, neural regions have to work together yet still retain their specialized roles. Excess or lack of timely coordination between brain areas lies at the core of a number of psychiatric and neurological disorders such as epilepsy, schizophrenia, autism, Parkinson’s [...]

The increasing trend for employers, particularly in the U.S., to bar smokers from applying for jobs or staying in post should be stopped, until the appropriateness of such policies has been properly evaluated, argue experts in an essay published in Tobacco Control. As of August 2008, 21 US states, 400 U.S. cities, nine Canadian provinces, [...]

Abnormal heart rhythms - arrhythmias - are killers. They strike without warning, causing sudden cardiac death, which accounts for about 10 percent of all deaths in the United States. Vanderbilt investigators have discovered a new molecular mechanism associated with arrhythmias. Their findings, reported in The Journal of Clinical Investigation, could lead to novel arrhythmia treatments. [...]

A new study conducted at the Centre for Studies and Research in Cognitive Neuroscience of the University of Bologna, and published by Elsevier in the February 2009 issue of Cortex shows that, in confabulating patients, memory accuracy improves when attentional resources are reduced. Most cognitive processes supporting adaptive behavior need attentional resources for their operation. [...]

The association between tobacco smoke and cancer deaths - beyond lung cancer deaths - has been strengthened by a recent study from a UC Davis researcher, suggesting that increased tobacco control efforts could save more lives than previously estimated. The epidemiological analysis, published online in BMC Cancer, linked smoking to more than 70 percent of the cancer [...]

While the treatment of heart failure has improved over the past two decades, a new study reported in the European Journal of Heart Failure finds that “the use of evidence-based treatments appears to be imbalanced according to the gender of the patient”. In particular, the study found that female patients were less frequently treated [...]

Slices of living human brain tissue are helping scientists learn which drugs can block the waves of death that engulf and engorge brain cells following a stroke. It’s called anoxic depolarization and it primarily results from the brain getting insufficient blood and oxygen after a stroke, says Dr. Sergei Kirov, neuroscientist in the Medical College [...]

A topical microbicide that silences two genes can safely protect against genital herpes infection for as long as one week, according to a joint study by researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University and Harvard Medical School. The study, carried out in mice and published today in Cell Host & Microbe [...]

People who feel socially rejected are more likely to see others’ actions as hostile and are more likely to behave in hurtful ways toward people they have never even met, according to a new study. The findings may help explain why social exclusion is often linked to aggression - which sometimes boils over dramatically, as [...]

It’s well known that within the adult population body weight and self esteem are very much inter related. But until now, the same wasn’t known about children’s healthy body weight and its relationship with a positive self-image. Paul Veugelers has changed that. The University of Alberta researcher recently surveyed nearly 5,000 Grade 5 students in [...]