Massachusetts General Hospital

Mindfulness meditation training changes brain structure in 8 weeks

(PhysOrg.com) -- Participating in an 8-week mindfulness meditation program appears to make measurable changes in brain regions associated with memory, sense of self, empathy and stress. In a study that will appear in the ...

Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry

created Jan 21, 2011 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (69) | comments 4 | with audio podcast

Structure deep within the brain may contribute to a rich, varied social life

Scientists have discovered that the amygdala, a small almond shaped structure deep within the temporal lobe, is important to a rich and varied social life among humans. The finding was published this week in a new study ...

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Dec 26, 2010 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (17) | comments 7 | with audio podcast

Single Green Fluorescent Protein-expressing cell is basis of living laser device

(PhysOrg.com) -- It sounds like something out of a comic book or a science fiction movie – a living laser – but that is exactly what two investigators at the Wellman Center for Photomedicine at Massachusetts ...

Physics / Optics & Photonics

created Jun 12, 2011 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (14) | comments 3 | with audio podcast

Relaxation response can influence expression of stress-related genes

How could a single, nonpharmacological intervention help patients deal with disorders ranging from high blood pressure, to pain syndromes, to infertility, to rheumatoid arthritis? That question may have been answered by ...

Medicine & Health / Medical research

created Jul 02, 2008 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (12) | comments 0

Detailed metabolic profile gives 'chemical snapshot' of the effects of exercise

Chemically speaking, you become a different person when you run, according to new research that maps how chemicals change in the blood during exercise, the May 26 issue of Science Translational Medicine report ...

Medicine & Health / Medical research

created May 26, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (10) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Potential diabetes treatment selectively kills autoimmune cells from human patients

In experiments using blood cells from human patients with diabetes and other autoimmune disorders, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers have confirmed the mechanism behind a potential new therapy for type 1 diabetes. ...

Medicine & Health / Medical research

created Aug 25, 2008 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (9) | comments 1

Third-hand smoke: Another reason to quit smoking

Need another reason to add "Quit Smoking" to your New Year's resolutions list? How about the fact that even if you choose to smoke outside of your home or only smoke in your home when your children are not there - thinking ...

Medicine & Health / Health

created Dec 29, 2008 | popularity 2.9 / 5 (14) | comments 17

Recruitment of reproductive features into other cell types may underlie extended lifespan in animals

In the sense that organisms existing today are connected through a chain of life - through their parents, grandparents and other ancestors - almost a billion years back to the first animals of the pre-Cambrian era, an animal's ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created Jun 07, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (8) | comments 0

Common anesthetic induces Alzheimer's-associated changes in mouse brains

For the first time researchers have shown that a commonly used anesthetic can produce changes associated with Alzheimer's disease in the brains of living mammals, confirming previous laboratory studies. In their Annals of ...

Medicine & Health / Medical research

created Nov 12, 2008 | popularity 5 / 5 (7) | comments 0

Uncovering the neurobiological basis of general anesthesia

The use of general anesthesia is a routine part of surgical operations at hospitals and medical facilities around the world, but the precise biological mechanisms that underlie anesthetic drugs' effects on the brain and the ...

Medicine & Health / Medical research

created Dec 30, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (7) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Novel technique uses RNA interference to block inflammation

Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers – along with collaborators from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Alnylam Pharmaceuticals – have found a way to block, in an animal model, the damaging ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created Oct 09, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (7) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Technology Gives 3-D View of Human Coronary Arteries

For the first time researchers are getting a detailed look at the interior of human coronary arteries, using an optical imaging technique developed at the Wellman Center for Photomedicine at Massachusetts ...

Medicine & Health / Other

created Nov 17, 2008 | popularity 3.4 / 5 (10) | comments 0

Advanced technology reveals activity of single neurons during seizures

The first study to examine the activity of hundreds of individual human brain cells during seizures has found that seizures begin with extremely diverse neuronal activity, contrary to the classic view that they are characterized ...

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Mar 27, 2011 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (7) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Unexpected reservoir of monocytes discovered in the spleen

It takes a spleen to mend a broken heart - that's the conclusion of a surprising new report from researchers at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Center for Systems Biology, directed by Ralph Weissleder, MD, PhD. ...

Medicine & Health / Medical research

created Jul 30, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (6) | comments 0

Brain rhythm predicts real-time sleep stability, may lead to more precise sleep medications

A new study finds that a brain rhythm considered the hallmark of wakefulness not only persists inconspicuously during sleep but also signifies an individual's vulnerability to disturbance by the outside world. In their report ...

Medicine & Health / Medical research

created Mar 03, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (6) | comments 0 | with audio podcast