Steroid Increases Life Expectancy for Preemies
Giving antenatal corticosteroids to moms expecting preterm infants - between 22 and 25 weeks gestation - reduces infant death and long-term impairment.

A New Understanding of How Our Lungs Grow
New research challenges the medical textbooks and declares that the tiny airsacs continue to increase in number as we grow to adulthood.

Early Pregnancy Stress, Pre-Term Birth, Fewer Boys
Stress in the second and third months of pregnancy can shorten pregnancies, increase the risk of pre-term births and lead to a decline in male babies.

December 8, 2011--------News Archive

Mother's Touch Protects Child Against Drug Cravings
Attentive, nurturing mothering may help her children better resist the temptations of drug use later in life.

Flu Vaccine Protects Pregnant Mom and New-Borns
The influenza shot boosts the immune response in pregnant women and protects neuronatal babies via antibodies transferred through the placenta.

Tadpoles Made to Grow Eyes on Back and Tail
Changing the voltage in embryonic frog cell of tadpole's back causes cell to develop into a functioning eye.

December 7, 2011--------News Archive

Baby See, Baby Do?
Study shows infants take cues from trusted sources only, and ignore unreliable faces.

Bitter Taste of Broccoli Not Just About Flavor
Broccoli’s taste is not just a matter of having a cultured palate; some people actually taste a bitter compound in the vegetable that others cannot.

Game Players Advance Genetic Research
Users of the game Phylo, designed by McGill University researchers, are contributing to analysis of DNA sequences in Alzheimer’s, diabetes and cancer.

December 6, 2011--------News Archive

One Quarter of Families Begin Before 24 Years Old
National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, looked at the different paths to family formation. Results looks at the experiences of young adults through age 25.

Orphans Undergo Biological Change to Their Genome
Changes can be seen in the genetic regulation of the immune system, including a number of important mechanisms in the development and function of the brain.

Child Abuse Changes the Brain
Brain imaging reveals the same pattern of brain activity in these children as seen in soldiers in war.

December 5, 2011--------News Archive

Defect in Brain May Cause Autism-Like Syndrome
Autism in Timothy Syndrome has been found to produce fewer cells connecting both halves of the brain, and overproduce dopamine and norepinephrine.

Flipping Off the Switch that Causes Aging
For the first time, Harvard scientists have partially reversed age-related degeneration in mice, resulting in new growth of the brain and testes, improved fertility, and the return of lost cognitive function.

Mapping the Neurons Created in Youth
Harvard study of brain development may shed light on brain disorders such as autism and schizophrenia.

When children have been exposed to family violence, their brains become increasingly "tuned" for processing possible sources of threat, a new study reports. The findings, reported in the December 6th issue of Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, reveal the same pattern of brain activity in these children as seen previously in soldiers exposed to combat.

The study is the first to apply functional brain imaging to explore the impact of physical abuse or domestic violence on the emotional development of children, according to the researchers.

"Enhanced reactivity to a biologically salient threat cue such as anger may represent an adaptive response for these children in the short term, helping keep them out of danger," said Eamon McCrory of University College London. "However, it may also constitute an underlying neurobiological risk factor increasing their vulnerability to later mental health problems, and particularly anxiety."

Maltreatment is known to be one of the most potent environmental risk factors associated with anxiety and depression. Still, McCrory said, "relatively little is known how such adversity 'gets under the skin' and increases a child's later vulnerability, even into adulthood."

The new study shows that children with documented exposure to violence in the home differ in their brain response to angry versus sad faces. When presented with angry faces, children with a history of abuse show heightened activity in the brain's anterior insula and amygdala, regions involved in detecting threat and anticipating pain.

McCrory says the changes don't reflect damage to the brain. Rather, the patterns represent the brain's way of adapting to a challenging or dangerous environment. Still, those shifts may come at the cost of increased vulnerability to later stress.

Although the results may not have immediate practical implications, they are nonetheless critical given that a significant minority of children are exposed to family violence, McCrory says.

"This underlines the importance of taking seriously the impact for a child of living in a family characterized by violence. Even if such a child is not showing overt signs of anxiety or depression, these experiences still appear to have a measurable effect at the neural level."

Original article: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-12/cp-cac113011.php