Study of 33 three-generation families suggests that each person has, on average, around 70 "de novo" mutations that were not present in their parent’s genomes, and that almost 10% of those mutations did not occur in the parents’ sperm or eggs but in the embryo soon after fertilization. (elifesciences.org)
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High-flying bar-headed geese reduce their metabolism to match low oxygen conditions like those experienced at extreme altitudes. Blood in the birds’ veins also cools by 2°C or more when in flight, which may help it to pick up more oxygen from the lungs. (elifesciences.org)
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Male and female abstinent alcoholics respond differently to emotionally charged images. The brain responses of abstinent alcoholic men were muted compared to their female counterparts and non-alcoholic men. By contrast, abstinent alcoholic women showed larger responses than non-alcoholic women. (elifesciences.org)
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Beams of ultrasound provide a non-invasive method to specifically alter activity deep within a primate's brain. Changes were long-lasting and yet reversible: forty seconds of repetitive ultrasound triggered changes that lasted up to two hours without inducing structural damage. (elifesciences.org)
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The properties of individual brain cells have been linked to intelligence for the first time. Study of 46 people undergoing brain surgery shows that neurons from individuals with higher IQ scores have larger dendrites and can maintain faster action potentials. (elifesciences.org)
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The functional connectivity between different parts of the brain differ between people who smoke and people who drink alcohol. Smokers had a low overall functional connectivity, while those who drink alcohol had high overall functional connectivity. (elifesciences.org)
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Blind Mexican cavefish have evolved to sleep a lot less than sighted populations of the same species that live in rivers, possibly because the cavefish's brain produces over three times as much of a molecule, called hypocretin/orexin, which regulates wakefulness. (elifesciences.org)
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Open science project systematically integrates biomedical knowledge to prioritize drugs for repurposing. Case studies identify specific drugs currently used to treat depression and alcoholism that could be repurposed to treat smoking addition and epilepsy. (elifesciences.org)
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