Tag Archives: PLoS

Promiscuous Queen Bees Maintain Genetic Diversity

Posted on April 17, 2012 by kwc

Science Daily By mating with nearly 100 males, queen bees on isolated islands avoid inbreeding and keep colonies healthy. The results, published in the current issue of PLoS ONE, focused on giant honey bee colonies on Hainan Island, off the … Continue reading →

Posted in Environment, Headlines, Permaculture & Horticulture | Tagged bee, chromosomes, coast, combinations, cousins, CSDs, current issue, determination, diversity, entomologist, evidence, females, Founder, founder effect, gene, genes, genetic changes, genetic diversity, honey, honey bee, honey bee colonies, inbreeding, island, issue, michigan state university, PLoS, plos one, population, prime candidates, Promiscuous, queen, queen bees, role, sex, sex determination, societal, societal role, University, university entomologist, zachary huang | Comments Off

Immunity in Society: Diverse Solutions to Common Problems

Posted on April 7, 2012 by kwc

Simon A. Babayan & David S. Schneider PLos Biology Abstract Understanding how organisms fight infection has been a central focus of scientific research and medicine for the past couple of centuries, and a perennial object of trial and error by … Continue reading →

Posted in Headlines, Health Related, Society, Vaccinations | Tagged aggregation, babayan, burden, burden of disease, central focus, Control, Dead, discrimination, Diverse, fight infection, Focus, food, group level, herd, herd immunity, immune memory, immune responses, immunisation, immunity, invertebrates, level, Mass, mass vaccination, medicine, molecular mechanisms, PLoS, plos biology, Problems, proportion, quality assessment, segregation, sick individuals, social species, specificity, susceptible individuals, transfer, understanding, vertebrates | Comments Off

Reasoning, Learning, and Creativity: Frontal Lobe Function and Human Decision-Making

Posted on March 30, 2012 by kwc

Anne Collins & Etienne Koechlin PLoS Biology Abstract The frontal lobes subserve decision-making and executive control—that is, the selection and coordination of goal-directed behaviors. Current models of frontal executive function, however, do not explain human decision-making in everyday environments featuring … Continue reading →

Posted in Headlines, Health Related, Psychology, Science | Tagged ability, Action, adaptive behavior, behavior, behavioral experiments, behavioral strategies, binary structure, capacity, computational, computational model, Control, coordination, Creation, creative abilities, creativity, decision, Etienne, everyday environments, executive control, exploration, Frontal, frontal lobe function, frontal lobes, human, human decision, human decisions, issue, Koechlin, learning, long term memory, model, Online, PLoS, plos biology, rewards, structure, variations | Comments Off

New Finding: Consuming Trans Fats Linked To Aggression

Posted on March 13, 2012 by kwc

Sayer Ji GreenMedInfo In the first human study of its kind researchers have linked trans fatty acid consumption to increased aggression. Published in the Public Library of Science’s own journal, PLoS, March 5th 2012, researchers at the Dept. of Medicine … Continue reading →

Posted in Bullying, Headlines, Health Related, Mental Health, Psychology | Tagged 3 fatty acids, adult men, aggression, california, california san diego, cholesterol, consuming, consumption, Dept, diabetes, disease, disease outcomes, dTFA, evidence, extremes, first evidence, heart disease, impact, impatience, investigation, irritability, Journal, kind, library, life, life histories, lipid lowering drugs, MARCH, omega 3 fatty acids, Outcomes, PLoS, production, public library of science, sources of information, Study, synthetic compounds, trans fats, trans fatty acids, University, university of california san diego | Comments Off

Neural Mechanisms Underlying Motivation of Mental Versus Physical Effort

Posted on February 29, 2012 by kwc

Schmidt, L. et al. PLos Biology Incentive motivation refers to the process in the brain by which we translate the expectation of a potential reward into the effort required to do an action, as for instance when the expected paycheck … Continue reading →

Posted in Headlines, Health Related, Psychology | Tagged Action, Attention, basal ganglia, behavioral performance, brain, connectivity, cortex, demand, distinct regions, dorsal striatum, Effort, employee, everyday life, expectation, frontal cortex, ganglia, incentive, incentive motivation, instance, life, lifting weights, Mental, monetary reward, motor, neural, neural mechanisms, order, paycheck, paying attention, performance, physical effort, PLoS, plos biology, question, Representations, rewards, ventral striatum | Comments Off

Brain ‘hyperconnectivity’ linked to depression

Posted on February 22, 2012 by kwc

Sharon Jayson USA Today People with depression have hyperactive brain activity, according to a study published online today that offers new insight into the brain dysfunction that causes depression. Researchers at the University of California-Los Angeles studied the functional connections … Continue reading →

Posted in Headlines, Health Related, Psychology, Science | Tagged activity, author, brain activity, brain dysfunction, brain regions, brain science, brain waves, california, california los angeles, connectivity, depressed patients, depressed person, depression, dysfunction, electrical signals, electroencephalography, hyperactive brain, hyperconnectivity, insight, jayson, Journal, leuchter, Los, Online, person, PLoS, plos one, psychiatrist, quantitative electroencephalography, science, snapshot, Study, synchronization, time, University, university of california los angeles, usa today | Comments Off

A New Look at “Filler Cells” in the Brain Reveals Their Role in Learning

Posted on February 16, 2012 by kwc

Janelle Weaver PLoS When we learn associations between items or ideas, such as the value of currency used in a foreign country, the connections between certain brain cells become stronger. In the cellular process thought to underlie learning and memory—long-term … Continue reading →

Posted in Headlines, Health Related, Science | Tagged Activation, araque, astrocytes, brain cells, brain region, brain slices, cells, cellular mechanism, communication, CURRENCY, debate, electrical stimulation, evidence, Filler, glial, glial cells, hippocampus, information, information in the brain, integral role, involvement, janelle, learning, learning and memory, long term potentiation, look, madrid spain, mechanism, neuronal communication, neurons, pbio, phenomenon, phrase, PLoS, potentiation, rat, region, research groups, Study, value | Comments Off

Scientists teach computers to assess psychiatric risk

Posted on February 16, 2012 by kwc

Kate Kelland Reuters Computer programs can be taught to select between brain scans of healthy young people and scans showing adolescents who are at higher risk of developing mental disorders such as anxiety and depression, scientists said Thursday. In a … Continue reading →

Posted in Headlines, Health Related, Science | Tagged anxiety, anxiety and depression, anxiety and mood disorders, brain, brain scans, british researchers, computer, computer programs, doctors, genetic information, Illnesses, information, janaina, Journal, Kelland, library, London, mental disorders, miranda, mood, Mourao, PLoS, potential, psychiatric problems, Public, public library of science, Reuters, risk, risk adolescents, scientists, Study, technique, Thursday, time, University, university college london | Comments Off

Science decodes ‘internal voices’

Posted on February 2, 2012 by kwc

Source: BBC News Researchers have demonstrated a striking method to reconstruct words, based on the brain waves of patients thinking of those words. The technique reported in PLoS Biology relies on gathering electrical signals directly from patients’ brains. Based on … Continue reading →

Posted in Headlines, Health Related | Tagged auditory, auditory cortex, BBC, bbc news, biology, brain, brain waves, brains, comatose, computer, computer model, cortex, electrical signals, human, method, model, News, PLoS, Reconstructing, Related, science, sounds of words, Source, Speech, technique, thinking, voices | Comments Off

Study gives new clues on how Alzheimer’s spreads

Posted on February 2, 2012 by kwc

Source: Reuters Alzheimer’s disease appears to spread in a predictable pattern, infecting brain cell after brain cell as the disease spreads along linked circuits known as synapses, according to a new study. The findings, published on Wednesday in the online … Continue reading →