Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Health & Medicine
Extreme eaters show abnormal brain activity
Seeing images of food revs up reward areas in the obese and slows them down in severely underweight people, a brain scan study shows.
- Life
Stem cell treatment spurs cartilage growth
A small molecule called kartogenin prompts the manufacture of lost connective tissue in mice.
- Psychology
Autism rates rise again
Related developmental disorders affect 1.1 percent of U.S. 8-year-olds.
- Humans
Weighing the costs of conferencing
A provocative editorial in the Journal of the American Medical Association questions the value of attending scientific conferences. It’s a theme that reemerges every few years. And in times of tight budgets, the idea seems worth revisiting.
- Health & Medicine
Jolt to brain aids language recovery
Stroke patients treated with brain stimulation show improvement in language skills.
- Humans
From the ashes, the oldest controlled fire
A South Africa cave yields the oldest secure evidence for a blaze controlled by human ancestors.
- Health & Medicine
Brain scan foretells who will fold under pressure
Tests on high-stakes math problems reveal key regions of brain activity linked to choking under pressure.
- Health & Medicine
Mapping the brain’s superhighways
New scans created using diffusion MRI technique reveal an order to information flow in the mind.
- Health & Medicine
Psoriasis drugs show promise
Two new drugs attack psoriasis by inhibiting interleukin-17, a focal player in the troublesome skin disease.
- Humans
New ancestor grasped at walking
By 3.4 million years ago, two human relatives built differently for upright movement inhabited East Africa.
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- Health & Medicine
Fatty diet leads to fat-loving brain cells
A study in mice links a high-fat diet to changes in the brain that might encourage weight gain.
