What’s already happened this year?
January 11, 2016
- A brain circuit linked to depression has been found in rats. This brain circuit is responsible for the inability to feel pleasure, also known as anhedonia. This disease is linked to the medial prefrontal cortex, which sits just behind the forehead. Scientists are continuing to study this to learn more about the brain and psychological disorders.
- Strong social connections may be a factor to better health. Feeling socially isolated can lead to an increase in the risk of high blood pressure and science suggests that the increase that comes with social isolation is more than what comes with suffering from diabetes. In other words, reach out if you’re lonely.
- Prosthetic legs date back to 2,200 years ago? A prosthetic leg with a hoofed foot has been discovered in an ancient tomb in Turpan, China. It was attached to a male that had a deformed knee. Unlike what doctors do now, the leg wasn’t amputated. It was still attached and the prosthetic leg made it so that the man’s leg could be bent.
- Twins have more than just telepathy. Studies have shown that if one twin has cancer, the other twin has a higher than average chance of getting cancer. Identical twins have a 14 percent higher chance and fraternal twins have a five percent higher chance.
- An unusual brain disease has been found in a former college football player. The man played for 16 years and had already formed a degenerative disease by the time he died at the age of 25.
