How does a robotic arm or a prosthetic hand learn a complex task like grasping and rotating a ball? In a paper in the journal Science Advances, researchers address the classic “nature versus nurture” It demonstrates that the sequence of learning, also known as the “curriculum,” is critical for learning to occur. In fact, the researchers note that if the curriculum takes place in a particular sequence, a simulated robotic hand can learn to manipulate with incomplete or even absent tactile sensation.

Female hormones can suppress pain by making immune cells near the spinal cord produce opioids, a new study from researchers at UC San Francisco has found. This stops pain signals before they get to the brain. 

The discovery could help with developing new treatments for chronic pain. It may also explain why some painkillers work better for women than men and why postmenopausal women experience more pain.  

A new study led by scientists at NYU Langone Health sheds light on how the major cancer gene BRCA2 determines which cancer cells can be killed by a class of precision cancer drugs called PARP inhibitors. 

There are over six million Americans with heart failure who are at greater risk of losing their cognitive abilities earlier in life, a study suggests. Global cognition and executive functioning declined more rapidly over the years after heart failure diagnosis, as people with the condition mentally aged the equivalent of 10 years within just seven years of a heart failure diagnosis.