Feeling sluggish? The solution may require getting outside the box – that big brick-and-mortar box called a building. Being outside in nature makes people feel more alive, finds a series of studies published in the June 2010 issue of the Journal of Environmental Psychology. And that sense of increased vitality exists above and beyond the energizing effects of physical activity and social interaction that ar ...

In a major study, investigators have compared how individuals with Parkinson's disease respond to deep brain stimulation (DBS) at two different sites in the brain. Contrary to current belief, patients who received DBS at either site in the brain experienced comparable benefits for the motor symptoms of Parkinson's. The results appear in the June 3, 2010 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. ...

People who meditate regularly find pain less unpleasant because their brains anticipate the pain less, a new study has found. Scientists from The University of Manchester recruited individuals into the study who had a diverse range of experience with meditation, spanning anything from months to decades. It was only the more advanced meditators whose anticipation and experience of pain differed from non-medi ...

Researchers in Germany have used a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique called continuous arterial spin labeling (CASL) to map cerebral blood flow patterns in schizophrenic patients quickly and without using radiation or contrast agents. Their findings appear in the online edition and July printed issue of the journal Radiology. ...

A major study of more than a million children has found strong links between receiving medication for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and limited maternal education, single parent families and welfare benefits, according to the June issue of Acta Paediatrica. ...

Researchers have discovered that education not only delays the early symptoms of dementia, but can also slow down the development of the disease – a finding that could result in faster diagnosis and treatment of dementia, reveals a thesis from the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. Previous studies have shown that education offers some degree of protection against the symptoms of d ...

Just because your mother has turned 85, you shouldn't assume you'll have to take over her financial matters. She may be just as good or better than you at making quick, sound, money-making decisions, according to researchers at Duke University. He recently led a laboratory study in which participants could gain or lose money based on their decisions. ...

A new study in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) found a 68% increase in the overall risk of miscarriage in pregnant women using antidepressants. Antidepressants are widely used in pregnancy and up to 3.7% of women will use them at some point during the first trimester. Discontinuing treatment can result in a depressive relapse which can put mother and baby at risk. ...

New research uses "noise," sound waves formed from many thousands of completely unpredictable random numbers played as a sound, to probe how the human brain acquires auditory memories. The study, published by Cell Press in the May 27 issue of the journal Neuron, reveals that learning new sounds is quick, robust, and long-lasting, resembling a sudden insight. ...

Making food choices based on television advertising results in a very imbalanced diet according to a new study comparing the nutritional content of food choices influenced by television to nutritional guidelines published in the June issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association. ...