News

Scientists have concluded that the risk of addiction is a complex combination of both genes and environmental influences.

Individuals with early cognitive function develop brain capillary damage and blood-brain barrier breakdown in the hippocampus, regardless of amyloid beta/tau biomarker changes.

When we remember a past event, the human brain reconstructs that experience in reverse order, according to a new study at the University of Birmingham.

Geographic location is a factor affecting how Canadian wine experts rate quality, as well as some of wine’s sensory attributes — things like balance and acidity.

In high pressure situations, you need your brain to moderate your level of arousal so that you do your best. A new study by neuroscientists at MIT’s Picower Institute for Learning and Memory might help to explain how the brain strikes that balance.

In rat models, the novel scaffolding mimicked natural anatomy and boosted stem cell-based treatment; the approach is scalable to humans and advances effort toward clinical trials

City lifestyle has been criticised for being an important reason for children being disconnected from nature. This has led to an unhealthy lifestyle in regards to active play and eating habits. Even worse, many young children do not feel well psychologically – they are often stressed and depressed. 16 per cent of pre-schoolers in Hong Kong and up to 22% in China show signs of mental health problems (Kwok SY, Gu M, Cheung AP, 2017; Zhu J, et al. 2017).



Recent research shows that spending time in nature may bring many health benefits, and many environmental programmes around the world are trying to decrease ‘nature-deficit’ and ‘child-nature disconnectedness’ in order to improve children’s health. For example, the WHO, in order to monitor implementation of the Parma Declaration commitment to providing every child with access to “green spaces to play and undertake physical activity”, has set a 300-meter target. Interestingly, 90 per cent of the Hong Kong population lives within 400 metres of such areas. However, despite the extensive, adjacent greenness, families are not using these areas.

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago in collaboration with colleagues from the University of Texas at Austin, have found that while many high school peer crowds and influences have remained constant over time, changing demographics, cultural influences and the increasing number of college-bound youth have led to the emergence of new peer groups and perceptions.

A behavioural intervention procedure including the computer game Tetris could help people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to alleviate involuntarily recurring visual memories of traumatic experiences.

Researchers have built a resource with information on gene regulation from more than 2,000 human brains. Initial results included identifying mechanisms that may drive the risk of mental disorders, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and autism spectrum disorder.