Highlights - Humans take more risks when interacting with facial expressions shown on avatars rather than real human faces. - This shift in risk-taking behavior is linked to activity in the amygdala. - The findings offer new insights into both the advantages and the cautionary aspects of communication via avatars.   Abstract A research team led by Dr. TANAKA Toshiko and Dr. HARUNO Masahiko at the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT, President: TOKUDA Hideyuki Ph.D.), investigated how avatar-mediated communication affects human decision-making. They ...

Monday May 26, 2025, key stakeholders from across Europe will gather in Brussels at the Committee of the Regions for the PREPSOIL Final Event, marking a major step in advancing soil  health policies and practices. The event will bring together policy-makers, researchers, and civil society representatives to discuss how the objectives of the Mission Soil and the proposed Soil  Monitoring Law may be supported and implemented at regional and local scale across EU Member States and the role that regional and local actors can play in promoting ...

Can agriculture and solar energy work together instead of competing? A study led by Maddalena Curioni, Nikolas Galli, Giampaolo Manzolini and Maria Cristina Rulli, researchers in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Department of Energy at the Politecnico di Milano, sheds new light on the potential of agrivoltaics. Published in the prestigious journal Earth’s Future, the paper analyses how the coexistence of photovoltaic panels and agricultural crops can help solve the global conflict over land use. With the growing demand for renewable energy and the need to produce increasing amounts of food, the pressure on arable land is intensifying. ...

In face-to-face conversations, speakers use hand movements to signal meaning. But do listeners actually use these gestures to predict what someone might say next? In a study using virtual avatars, scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics and Radboud University in Nijmegen show that listeners used the avatar’s gestures to predict upcoming speech. Both behavioural and EEG data indicated that hand gestures facilitate language processing, illustrating the multimodal nature of human communication. People might wiggle their fingers when they talk about typing, depicting a ‘typing’ movement. Seeing meaningful hand movements—also called iconic gestures—helps ...

BUFFALO, N.Y. — A powerful clinical artificial intelligence tool developed by University at Buffalo biomedical informatics researchers has demonstrated remarkable accuracy on all three parts of the United States Medical Licensing Exam (Step exams), according to a paper published today (April 22) in JAMA Network Open. Achieving higher scores on the USMLE than most physicians and all other AI tools so far, Semantic Clinical Artificial Intelligence (SCAI, pronounced “Sky”) has the potential to become a critical partner for ...

Adolescents who sleep for longer – and from an earlier bedtime – than their peers tend to have improved brain function and perform better at cognitive tests, researchers from the UK and China have shown. But the study of adolescents in the US also showed that even those with better sleeping habits were not reaching the amount of sleep recommended for their age group. Sleep plays an important role in helping our bodies function. It is thought that while we are asleep, toxins that have built up in our brains are cleared out, and brain connections are consolidated and pruned, enhancing memory, learning, and problem-solving skills. Sleep has also been shown to boost our immune ...

Dopamine signals in different parts of the brain rise and fall in complex patterns as animals learn to avoid danger Findings shed light on why the ‘dopamine detox’ trend is too simplistic First study to track how dopamine signals evolve over time The findings may help explain how dopamine signaling contributes to excessive avoidance in disorders like in anxiety and OCD, where individuals overestimate danger CHICAGO --- Dopamine is the brain’s motivational spark, driving us to chase what feels good, say scrolling another reel on social ...

About The Study: In this microlongitudinal cohort study of family caregivers of relatives with dementia, hazardous drinking and daily alcohol consumption were significantly and independently associated with increased odds of abusive and neglectful behaviors, highlighting the need for personalized interventions that address caregiving complexities and alcohol use patterns. Corresponding author: To contact the corresponding author, Carolyn E. Z. Pickering, Ph.D., R.N., email pickering@uth.tmc.edu. To ...

About The Study: In this cohort study of young adults, the long-term association between traffic-related air pollution and insulin resistance may be partially explained by higher body mass index (BMI) and accelerated BMI growth from early adolescence into young adulthood. These findings highlight the importance of weight management in children, particularly those residing in highly polluted areas. Corresponding author: To contact the corresponding author, Shohreh F. Farzan, Ph.D., email sffarzan@usc.edu. To ...

(TORONTO, April 22, 2025) JMIR Aging, a leading open access journal focused on digital health and aging, announced the launch of a new dedicated section on “Advance Care Planning for Older Adults.” This timely addition will provide a crucial platform for cutting-edge research examining how digital health tools can empower older adults in making informed decisions about their future health care needs and actively involve their caregivers in this vital process. This new section will delve into the innovative ways technology can support personalized ...

MIT astronomers have discovered a planet some 140 light-years from Earth that is rapidly crumbling to pieces.  The disintegrating world is about the mass of Mercury, although it circles about 20 times closer to its star than Mercury does to the sun, completing an orbit every 30.5 hours. At such close proximity to its star, the planet is likely covered in magma that is boiling off into space. As the roasting planet whizzes around its star, it is shedding an enormous amount of surface minerals and effectively evaporating away.  The astronomers spotted the planet using NASA’s Transiting ...

INDIANAPOLIS – A multi-state study reveals that many high-risk adults diagnosed with influenza (flu) in emergency departments and urgent care centers are not receiving timely antiviral treatment. Researchers found that only slightly more than half of these patients received antiviral prescriptions, and of those, only 80 percent were filled. This gap in treatment could increase the risk of severe flu complications, particularly for older adults and those with underlying conditions. The study analyzed prescribing and ...

Highlights: Biodegradation is an important natural process during oil spill cleanup. A new study revealed that using spill treating agents does not negatively impact naturally occurring biodegradation. Washington, D.C.—Using spill treating agents to clean up oil spills does not significantly hinder naturally occurring oil biodegradation, according to a new study. The study, published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology, a journal of the American Society for Microbiology, provides information that will be useful in future oil ...

Mount Sinai researchers studying a type of heart disease known as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) have calibrated an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm to quickly and more specifically identify patients with the condition and flag them as high risk for greater attention during doctor’s appointments. The algorithm, known as Viz HCM, had previously been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the detection of HCM on an electrocardiogram (ECG). The Mount Sinai study, published April 22 in the journal NEJM AI, assigns numeric probabilities to the algorithm’s ...

Telemedicine use in 2023 reduced monthly carbon dioxide emissions by the equivalent of up to 130,000 gas operated vehicles, suggesting it could have a positive effect on climate change, new UCLA-led research finds. The findings, to be published April 22 in the peer-reviewed American Journal of Managed Care, suggest that telemedicine could have a modest but noticeable impact on the environment by decreasing the number of vehicles traveling to and from medical appointments. They could also have policy implications, said co-senior author Dr. John N. Mafi, associate professor-in-residence of medicine in the division of general internal medicine and health services research ...

An Abundance of Caution American Schools, the Virus, and a Story of Bad Decisions David Zweig A searing indictment of the American public health, media, and political establishments’ decision-making process behind pandemic school closures. 9780262549158| $39.95 US | hardcover | April 22nd, 2025 | 464 pp. | Cambridge, MA, April, 2025 For immediate release This spring marks the 5th anniversary of the initial Covid lockdowns. While we all experienced the pandemic differently, for 50 million American children the unprecedented––and for many of them, years-long––disruption to their education may be the most consequential collective event in more than a generation. ...

WASHINGTON—The Endocrine Society has appointed Manuel Tena-Sempere, M.D., Ph.D., of the University of Cordoba in Spain, as the next Editor-in-Chief of its flagship basic science journal, Endocrinology, starting January 2026. Manuel Tena-Sempere is a professor of physiology at the University of Cordoba, a research group leader at the biomedical research institute of Cordoba (IMIBIC) and a principal investigator at the Spanish network of Research on Obesity and Nutrition (CIBEROBN) in Cordoba, Spain. “I am pleased to announce Dr. Tena-Sempere as our next Editor-in-Chief of ...

The way DNA folds inside the nucleus of brain cells may hold the key to understanding a devastating form of brain cancer called glioblastoma, suggests a new preclinical study from Weill Cornell Medicine researchers. The findings, published April 3 in Molecular Cell, offer a new way to think about cancer beyond gene mutations, based on the way that genes are connected and regulated in three-dimensional space. “Glioblastoma is one of the most aggressive and incurable tumors. Although we know a lot about the mutations and the genes that characterize it, we still have no effective ways to stop it,” said Dr. Effie ...

Cancer is one of the leading causes of death globally, with nearly 20 million new cases and 9.7 million deaths in 2022. Early detection plays a crucial role in reducing cancer-related morbidity and mortality, but many cancers are diagnosed at advanced stages due to subtle early symptoms and lack of awareness. Liquid biopsy, a non-invasive approach that examines circulating tumor components in body fluids, has emerged as a groundbreaking technology in cancer detection. This review presents the advancements in liquid ...

More than two-thirds of Floridians are moderately or extremely concerned about hurricanes increasing in strength and frequency, according to a new Florida Atlantic University survey. The Invading Sea’s Florida Climate Survey also found that most Floridians – 54% – are worried about being able to afford and maintain homeowners insurance due to climate change. According to a 2023 report by LexisNexis Risk Solutions, the average premiums for Florida homeowners rose nearly 60% between 2015 and 2023, the largest increase ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Financial benefits, such as saving on utility payments and avoiding electricity rate hikes, are a key driver of U.S. adults’ willingness to consider installing rooftop solar panels or subscribing to community solar power, a new study suggests. Researchers at The Ohio State University conducted a national survey to gauge consumer perceptions about adopting solar power. Though previous work has examined views about rooftop solar, this study is the first assessment of public opinion about accessing community solar energy for household use. The findings led researchers to recommend that policymakers and industry leaders increase marketing campaign ...

Human consumption of antibiotics increased by 65% between 2000 and 2015. These drugs are not completely metabolized while passing through the body, nor completely destroyed or removed by most wastewater treatment facilities. Heloisa Ehalt Macedo and colleagues calculate that worldwide humans consume around 29,200 tonnes of the 40 most used antibiotics. After metabolism and wastewater treatment, an estimated 8,500 tonnes (29% of consumption) may reach the world’s river systems, and 3,300 tonnes (11%) may arrive at the world’s oceans or inland sinks (such as lakes or reservoirs). The authors calculate these ...

DALLAS, April 22, 2025 — The American Heart Association and the National Football League (NFL) want more people to be confident and capable when faced with a cardiac emergency. Currently, 9 out of every 10 people who experience cardiac arrest outside of a hospital die[1]. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), performed immediately, can double or triple a person’s chance of survival. That’s why the Heart Association and the NFL are working together to expand the Nation of Lifesavers™ movement, the Association’s most recent commitment to CPR. With support from the NFL and ...

Chronic pain, a common and debilitating condition, often leads practitioners to prescribe opioids in escalating doses. The prescription of opioids has created a serious nationwide crisis that killed more than 107,000 Americans from December 2020 through December 2021, according to a report by the American Medical Association (“Nation’s opioid-related overdose and death epidemic continues to worsen”). Given these realities, an urgent need exists to develop novel non-opioid and non-addicting therapies capable of effectively managing chronic pain. To help spur the development of these therapies, ...

Psychedelic drugs are seeing a surge of interest from mainstream medicine, and initial results suggest that psychedelic-therapy can be a safe and effective treatment for some mental health conditions. However, the side-effect profile is still incompletely understood. In particular, the use of psychedelics has been posited to carry a risk of triggering latent psychotic disorders or persistent visual hallucination, known as Hallucinogen Persisting Perception Disorder (HPPD). In order to better understand the prevalence and risk factors of such side-effects, Katie Zhou and colleagues surveyed 654 people online who were planning to take psychedelics through their ...