Social practices and cultural beliefs of modern life are preventing healthy brain and emotional development in children, according to an interdisciplinary body of research presented at a symposium at the University of Notre Dame. “Life outcomes for American youth are worsening, especially in comparison to 50 years ago,” says Darcia Narvaez, Notre Dame professor of […]
The bacterium Sutterella was found to be present at remarkably high levels in the gastrointestinal tracts of children with autism and scientists at Columbia University are pondering what the connection might be. The intriguing study, published in the journal mBio, notes that children with autism frequently have gastrointestinal problems, but the underlying reason that autism […]
Duke University researchers evaluating the effectiveness of oxytocin – the “love” hormone – in treating autism and schizophrenia say that their experiments with monkeys indicate that oxytocin enhances social interaction and increases trust. Duke neuroscientist Michael Platt says that administering the hormone through a nebulizer can make rhesus macaques pay more attention to each other […]
Men can punch much harder when they stand on two legs and hit downward rather than when they are on all fours, giving tall, upright males a distinct fighting advantage, say University of Utah researchers who offer a controversial new theory on the origins of man’s bipedal posture. Their paper, in the journal PLoS ONE, […]
The results of genetic analysis of children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) published in The Lancet reveal they were more likely to have small segments of their DNA duplicated or missing, lending new weight to the unfashionable theory that ADHD is a brain disorder with genetic links. The study also found a significant overlap between these […]
A new study from Cornell University has found that even very small amounts of lead in children’s blood – amounts well below the current federal standard – are associated with reduced IQ scores. Conducted over a six-year period, the study examined cognitive function in children whose blood-lead levels (BLLs) were below the CDC’s standard of […]
