Other Sciences News

Deep Brain Stimulation May Help Treat Binge-Eating Disorder

Characterization of human accumbens electrophysiological signal provoked by exposure to preferred food stimuli: (a) schematic of the multi-stage, staggered enrollment, early feasibility study design; the current stage of each participant within the trial is highlighted (blue - subject 1; green - subject 2); (b) two quadripolar depth electrodes placed bilaterally in the nucleus accumbens; (c) the multi-item buffet of preferred foods allowing us to examine nucleus accumbens electrophysiology during LOC eating as well as the preceding in-lab standardized meals. Image credit: Shivacharan et al., doi: 10.1038/s41591-022-01941-w.
Aug 30, 2022 by News Staff

In a pilot study led by Pennsylvania Hospital and the Stanford University School of Medicine, deep brain stimulation — guided by patterns of neural activity associated with food cravings — improved self-control of food intake and weight loss in two people with binge-eating disorder and severe obesity. Characterization of human accumbens electrophysiological signal provoked by exposure to preferred food stimuli: (a) schematic of the multi-stage,...

read more...
Dhoundiyal et al. discovered that neurons have an emergency back-up system to enable them to remain functional even when their energy supply is disrupted. Image credit: Colin Behrens.

Neurons Have Emergency Back-Up System, Neuroscientists Say

Aug 29, 2022 by News Staff

The newly-discovered neuronal back-up system safeguards metabolic flexibility of neurons to cope with energy demands of electrical signaling, according...

Yuta Senzai & Massimo Scanziani discovered that the direction and amplitude of rapid eye movements during REM sleep reveal the direction and amplitude of the ongoing changes in virtual head direction. Image credit: Yuta Senzai & Massimo Scanziani, doi: 10.1126/science.abp8852.

Study: Rapid Eye Movements during REM Sleep Mimic Gazes in Dream World

Aug 26, 2022 by News Staff

Sleep includes phases characterized by rapid eye movement (REM) that were known to be associated with dreaming. But are these eye movements related to...

Representation of the modes of locomotion practiced by Sahelanthropus tchadensis. Image credit: Sabine Riffaut, Guillaume Daver, Franck Guy / PALEVOPRIM / CNRS / University of Poitiers.

Hominins Were Already Bipedal 7 Million Years Ago, Researchers Say

Aug 25, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleoanthropologists have examined three fossilized limb bones of Sahelanthropus tchadensis, one of the oldest known species in the human family tree. Representation...

Inadequate sleep represents a significant influential force determining whether humans choose to help one another, observable across micro- and macroscopic levels of civilized interaction. Image credit: Sasin Tipchai.

Inadequate Sleep Makes Us Less Generous, New Study Shows

Aug 25, 2022 by News Staff

New research by University of California, Berkeley scientists shows that a lack of sleep impairs our basic social conscience, making us withdraw our desire...

(A) the Milky Way Galaxy with superimposed spiral arms and geological events: the arm and the Solar System rotate clockwise at different rates; the ‘+’ number denotes the number of times Earth has passed through that arm; (B) model of the Oort cloud showing cometary nuclei; (C) schematic reconstruction of early Earth impact process; (D) early crustal nuclei development. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / ESO / R. Hurt / Kirkland et al., doi: 10.1130/G50513.1.

Transits through Milky Way’s Spiral Arms Helped Form Early Earth’s Continental Crust, Study Says

Aug 24, 2022 by News Staff

New research led by Curtin University geologists suggests that regions of space with dense interstellar clouds may send more high-energy comets crashing...

Denisovans were probably dark-skinned, unlike the pale Neandertals. The picture shows a Neanderthal man. Image credit: Mauro Cutrona.

Study: Much of Neanderthal-Modern Human Interbreeding Took Place in Near East

Aug 24, 2022 by News Staff

Studies of human fossils, and the DNA extracted from them, reveal a complex history of interbreeding between various human lineages over the past 100,000...

Consumption of non-nutritive sweeteners may induce person-specific, microbiome-dependent glycemic alterations, necessitating future assessment of clinical implications. Image credit: Suez et al., doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2022.07.016.

Some Artificial Sweeteners Can Alter Gut Microbiome, New Study Says

Aug 22, 2022 by News Staff

Non-nutritive sweeteners are commonly integrated into human diet and presumed to be inert. However, previous studies suggest that they may impact the microbiome...

Characterization of the liquid-liquid phase transition in colloidal (top) and molecular water (bottom) by identifying links and knots. LDL - low-density liquid; HDL - high-density liquid. Image credit: Neophytou et al., doi: 10.1038/s41567-022-01698-6.

New Research Sheds More Light on Liquid-Liquid Phase Transition in Deeply Supercooled Water

Aug 22, 2022 by News Staff

The new evidence represents a significant step forward in confirming the idea of a liquid-liquid phase transition first proposed in 1992. Characterization...

Top: map of South Africa with the location of Ga-Mohana Hill (GHN); inset map shows the approximate extent of the Kalahari Basin in southern Africa and the location of the region of interest in relation to it. Bottom: representative photographs of each of the tufa morphologies identified on the Ga-Mohana hillside. Image credit: von der Meden et al., doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0270104.

Ancient Humans Lived in Kalahari Desert More Than 20,000 Years Ago

Aug 18, 2022 by News Staff

Detailed, well-dated palaeoclimate and archaeological records are critical for understanding the impact of environmental change on human evolution. In...

Ultrasound exposure improved depressive-like behavior in olfactory bulbectomized rats and reduced their plasma corticosterone levels. Image credit: Mary Theresa McLean.

Ultrasound Exposure Improves Depressive-Like Behavior in Rats, New Study Shows

Aug 16, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

Scientists from the Tokyo University of Science and FUJIMIC, Inc. have investigated the effects of ultrasound exposure in olfactory bulbectomized rats...

The larynx is an organ in the top of the neck involved in breathing, producing sound and protecting the trachea against food aspiration. Image credit: OpenStax College / CC BY 3.0.

Simplified Voice Box Enabled Complex Humans Speech, New Research Suggests

Aug 12, 2022 by News Staff

Human speech and language are highly complex, consisting of a large number of sounds. The human larynx (voice box) has acquired the capability to create...

Grape consumption reduces fatty liver, extends lifespan, alters gene expression in the brain, changes metabolism, and has positive effects on behavior and cognition. Image credit: Nicky Pe.

Addition of Grapes to Diet Improves Health and Lifespan, New Studies Suggest

Aug 11, 2022 by News Staff

Grapes contain polyphenols and flavonoids that are known for their antioxidative and anti-inflammatory effects. Grape consumption reduces fatty liver,...

Giant Meteorite Impacts Played Key Role in Creation of Earth’s Continents

Aug 10, 2022 by News Staff

Earth is the only planet known to have continents, although how they formed and evolved is unclear. An artist’s concept of meteors impacting the ancient...

Dr. Daron Duke speaks with visitors to an archaeological site on the Utah Test and Training Range, July 18, 2022. Image credit: R. Nial Bradshaw, U.S. Air Force.

12,000-Year-Old Human Footprints Discovered in Utah

Aug 9, 2022 by News Staff

A team of researchers has discovered 88 fossilized human footprints in Utah’s West Desert, the United States. Dr. Daron Duke speaks with visitors to...

Embryological series of Japanese quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica) showing the transition from ancestral to derived pelvic states across avian prehatching ontogeny: (a) pelvic reconstructions along the evolutionary transition to living birds; note that pelves are shown as examples of character states and are not in one-to-one correspondence with ontogenetic stages; (b) during ontogeny, the ilium extends first posteriorly and then anteriorly, the pubis retroverts, the tail becomes relatively reduced and a transient pubic boot appears at intermediate ontogenetic stages; (c) the CFL (M. caudofemoralis longus homologue) is large during early ontogenetic stages; the IF (M. iliofemoralis homologue) originates smaller and further back on the ilium before expanding anteriorly to the derived condition and never splits into two muscles as seen in the adult; and PIFE1+2 (Mm. puboischiofemoralis externus 1 et 2 homologues) fail to fully differentiate until after the pubis is retroverted; muscles that are not highlighted are in gray; (d) the derived pelvic spinal nerve arrangement in birds (top), with additional spinal nerves contributing to the sacral plexus and nerves in Coturnix embryos (bottom). Scale bars - 1 mm in (b and d), 2 mm in (c). Image credit: Griffin et al., doi: 10.1038/s41586-022-04982-w.

Study: Developing Bird Hip Bone Passes through Ancestral Dinosaurian Conditions

Aug 8, 2022 by News Staff

Living birds have bodies substantially modified from the ancestral reptilian condition. The bird pelvis (hip bone) in particular experienced major changes...

This map shows that lightning occurs mostly over land compared to ocean; the gray rectangle indicates the region of interest from 50°W to 50°E and 20°S to 20°N. Image credit: Pan et al., doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-31714-5.

Salt in Sea Spray Aerosols Inhibits Lightning during Marine Thunderstorms: Study

Aug 4, 2022 by News Staff

In a study published this week in the journal Nature Communications, scientists tested the hypothesis that fine and coarse marine aerosols have opposite...

Optical manufacture of stretchable color-changing materials at the macroscale: (a) structural color patterns are recorded as periodic refractive index variations in the photo-elastomer via standing waves that result from exposure to a projected light pattern that reflects off the mirror backing; (b) the resulting structural color matches the spectral distribution of the exposure pattern; when the material is stretched or compressed, the periodicity of the recorded photonic structure changes, causing a predictable and reversible color change. Image credit: Miller et al., doi: 10.1038/s41563-022-01318-x / MIT Communication Initiatives.

Scientists Create Chameleon-Like, Color-Shifting Materials

Aug 3, 2022 by News Staff

Materials scientists at MIT have unlocked a rich and easily controlled material design space, previously unattainable using any competing technique, by...

This mix of ribs, broken cranial bones, a molar, bone fragments, and stone cobbles is a refuse pile from the butchered mammoths; it was preserved beneath the adult mammoth’s skull and tusks at the site of Hartley in New Mexico, the United States. Image credit: Timothy Rowe / University of Texas at Austin.

Humans Lived in New Mexico 37,000 Years Ago, New Study Claims

Aug 2, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

Archaeologists have found butchered bones from a mother mammoth and her calf and signs of controlled fire at the Hartley locality, an open-air site on...

Intake of 35 g of peanuts prior to two main meals per day resulted in weight loss comparable to a traditional low-fat weight loss diet without preloads; greater systolic blood pressure reductions were observed with peanut intake, which may lower cardiovascular disease risk. Image credit: Three-shots.

Peanut-Enriched Diet Promotes Weight Loss, Reduces Blood Pressure

Aug 1, 2022 by Natali Anderson

In a two-arm, parallel randomized controlled trial, scientists from the University of South Australia and Texas Tech University examined the effect of...

© 2011-2025. Sci.News. All Rights Reserved. | Back to top