Researchers find that blind soccer players rotate their heads downward when trapping an incoming pass. This work may lead to an improved understanding of the sensory changes that can manifest in visually impaired individuals. Blind soccer is a sport that can be enjoyed by anyone, regardless of visual ability. Except for the goalkeepers, players are…

Getting married early in life may increase the risk of problematic drinking behavior among people who are genetically predisposed to drink more. «In a sample of young adults, we found that marriage was not uniformly protective against alcohol misuse. In fact, we found that early marriage (i.e., by age 21) seemed to exacerbate risk for…

Female adolescents are experiencing relationship abuse at alarming rates, according to a new study that specifically researched reproductive coercion — a form of abuse in which a woman is pressured to become pregnant against her wishes. Heather McCauley, assistant professor in the School of Social Work, and co-researchers found nearly one in eight females between…

Signals sent from the retina to the brain have a lot of background noise, yet we see the world clearly. Researchers show that to achieve visual clarity the brain must accurately measure how this noise is distributed across neurons when processing the signals sent down the optic nerve. These results are likely to shape the…

In response to seizures, the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), a network of flattened tubes in the cell that packages and transports proteins, triggers a stress response that reduces brain activity and seizure severity. The new findings may have important implications for the development of new epilepsy therapies. For one-third of epilepsy patients, existing anti-epileptic drugs don’t…

A new study has found no link between a strep throat infection and the development of tics in children who have a parent or sibling with a chronic tic disorder. Tics are repetitive movements and vocalizations prompted by an urge to produce them. They are the defining feature of chronic tic disorders like Tourette syndrome,…

New research suggests that depression and binge-drinking are more common among the female partners of UK military personnel than among comparable women outside the military community. Researchers from the King’s Centre for Military Health Research at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) collected data from 405 women in military families with at least…

A new study presents a detailed cellular atlas of the developing coronal suture, the one most commonly fused as a consequence of single gene mutations, leading to birth defects such as craniosynostosis. With an aim toward advancing new interventions for patients, researchers created the first detailed cell-by-cell description of how this suture develops. They identified…

Researchers identified insomnia as a potential risk factor for brain aneurysm, also called an intracranial aneurysm, and a type of stroke called an aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage. Smoking and high blood pressure, which are identified stroke risk factors, were also associated with increased risk for brain aneurysm. According to researchers, the finding that insomnia may be…

Research has identified a small molecule compound that can activate the Wnt pathway in non-Wnt subtypes of medulloblastoma, making these aggressive forms of cancer more responsive to therapies. The work also found the Wnt pathway, which has historically been considered cancer-promoting, to function as a cancer inhibitor in certain contexts. Medulloblastoma (MB) is the most…