Music holds an important place in human culture, and we’ve all felt the swell of emotion that music can inspire unlike almost anything else. But what is it exactly about music that can bring on such intense sensations in our minds and bodies? A new study reported in the journal iScience on April 4 has insight from studies that systematically examine the way perception of unique musical chords elicits specific bodily sensations and emotions. “This study reveals the intricate interplay between musical uncertainty, prediction ...

Clinicians often find limited success in treating patients with traumatic brain injury, a condition long linked to contact sports and military services. A new study, published April 4 in the journal Cell Stem Cell, may offer new clues to better solutions. Scientists found a protein, TDP-43, that appears to drive nerve damage right after injury. Moreover, blocking a certain cell surface protein can correct faulty TDP-43 and curb nerve death in mouse and human cells. “There’s really nothing out there that can prevent the injury ...

Lack of respectful maternity care in the U.S. culminating in mistreatment in childbirth is a regular occurrence, according to a new study at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. Yet until now experiences of this mistreatment had not been widely documented in the United States.  The findings are published in JAMA Network Open. To estimate the prevalence of mistreatment by care providers in childbirth, the researchers collected survey data from a representative sample of people who had a live birth in 2020 ...

An astrophysicist from The University of Texas at Dallas and his colleagues from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) collaboration are at the forefront of an ambitious experiment to study the expansion of the universe and its acceleration. Dr. Mustapha Ishak-Boushaki, professor of physics in the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics (NSM) at UT Dallas, is a member of the DESI collaboration, an international group of more than 900 researchers from over 70 institutions around the world engaged in a multiyear experiment to increase understanding of the ...

Music which surprises us can be felt in the heart, while music which matches our expectations can bring feelings of calmness and satisfaction, according to a new study. Researchers played eight short tunes made up of just four chords each to over 500 participants. Each tune had a varied mix of surprising and unsurprising, and certain and uncertain chord progressions. When asked to report how the tunes made them feel and where they were affected, participants’ answers showed that fluctuations in predictions about chord sequences were felt in specific parts of the body, notably the heart and abdomen. Researchers also ...

A nerve-stimulation treatment for obstructive sleep apnea that originally was approved only for people with body mass indexes (BMIs) in the healthy range recently was extended to patients with BMIs up to 40, a weight range generally described as severely obese. A healthy BMI ranges from 18.5 to 24.9. The expanded eligibility criteria for the treatment provide more sleep apnea patients with access to the increasingly popular therapy, known as hypoglossal nerve stimulation. However, new research from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis indicates that the likelihood of successful nerve-stimulation treatment ...

About The Study: Among 7,998 adults hospitalized during the 16 months before the first respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine recommendations, RSV disease was less common but similar in severity compared with COVID-19 or influenza disease among unvaccinated patients and more severe than COVID-19 or influenza disease among vaccinated patients for the most serious outcomes of invasive mechanical ventilation or death.  Authors: Diya Surie, M.D., of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in ...

About The Study: In this randomized crossover clinical trial with 62 participants, non-hospitalized patients with post-COVID condition (PCC) generally tolerated exercise with preserved cardiovascular function but showed lower aerobic capacity and less muscle strength than the control group. They also showed signs of postural orthostatic tachycardia and myopathy. The findings suggest cautious exercise adoption could be recommended to prevent further skeletal muscle deconditioning and health impairment in patients with PCC.  Authors: Andrea Tryfonos, Ph.D., of the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, is the corresponding author.  To ...

People suffering from post-COVID have been discouraged from exercising because early observations  suggested it could be harmful. In a study published in JAMA Network Open, researchers from Karolinska Institutet show that post-covid does not mean that exercise must be strictly avoided.  People affected by post-COVID often experience symptoms such as extreme fatigue, shortness of breath, high resting heart rate, and muscle weakness. Symptoms are often exacerbated by exertion.  “The World Health Organization (WHO) and other major bodies have said that people with post-covid ...

Viruses need hosts. Whether it’s measles, the flu or coronavirus, viral pathogens cannot multiply or infect other organisms without the assistance of their hosts’ cellular infrastructure. However, humans are not the only ones affected by viruses: animals, plants and even microorganisms can all serve as hosts. Viruses that use bacteria as host cells are called bacteriophages (or simply “phages” for short) and are thought to be the most abundant biological entities of all. Just as the human immune system springs ...

OAK BROOK, Ill. – A new study found increased coronary vessel wall thickness that was significantly associated with impaired diastolic function in asymptomatic, middle-aged individuals living with HIV. The study was published today in Radiology: Cardiothoracic Imaging, a journal of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). According to the World Health Organization, approximately 39 million people were living with HIV at the end of 2022. Since 2010, HIV-related deaths have been reduced by 51%, but HIV continues to be a major global public health issue, claiming 40.4 million lives so far.  As effective therapy drugs increase ...

(WASHINGTON, April 4, 2024) – A study published today in Blood Advances showed that among patients in Denmark who had slow-growing chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) with no symptoms and a low risk for ever needing treatment, those who stopped seeing their doctors for specialized follow-up had fewer hospital visits, fewer infections, and similar survival after three years compared to those who continued to undergo specialized follow-up. “To the best of our knowledge, ours is the first study ...

TAMPA, Fla. (April 4, 2024) – The University of South Florida is broadening its collaboration with the U.S. Department of Defense through a formalized agreement with the U.S. Army. The five-year educational partnership agreement brings together faculty from throughout the university to conduct critical defense research and provide student internships – helping broaden the talent pipeline for future military needs. Adam Rawlett, senior research scientist for the Army Research Laboratory, and Sylvia Thomas, USF vice president for research and innovation, formally signed the agreement on March 26.  “This new partnership with ...

Sandsæter is a midwife and has seen the development first hand. Increasing numbers of pregnant women are overweight. Heidi Sandsæter has studied what overweight and obese pregnant women perceive as the cause of this development. “Research in other countries has shown that there is a direct correlation between weight and a difficult childhood in some adults. We wanted to find out if this was also the case in wealthy Norway,” says Sandsæter. She is a PhD candidate at the Department of Public Health and Nursing at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), and has used data ...

A new study published in Social Psychological and Personality Science investigated the factors influencing orgasm rates for women across sexual orientations. The researchers report that partner gender plays a significant role in how women approach sex. and their likelihood of reaching orgasm. Understanding the Orgasm Gap Previous research has established the existence of an "orgasm gap," where cisgender women are less likely to achieve orgasm during partnered sex compared to cisgender men. This new study delves deeper, ...

Highlights: Colorectal cancer is associated with a disrupted gut microbiome. About 40% of people with colorectal cancer have a mutation in the KRAS gene. Researchers in China connect the 2 in a new study. Their findings identify distinct microbial signatures in patients with and without KRAS mutations. The work points to a potential noninvasive biomarker for determining a person’s KRAS status after a colorectal cancer diagnosis. Washington, D.C.—For about 40% of people diagnosed with colorectal cancer (CRC), the tumor carries a mutation in a gene called KRAS. Many of those mutations have been linked to shorter survival and ...

Researchers have made a breakthrough into how two chronic respiratory diseases in childhood affect the immune system, paving the way for better treatments. The research, led by Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) and published in Mucosal Immunology, has found suppurative lung disease and wheezing have the same inflammatory profiles despite their differing symptoms. MCRI Dr Melanie Neeland said while suppurative lung disease and wheezing were  common in children, due to a poor understanding of the underlying mechanisms, treatment options were limited and disease recurrence ...

Each year more than 500,000 Americans undergo percutaneous coronary intervention, or PCI, a minimally invasive procedure to unclog the arteries that feed the heart.  While PCI, which includes both angioplasty and stenting, is one of the most common operations in the world, it does carry a small (about 1-2%) but significant risk of death. Around 10% of all deaths following percutaneous coronary intervention are potentially preventable, a study led by Michigan Medicine finds.  The results are published in PLOS ONE.  “Deaths in the hospital after PCI are rare and mostly occur in patients ...

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) chemists have created a new collection of molecular compounds and begun testing them as potential leads in the search for new drugs. Among these molecules, they found several that show promise for development as antibiotics and cancer therapies. Sounds like a eureka moment? Well, sort of. But it’s more a case of hard chemistry made simple. The new compounds were synthesized using an efficient new way of linking molecules together, developed in the lab of CSHL Professor John Moses. Moses calls his innovative process Accelerated SuFEx Click Chemistry (ASCC). ...

An extensive CO2 monitoring network set up around the San Francisco Bay Area by an atmospheric chemist from the University of California, Berkeley, has recorded the first evidence that the adoption of electric vehicles is measurably lowering the area's carbon emissions. The network of sensors, most of them in the East Bay, is the brainchild of Ronald Cohen, UC Berkeley professor of chemistry, who envisions inexpensive, publicly funded pollution and carbon dioxide monitors widely distributed around urban areas to pinpoint emission sources and the ...

Toronto, CANADA & Rotterdam NETHERLANDS – March 2024 – The SynGAP Research Fund 501(c)(3) today announced a grant to Dr. Danielle Andrade, Dr. Miles Thompson, Dr. Ryan Yuen, Dr. Rogier Kerssebook, and Dr. Anatoljevna Anna Kattentidt to support research on SynGAP-Related Disorder (SRD) in adults. SRD is a rare neurodevelopmental disorder that causes severe intractable epilepsy, and intellectual disability, and is one of the leading genetic causes of autism (1,2).  Dr. Andrade’s team recently published the only research on SRD in adults ...

A scientific review has found almost no research studying the interconnections across three major threats to planetary health, despite UN assessments suggesting one million species are at risk of extinction, a global pandemic that resulted in over six million excess deaths, and a record-breaking year of global temperatures. “When we began to look into it, we had suspicions the number of studies would be low, but not that low,” says Dr. Jonathan Davies, a researcher with University of ...

The approval of marijuana for medical use has had little effect on the mental health of the general population in the US. But legalization for therapeutic purposes does benefit those for whom it is intended. This is the conclusion of a study by researchers at the University of Basel. In the US, access to marijuana has been facilitated in most states since the mid-1990s – whether through medical clearance or through decriminalization of recreational use. However, liberalization is still controversial, and the effects on the well-being of specific groups and the therapeutic value ...

The ecosystems we live in don’t work the way they used to — and that’s bad for our health. Climate change, pollution, and falling biodiversity are all damaging our immune systems. The lack of positive environmental exposures to build the strength of our immune systems, and the increasing negative exposures which attack those systems, are combining to cause a dramatic rise in immune-mediated diseases like asthma and cancer. Measures to protect against this could have a very powerful return on investment: an estimated $1 spent on climate change mitigation saves $3 on healthcare costs. A global ...

A study led by Medical Research Council (MRC) researchers has identified genetic variants in two genes that have some of the largest impacts on obesity risk discovered to date. The discovery of rare variants in the genes BSN and APBA1 are some of the first obesity-related genes identified for which the increased risk of obesity is not observed until adulthood. The study, published in Nature Genetics, was led by researchers at the MRC Epidemiology Unit and the MRC Metabolic Diseases Unit at the Institute of Metabolic Science, both based at the University ...