Smiling really DOES make you happier: Study finds expressing happiness influences the brain to generate positive feelings For decades, researchers have studied how acting happy could influence happiness A team at the University of Tennessee has analyzed 50 years of data on the subject They found there is a clear connection between acting happy and … Read more
People who suffer catastrophic brain injuries may recover their social skills quicker by stroking guinea pigs, research suggests. Traumatic brain injuries often affect a patient’s ability to feel empathy and express their emotions. But a study found allowing patients to stroke ‘cute animals’ – such as micro pigs, rabbits and donkeys – during rehabilitation sessions … Read more
Do you ever go upstairs to look for something, then realise you have no idea why you were going upstairs in the first place? Or what about putting rice on to cook, then leaving the room and only returning when you smell the burning? I find that as I get older I am increasingly doing … Read more
Root of all fear: Scientists discover how fear forms in the brain offering hope for the development of an ‘off switch’ for people with PTSD ‘Fear memory’ formation involves neural connections between two brain regions Activity between the two regions increased in mice faced with ‘aversive stimuli’ Weakening these could erase fear memory for people who are living … Read more
MISCELLANY UNCOMMON KNOWLEDGE by Tom Standage (Economist £8.99, 272 pp) This is what Tom Standage, deputy editor of The Economist, calls ‘a compendium of explanations’. It’s uncommon knowledge in two senses of the word: in the normal sense of ‘rare or infrequently encountered’, and also as in the meaning ‘exceptional and extraordinary’. In short, it’s … Read more
Hope for childhood brain cancer: Scientists believe they could DOUBLE survival time by blocking a gene that helps deadly pediatric tumors grow and spread Researchers studied mice programmed to develop glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer They discovered a gene that fuels tumor growth and binds together different forms of RNA, which carries instructions from … Read more
A team of neurosurgeons is on the hunt for a ping-pong-ball-sized tumour, lodged in the left side of Cameron Ray’s brain. Not that you’d know it. Chuckling, the 20-year-old patient gives a thumbs-up to the surgical assistant and cheekily asks the assembled doctors and nurses: ‘Is my brain out?’ It sounds astonishing but Cameron is … Read more
A teenager with an unusual brain disorder that causes her to collapse when she laughs has revealed she spends less time with her funny friends. Billie Hodgson, 17, suffers from cataplexy, which triggers sudden muscle paralysis and can strike whenever she giggles. Her unusual ailment is a complication of narcolepsy, which affects around 22,500 Britons. As … Read more
Someone who is infected with the coronavirus can spread it with just a simple cough or a sneeze, scientists say. Nearly 4,000 people with the virus are now confirmed to have died and more than 110,000 have been infected. Here’s what we know so far: What is the coronavirus? A coronavirus is a type of … Read more
Having won two gold medals in the 2017 under-18 kayaking world cup when she was just 15, it’s fair to say Georgia Carmichael was in peak condition. But just six weeks after the event, she was struck down with searing headaches, chronic fatigue and an unbearable sensitivity to bright lights. Within months, she had suffered a … Read more