We all know that it can take a little while for our hearing to bounce back after listening to our iPods too loud or attending a raucous concert. But new research at the University of Michigan Health System suggests over-exposure to noise can actually cause more lasting changes to our auditory circuitry changes that may lead to tinnitus, commonly known as ringing in the ears.
psychology
Cyberknife radiation relieves stabbing pain of facial nerve condition
A technique that delivers highly focused beams of radiation, known as Cyberknife, can relieve the stabbing pain of the facial nerve condition trigeminal neuralgia, indicates a small study published online in the Journal of NeuroInterventional Surgery.
In the brain, an earlier sign of autism
In their first year of life, babies who will go on to develop autism already show different brain responses when someone looks at or away from them. Although the researchers are careful to say that the study, reported online on January 26 in the Cell Press journal Current Biology, is only a first step toward earlier diagnosis, the findings do suggest that direct brain measures might help to predict the future development of autism symptoms in infants as young as six months.
The ethics of brain boosting
(Medical Xpress) — The idea of a simple, cheap and widely available device that could boost brain function sounds too good to be true.
Alzheimer’s: French scientists focus on key target
French scientists said on Tuesday that lack of a key brain protein was linked to Alzheimer’s, a finding that threw up a tempting target for drugs to fight the disease.