Brain
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A mother’s touch: a key player in fine tuning the function of our genome
There is debate as to the importance of genetics in determining our behaviour. This debate has become enshrined perhaps due to the early focus of genetics on searching for DNA variation in our genome (termed a polymorphism) that affected protein structure, the hypothesis being that such a protein variant would not be working optimally in our body throughout our life.
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Cognitive flexibility in OCD: challenging the paradigm
Data from a new study by Nicole Wolff and colleagues suggest that cognitive flexibility can be better in children with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) than typically developing controls.
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Cortical thickness can differentiate conduct disorder subtypes
A study by Graeme Fairchild and colleagues has used a neuroimaging approach to compare the structural organization (or “covariance”) of brain regions between youths with different subtypes of conduct disorder (CD) and healthy controls (HC).
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Cortical hyperarousal in children may predict insomnia in adolescence
Read about the first developmental study to examine whether increased beta EEG activity in childhood precedes the onset of pathological insomnia symptoms in adolescence.
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A cognitive neuroscience review of the aetiology of ADHD
A simple neurological explanation has yet to identify an aetiology and pathogenesis of the disorder. However, advancements in imaging techniques should help to give a more detailed understanding of the brain regions that are different to those without ADHD.
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Accelerated cortical thinning correlates with early signs of depression
The brain undergoes structural changes as it develops over childhood, but whether abnormal structural changes are associated with emerging depressive symptoms in adolescence is unknown. Now, a longitudinal study that enrolled 205 participants aged 8-25 years without signs of depression has used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to monitor these brain changes over adolescence.
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Brain firing, but not wiring, is different in children with ADHD
When in a relaxed state, the brains of children and adolescents with ADHD tend to fire differently to those without the disorder, although there don’t seem to be changes in the physical connections or ‘wiring’ of their brains.
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