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1,216 news posts in Mind and body

Life sciences

27 Oct 2016

Why do crabs slowly change color?

By Ian Salter, Frontiers Science Writer If someone called you a shore crab, would you know what they mean? So synonymous are chameleons for their ability to rapidly change color that we use the word figuratively to describe a person who changes their opinion or behavior according to the situation. Although people are unlikely to refer to you as a shore crab, they may just as well as they form a group of more obscure species that have the ability to adaptively change their appearance.  However, unlike Chameleons and cuttlefish, they are unable to do so over a matter of seconds.  Rather these changes occur over hours to days, or sometimes even weeks. The benefits of comparatively slow color change are perhaps less obvious than instant camouflage or communication signals, but no less intriguing. In a recent article published in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, Prof. Martin Stevens of the University of Exeter explores these concepts in more detail. “Our goal is to understand the mechanisms and function of camouflage and how it works in terms of defeating predator vision,” explains Stevens. In addition to camouflage, other possible reasons for color change may include thermoregulation, signaling and protection from UV […]

Neuroscience

26 Oct 2016

Can a Brain-Computer Interface Convert Your Thoughts to Text?

By Srividya Sundaresan, Science Writer Recent research shows brain-to-text device capable of decoding speech from brain signals  Ever wonder what it would be like if a device could decode your thoughts into actual speech or written words? While this might enhance the capabilities of already existing speech interfaces with devices, it could be a potential game-changer for those with speech pathologies, and even more so for “locked-in” patients who lack any speech or motor function. “So instead of saying ‘Siri, what is the weather like today’ or ‘Ok Google, where can I go for lunch?’ I just imagine saying these things,” explains Christian Herff, author of a review recently published in the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. While reading one’s thoughts might still belong to the realms of science fiction, scientists are already decoding speech from signals generated in our brains when we speak or listen to speech. In their review, Herff and co-author, Dr. Tanja Schultz, compare the pros and cons of using various brain imaging techniques to capture neural signals from the brain and then decode them to text. The technologies include functional MRI and near infrared imaging that can detect neural signals based on metabolic activity of […]

Neuroscience

25 Oct 2016

Emerging Sensory Neuroprosthetics: Feasibility, Efficacy, and Metrics

  By Laura E. Perlini, Frontiers The first evidence of the capacity of the human being to conceive and manufacture an object that could replace a malfunctioning part of the body is dated between 1295 and 664 B.C. It is the “Greville Chester Great Toe”: a prosthetic toe made using linen, glue, and plaster. It was supposed to aid people who had lost their toe to walk or balance. From ancient Egyptian times, much progress has been made, and nowadays, we are able to make devices that replace or supplement the input and/or output of the nervous system and could ideally bypass neural deficits caused by a disease. This type of prosthesis is called “Neuroprosthesis.” In particular, “sensory neuroprostheses” are able to convert environmental stimuli into perceptions by capturing external inputs and translating them into appropriate stimuli (usually electrical) to the nervous system. The most representative success of sensory neuroprosthetics is the cochlear implant, used in rehabilitating neurosensory hearing loss. The success of cochlear implants has boosted the interest of the scientific community for sensory neuroprosthetics: the concept of using electrical stimulation to provide sensory input to the brain is now being investigated to restore all the five senses. Currently, […]

Humanities

20 Oct 2016

Medical Sociology now open for submissions

We are proud to announce the launch of the latest specialty section of Frontiers in Sociology, Medical Sociology. Led by Chief Editor Prof. Hannah Bradby, the section will consider the social production of health and illness, offering critical perspectives on medicine as culture, business, profession, and practice. Equity in health outcomes and in access to quality healthcare, the changing limits of ethical and moral behavior in the light of new biotechnological practices, comparison across various healing systems, and the production of alternative medical knowledge are just some of the topics of interest to the section. To learn more about Prof. Bradby’s vision for the section, see her Specialty Grand Challenge article available here. The section’s Associate Editor Board is already composed of the following researchers and scholars: Beth Maina Ahlberg, Uppsala University Polina Aronson, Deutsches Institut für Menschenrechte Ivy Lynn Bourgeault, University of Ottawa Sangeeta Chattoo, University of York Tiago Correia, ISCTE – University Institute of Lisbon Nicola Kay Gale, University of Birmingham Gill Green, University of Essex Nina Hallowell, University of Oxford Chimaraoke O Izugbara, African Population and Health Research Center Sakari Karvonen, National Institute for Health and Welfare Ewen Speed, University of Essex Maria Clasina Stuttaford, University of Cardiff Part of the “Frontiers […]

Life sciences

12 Oct 2016

Serendipity, Sulfur bacteria, and Open Science: interview with Tom Hanson

Meet Professor Tom Hanson, Associate Director of the Marine Bioscience Program in the College of Earth, Ocean & Environment of the University of Delaware, and Specialty Chief Editor Microbial Physiology and Metabolism in Frontiers in Microbiology. Tom Hanson is an expert on the metabolism and physiology of photosynthetic microbes. Already as a young researcher in 2005, Hanson was awarded a NSF CAREER Award, one of the NSF’s highest honors for new faculty members. Here, in an interview in our Science Heroes series, he talks about his career, his research, the need for undirected basic science, and how Open Science is beneficial to scientists and society. Hanson’s research specialization is partly due to family tradition and partly to serendipity, he explains. “I’m a 2nd generation microbiologist, so my dad is a microbiologist. Although what I started out doing was working on methane oxidation, that was what he worked on his lab (…) And then, when I went to graduate school I wanted to distance myself, so I went and started working on phototrophic microbes because they weren’t E. coli, which had been studied for 50, 75 years. (…) I got into sulfur metabolism as the result of an experiment. We knocked out a gene that we thought might be involved in carbon metabolism – the phenotype was sulfur metabolism. […]

Psychology

12 Oct 2016

“Don’t hit your brother” – moms are strictest on their infants’ moral wrongdoing

Moms respond more strongly to moral faults by infants than to other type of misbehavior, regardless of the potential harm, shows a new study. Research in the journal Frontiers in Psychology shows that mothers typically respond more strongly to any “moral” faults by their infants – that is, which risk hurting other people or pets – than to any other type of misbehavior. Even misbehavior that puts the infant herself, but no-one else, at potentially risk, for example running down the stairs, is generally disciplined less strongly by moms than moral wrongdoing. Conversely, infants are more ready to obey, and less likely to protest against, their mother’s prohibitions on moral faults than prohibitions on other types of misbehavior. These results indicate that mothers tend to treat moral wrongdoing as a special, more serious type of misbehavior, regardless of the potential harm. “Mothers were more insistent on the moral prohibition against harming others than prohibitions against doing something dangerous or creating mess or inconvenience, as shown by their greater use of physical interventions and direct commands in response to moral transgressions,” says the author Audun Dahl, Assistant Professor at the Department of Psychology at the University of California at Santa Cruz. […]

Life sciences

10 Oct 2016

Join us in Vancouver, Canada for the American Society of Human Genetics 2016 conference (ASHG 2016)

  Between the dates of 18th – 21st October 2016, Frontiers in Genetics will be in gorgeous Vancouver for #ASHG16. If you are an attendee at the conference, then we invite you to our exhibitor booth #1106 to discuss our community journals; our collaborative, rigorous and fair peer-review system; and how publishing with Frontiers will unlock your research’s true impact. If you are in Vancouver and wish to chat, but will not be at ASHG, then we would still love to meet! We have several guest passes available. Please immediately get in touch with our team, to express your interest and arrange a meeting: Email: genetics@frontiersin.org Twitter: @FrontGenetics Whether in Switzerland or Vancouver, Frontiers looks forward to meeting you!  

Health

07 Oct 2016

Mental illness genetically linked to drug use and misuse

By Tania Fitzgeorge-Balfour, Frontiers Science Writer A person’s genetic risk for psychiatric disorders is related to his or her vulnerability to substance use and misuse There are many reports of drug use leading to mental health problems, and we all know of someone having a few too many drinks to cope with a bad day. Many people who are diagnosed with a mental health disorder indulge in drugs, and vice versa. As severity of both increase, problems arise and they become more difficult to treat. But why substance involvement and psychiatric disorders often co-occur is not well understood. In addition to environmental factors, such as stress and social relationships, a person’s genetic make-up can also contribute to their vulnerability to drug use and misuse as well as mental health problems. So could genetic risk for mental illness be linked to a person’s liability to use drugs? This question has been addressed in a new study, published in the open-access journal Frontiers in Genetics. “Our research shows that if someone is genetically predisposed towards having mental illness, they are also prone to use licit and illicit substances and develop problematic usage patterns,” says Caitlin E. Carey, a PhD student in the […]

Psychology

07 Oct 2016

Enjoying your workout is the best motivation

By K.E.D. Coan Emotions may help build the foundation of a sustainable exercise routine, suggests a new study in Frontiers in Psychology. It’s an all too familiar story: Despite resolutions to lose weight, get in shape, or simply stay fit, it’s all too easy to fall off the exercise band wagon. Studies estimate that up to 50% of gym members drop out within the first six months of a new exercise program. But why is it so hard to stay motivated? “Training plans are based on sport science, rather than psychological factors, and we thought that there must be a different way to analyze this behavior,” says Benjamin Wienke, the first author of the study published in Frontiers in Psychology and a doctoral student at Humboldt University in Berlin. “So we decided to look at whether there could be an emotional explanation.” Wienke and his collaborator, Darko Jekauc, interviewed a group of 24 men and women about their exercise habits, lifestyle, and their preferred activities. Unsurprisingly, their results quickly showed that enjoyment was a common factor amongst those who kept a regular exercise routine. But the next question was, exactly what factors trigger this enjoyment? Further analysis of the interview […]

Health

07 Oct 2016

Safe Work Under the Sun

European outdoor workers are at great risk of developing non-melanoma skin cancer – so great that statistically speaking, in long-term outdoor workers, some 75-90% will develop the disease over their life time. While the numbers are startling, so is the lack of awareness of the situation. Ironically this lack of awareness is especially prevalent among outdoor workers, i.e. the people most at risk of developing non-melanoma skin cancer as a result of their occupational sun exposure. Given that skin cancer is in fact preventable, it seems an opportunity missed by not adequately informing individuals and adopting better workplace practices. Protecting workers from overexposure to UV makes total sense when we think about the savings in subsequent healthcare cost burden and even more importantly, avoidance of individual suffering and familial stress caused by skin cancer. At this year’s European Academy of Dermatology and Venerology (EADV) Congress, Prof. Swen Malte John (Professor and Chairman at the Department of Dermatology, Environmental Medicine, Health Theory, University of Osnabrueck, Germany), explained the situation: “Solar UV irradiation is now classified as a group 1 carcinogen by the WHO, being in the same category as cigarette smoking, asbestos and plutonium, yet there is no legislation in place […]

Psychology

05 Oct 2016

Study shows infants pay more attention to native speakers

By Marcus Banks, Frontiers Science Writer Almost from the moment of birth, human beings are able to distinguish between speakers of their native language and speakers of all other languages. We have a hard-wired preference for our own language patterns, so much so that the cries of very young infants reflect the melodies of their native language. The connection between language and social preferences is well-established. New research, recently published in Frontiers in Psychology, demonstrates that infants also pay attention to language cues in deciding where to place their attention. Dr. Hanna Marno (Department of Cognitive Science at the Central European University, Hungary and International School for Advanced Studies, Italy) conducted a study to determine whether young babies would selectively pay attention to different speakers in their environment, even when they do not understand the meanings of the words. In the experiment, forty 12-month-old infants first listened to two adult female speakers — one in their native language of Italian, the other in Slovenian – for two minutes. The infants then observed movies of both women — the native and non-native speaker separately — gazing at two colorful objects. At this stage the infants attended equally to both objects for […]

Life sciences

03 Oct 2016

Veterinary Experimental and Diagnostic Pathology section now open for submissions

We are delighted to welcome Prof. Tracy Stokol as Specialty Chief Editor to lead our latest section on Veterinary Experimental and Diagnostic Pathology that is now open for submissions. Tracy Stokol is a Professor at the College of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell University and her research interests include exploring the mechanisms of thrombosis in animals, mechanisms of cancer metastasis in humans and animals, and improving diagnostic methods in Veterinary Clinical Pathology. Her goals are to advance the field of Veterinary Clinical Pathology through investigative and clinical research. Tracy is also performing diagnostic services at the University and is dedicated to educating current and future veterinarians, through traditional lecture and publication, on-line (eClinPath.com) and social media (Twitter: @eClinPathCU, Facebook: Clinical Pathology at Cornell University, Instagram: eclinpath_cornell) forums. Veterinary pathologists have diverse roles that cover all aspects of research, education, drug discovery, outreach, and public policy. Thus, our scope is similarly broad, encompassing the study of mechanisms of disease in natural or experimental models, whether it be basic or clinical applied research. Original research will be complemented by topical reviews, commentaries, technical notes, methods papers and other article types. Timely research topics will provide a focused “issue” on a specific area of […]

Health

30 Sep 2016

Pharmaceutical Innovation after World War II: from rational drug discovery to biopharmaceuticals

“The twentieth century has witnessed an unprecedented advancement of biomedical sciences, especially in drug discovery and design. After World War II, life-saving pharmaceutical innovation has materialised primarily through systematic research, and has consisted of a series of thematic developments that have been tightly-linked not only to the contemporary technological advances, but also particularly to the contemporary understanding of human physiology and pathophysiology.” By organising the Frontiers Research Topic “Pharmaceutical innovation after World War II: from rational drug discovery to biopharmaceuticals” in Frontiers in Pharmacology, Professor Tilli Tansey OBE and Dr Apostolos Zarros aim to explore, delineate, and conceptualise pharmaceutical innovation in the post-World War II era with contributions covering a broad spectrum of paradigm shifting factors and achievements that have shaped the pharmaceutical landscape. We asked them to share with us the inspiration behind the project. What inspired you to organize a Research Topic on pharmaceutical innovation after World War II? We are members of the History of Modern Biomedicine Research Group, which is funded by the Wellcome Trust and committed to open-access publishing. We study the history of recent biomedicine, principally by employing oral history methodology, and generate a variety of resources by collecting, transcribing, editing and undertaking research […]

Health

29 Sep 2016

Open for submissions: New Specialty Section Obesity

by Victor Kouassi, Frontiers Under the leadership of Prof. Katherine Samaras  of St Vincent’s Hospital and the Garvan Institute of Medical Research, Sydney, the journals; Frontiers in Endocrinology, Frontiers in Public Health and Frontiers in Nutrition have launched a new specialty section on Obesity. The section is now open for submissions. The Obesity Specialty Section is intended to reflect the multidisciplinary research and strategies developed in this subject from “champions from every paradigm of science, clinical practice, public health, economics and policy” states Specialty Chief Editor Prof. Samaras. With figures from the WHO showing a doubling worldwide of obese individuals since 1980, obesity has rapidly become an issue deserving of immense attention in countries of all levels of income. The need for faster and widespread dissemination of research findings to mitigate and tackle this issue are increasingly in demand. In her recently published Specialty Grand Challenge article, this threat is described as an “Obesity Armageddon” which can be dodged by encouraging “innovative science in obesity, to integrate scientific effort between the disciplines”. Asked on what attracted her to launch this section in Frontiers, Dr. Samaras said, “The Frontiers series of journals are at the cutting edge. The process of Peer Review is innovative, […]