News by Subject Social & Behavior

For nearly 70 years, researchers believed that near-miss events like these would encourage you to continue gambling. But new research from University of Alberta scientists suggests that the near-miss effect may not exist at all.

Eating disorders shown by patients with dementia are characterised by a vast range of behaviours that span from preference for sugary foods, binges, increase in appetite, to changes in table manners or in food preferences. This new study confirms the hypothesis that sudden changes in preferences and habits, depend, at least in part, on degeneration of semantic memory, opening up interesting perspectives in the field of research and to develop effective strategies to contrast these behaviors in patients.

New research from King's College London and The Open University could help explain why memory in old age is much less flexible than in young adulthood. Through experiments in mice the researchers discovered that there were dramatic differences in how memories were stored in old age, compared to young adulthood.

A national sample of high school students in the United States in 1960 was used in this observational study to assess whether personality traits measured in high school were associated with dementia diagnoses more than 50 years later using Medicare records.

Recent research from the University of Eastern Finland revealed increased inflammatory activity in a subgroup of patients with frontotemporal dementia (FTD). Increased inflammation was associated with parkinsonism symptoms and more rapid disease progression. In addition, the results showed that cancer is rare in FTD, whereas some autoimmune diseases may be more common among FTD patients. These findings may indicate an overactive immune system in FTD.

Brain imaging study investigates why cognitive abilities differ between individuals.

We are at a fun but noisy party: how can we understand the words someone is saying to us despite the background music and voices? Thanks to the hard work of our brain and a special trick, it is capable of using: 'predicting' the words that are said. Based on the first sounds that arrive at it directly, the brain makes a prediction, 'suggesting' a solution. The study supports the idea that sees the brain as a proper 'predictive machine'.