science newsletter: Science News SciGuru.com

Παρασκευή 18 Ιανουαρίου 2013

Science News SciGuru.com

The neurobiological consequence of predating or grazing
Is Athleticism Linked to Brain Size?
Drug abuse impairs sexual performance in men even after rehabilitation
New Model May Help Predict Response to Chemotherapy for Colorectal Cancer

The neurobiological consequence of predating or grazing

Posted: 17 Jan 2013 01:24 PM PST

Researchers in the group of Ralf Sommer at the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in Tuebingen, Germany, have for the first time been able to identify neuronal correlates of behaviour by comparing maps of synaptic connectivity, or “connectomes”, between two species with different behaviour. They compared the pharyngeal nervous systems of two nematodes, the bacterial feeding Caenorhabditis elegans and the predator/omnivore Pristionchus pacificus and found large differences in how the neurons are “wired” together.

Is Athleticism Linked to Brain Size?

Posted: 17 Jan 2013 09:08 AM PST

Is athleticism linked to brain size? To find out, researchers at the University of California, Riverside performed laboratory experiments on house mice and found that mice that have been bred for dozens of generations to be more exercise-loving have larger midbrains than those that have not been selectively bred this way.

Drug abuse impairs sexual performance in men even after rehabilitation

Posted: 17 Jan 2013 08:57 AM PST

Researchers at the University of Granada, Spain, and Santo Tomas University in Colombia have found that drug abuse negatively affects sexual performance in men even after years of abstinence. This finding contradicts other studies reporting that men spontaneously recovered their normal sexual performance at three weeks after quitting substance abuse.

New Model May Help Predict Response to Chemotherapy for Colorectal Cancer

Posted: 17 Jan 2013 08:51 AM PST

Scientists may be able to better predict which patients with colorectal cancer will respond to chemotherapy using a new mathematical model that measures the amount of stress required for a cancer cell to die without harming healthy tissue. The results of this study are published in Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.