Health/Medical Research

In autism, brain regions tailored to respond to voices are poorly connected to reward-processing circuits, according to a new study.

Aggression in school-age children may have its origins in children 3 years old and younger who witnessed violence between their mothers and partners, according to a new study.

Fights between siblings are so common they’re often dismissed as simply part of growing up. Yet a new study finds that sibling aggression is associated with significantly worse mental health in children and adolescents. In some cases, effects of sibling aggression on mental health were the same as those of peer aggression.

The sound of small children chattering away as they learn to talk has always been considered cute -- but not particularly sophisticated. However, new research has shown that toddlers' speech is far more advanced than previously understood.

A surprising new study reveals a common molecular vulnerability in autism and fetal alcohol disorder. Both have social impairment symptoms and originate during brain development. The study found male offspring of rat mothers given alcohol during pregnancy have social impairment and altered levels of autism-related genes found in humans. But the damage was reversed with a thyroid hormone given to the mothers during pregnancy.

A new study of the genetic origins of dyslexia and other learning disabilities could allow for earlier diagnoses and more successful interventions, according to researchers. Many students now are not diagnosed until high school, at which point treatments are less effective.

Infants as young as ten months old express sympathy for others in distress in non-verbal ways, according to new research.

Until recently most linguists believed that the relationship between the structure of language and the natural world was mainly the influence of the environment on vocabulary. Now, a new study shows that there is a link between geographical elevation and the way language is spoken. Ejectives are sounds made, and incorporated into language, only at higher altitudes.

The number of children admitted to hospital for problems related to obesity in England and Wales quadrupled between 2000 and 2009, a study has found.

Academic performance is better if young people play sports competitively, new research suggests.

Fever-induced childhood seizures can be terrifying for parents and carry a long-term risk to brain development. Scientists haven't known what mechanism triggers the seizures. Now they've identified a new key factor, leading to a new therapeutic target. They also found nimodipine, a commonly available L-type calcium-channel blocker, dramatically reduced the incidence and duration of febrile seizures in animals.

A new study describes the clinical presentation of Phelan-McDermid Syndrome and will help guide future research and clinical care.

A has for the first time found that a mother's higher exposure to some common environmental contaminants was associated with more frequent and vigorous fetal motor activity. Some chemicals were also associated with fewer changes in fetal heart rate, which normally parallel fetal movements.

Preschool children who have been neglected or emotionally abused exhibit a range of emotional and behavioral difficulties and adverse mother-child interactions that indicate these children require prompt evaluation and interventions, according to a systematic review.

Women with a severe form of morning sickness who take antihistamines to help them sleep through their debilitating nausea are significantly more likely to experience adverse pregnancy outcomes, including low birth weight babies and premature births.

An analysis of recent data from magnetic resonance imaging of 97 adolescents who were part of study begun with very low birth weight babies born in 1982-1986 in a Cleveland neonatal intensive care unit has tied smaller brain volumes to poor academic achievement.

For more than 50 years, linguists and computer scientists have tried to get computers to understand human language by programming semantics as software, with mixed results. Enabled by supercomputers, researchers are using new methods to more accurately represent language so computers can interpret it.

A new study used naturalistic video data for the first time to compare gestures in a female chimpanzee, bonobo and human infant.

A study using brain images from "quiet" MRI machines adds to the growing body of evidence that breastfeeding improves brain development in infants. Breastfeeding alone produced better brain development than a combination of breastfeeding and formula, which produced better development than formula alone.

A new brain imaging study of dyslexia shows that visual system differences do not cause the disorder, but instead are likely a consequence.