The Benefits of Social Media for Young People in Care
Young people in care benefit from the psychological, emotional and social support gained via social media networks - according to new research from the University of East Anglia's Centre for Research on the Child and Family (CRCF). Until now, the automatic assumption has been that platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp only pose a risk for this vulnerable group.
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Using Virtual Reality to Identify Brain Areas Involved in Memory
Virtual reality is helping neuroscientists at the University of California, Davis, get new insight into how different brain areas assemble memories in context. In a study published Jan. 18 in the journal Nature Communications, graduate student Halle Dimsdale-Zucker and colleagues used a virtual reality environment to train subjects, then showed that different areas of the hippocampus are activated for different types of memories.
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People with Tetraplegia Gain Rapid Use of Brain-Computer Interface
For a brain-computer interface (BCI) to be truly useful for a person with tetraplegia, it should be ready whenever it's needed, with minimal expert intervention, including the very first time it's used. In a new study in the Journal of Neural Engineering, researchers in the BrainGate collaboration demonstrate new techniques that allowed three participants to achieve peak BCI performance within three minutes of engaging in an easy, one-step process.
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Early Results Reported on e-Health Tool to Prevent Opioid Overdose
The new ORION e-health psychoeducational tool, designed to help opioid-dependent individuals prevent an overdose, can impart new knowledge and impact a person's intention to change opioid abuse behavior, but it did not improve overall self-efficacy in overdose prevention. Researchers concluded that ORION was useful for identifying individuals most in need of reducing modifiable risk factors through appropriate interventions, as reported in an article in Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers.
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Who Uses Phone Apps to Track Sleep Habits?
The profile of most Americans who use popular mobile phone apps that track sleep habits is that they are relatively affluent, claim to eat well, and say they are in good health, even if some of them tend to smoke. These are some of the surprise findings, say the study authors, of the first national survey of sleep-specific mobile health app use among men and women in the United States.
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Researchers Develop a Remote-Controlled Cancer Immunotherapy System
A team of researchers has developed an ultrasound-based system that can non-invasively and remotely control genetic processes in live immune T cells so that they recognize and kill cancer cells. There is a critical need to non-invasively and remotely manipulate cells at a distance, particularly for translational applications in animals and humans, researchers said.
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Smartphone Health Apps Miss Some Daily Activity of Users
If you use your smartphone to monitor your physical activity, you're probably more active than it suggests. A new UBC study finds that the iPhone's built-in pedometer missed about 1,340 steps during a user's typical day when compared to a purpose-built accelerometer worn on the waist.
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