Online science news...
Nerve Regeneration Achieved in Mammals
New Procedure Repairs Severed Nerves in Minutes, Restoring Limb Use in Days or Weeks
American scientists believe a new procedure to repair severed nerves could result in patients recovering in days or weeks, rather than months or years. The team used a cellular mechanism similar to that used by many invertebrates to repair damage to nerve axons. Their results are published in the Journal of Neuroscience Research.
Coffee Consumption Reduces Liver Disease Risk
Increased Coffee Intake Significantly Decreases Fibrosis Risk in those with Fatty Liver Disease
Caffeine consumption has long been associated with decreased risk of liver disease and reduced fibrosis in patients with chronic liver disease. Now, research published in the February issue of Hepatology confirms that caffeine consumption through coffee reduces the risk of advanced fibrosis in those with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).
Scientists decode brain waves to eavesdrop on what we hear
Researchers decode electrical activity to reconstruct words that subjects listened to in normal conversation.
Neuroscientists may one day be able to eavesdrop on the constant, internal monologs that run through our minds, or hear the imagined speech of a stroke or a locked-in patient with inability to speak, according to researchers at the University of California, Berkeley. The work, conducted in the labs of Robert Knight at Berkeley and Edward Chang at UCSF, is reported in the journal PLoS Biology.
Earlier autism diagnosis
Measuring how a baby’s brain reacts to shifts in eye contact might help predict the development of autism symptoms from as young as six months,.
La Trobe University psychologist Dr Kristelle Hudry, from the Olga Tennison Autism Research Centre on the Melbourne campus, is one of the key researchers in the international study. She says the results of the study ‘Infant neural sensitivity to dynamic eye gaze is associated with later emerging autism’ have been published in the journal Current Biology.
Lumbar Disc Degeneration More Likely in Overweight Adults
Elevated BMI Linked to Greater Extent and Severity of Degenerative Disc Disease
One of the largest studies to investigate lumbar spine disc degeneration found that adults who are overweight or obese were significantly more likely to have disc degeneration than those with a normal body mass index (BMI). Assessments using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) show elevated BMI is associated with an increased number of levels of degenerated disks and greater severity of disc degeneration, including narrowing of the disc space. Details of this study have been published in the journal Arthritis & Rheumatism.
