Physical abuse may raise risk of suicidal thoughts
The study, published online this month in the journal Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, found that approximately one-third of adults who were physically abused in childhood had seriously...
View ArticleText messages help patients with long term conditions stick to their meds
Text message prompts can help patients living with long term conditions stick to their treatment programmes - at least in the short term - indicates a review of the available evidence, published online...
View ArticleMaternal drinking during pregnancy can damage the earliest fetal learning
Habituation refers to the ability of an organism to stop responding to repeated stimulation. A new study has examined the impact of maternal drinking on fetal habituation or learning abilities while...
View ArticleBrain-mapping increases understanding of alcohol's effects on first-year...
(Medical Xpress)—A research team that includes several Penn State scientists has completed a first-of-its-kind longitudinal pilot study aimed at better understanding how the neural processes that...
View ArticleGroundbreaking model explains how the brain learns to ignore familiar stimuli
A neuroscientist from Trinity College Dublin has proposed a new, ground-breaking explanation for the fundamental process of 'habituation', which has never been completely understood by neuroscientists.
View ArticleGenomewide screen of learning in zebrafish identifies enzyme important in...
Researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania describe the first set of genes important in learning in a zebrafish model in the journal Neuron this week. "Using an...
View ArticleExploring the brain's relationship to habits
(Medical Xpress)—The basal ganglia, structures deep in the forebrain already known to control voluntary movements, also may play a critical role in how people form habits, both bad and good, and in...
View ArticleResearchers ID a brain mechanism that weighs decisions
We tend to be creatures of habit. In fact, the human brain has a learning system that is devoted to guiding us through routine, or habitual, behaviors. At the same time, the brain has a separate...
View ArticleHalf of pregnant women who have hypertension and snore unknowingly have a...
One in two hypertensive pregnant women who habitually snore may have unrecognized obstructive sleep apnea, a sleeping disorder that can reduce blood oxygen levels during the night and that has been...
View ArticleSecondhand cigarette smoke causes weight gain
New research is challenging the decades-old belief that smoking cigarettes helps keep you slim.
View ArticleMaking or breaking habits: The endocannabinoids can do it
In our daily lives we constantly have to shift between habitual and goal-directed actions. For example, having to drive to a new place instead of driving home. Difficulties with stopping habits and...
View ArticleA way out of the junk-food eating cycle
People are easily pulled into binge culture's quick-fix obsession with junk-food. But, according to a study published in Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, they might just as easily be able to pull...
View ArticleResearchers identify mechanism that regulates acoustic habituation
Most people will startle when they hear an unexpected loud sound. The second time they hear the noise, they'll startle significantly less; by the third time, they'll barely startle at all. This ability...
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