THE MEDICAL NEWS

Publishing in the journal Scientific Reports, researchers at Kyushu University found that using mats made from Japanese Igusa, or rush grass, was associated with increased activity in regions of the brain related to concentration and engagement.

Immune cells can become exhausted after prolonged exposure to cancer, gradually losing their ability to attack tumor cells.

People living with a severe form of asthma show subtle differences in the structure of their brains compared with people whose asthma is well controlled, according to new research presented at the European Respiratory Society (ERS) Congress in Barcelona, Spain.

Streptococcal sore throat - strep throat for short - is one of the nastier maladies of childhood, causing fever, swollen tonsils, and the namesake sore throat.

Patients who experience anxiety or claustrophobia can have difficulty completing important cardiac imaging, including Positron Emission Tomography (PET) and Computerized Tomography (CT) scans.

Understanding how the brain processes rewarding experiences could help researchers better understand behaviors such as overeating, as well as conditions such as anhedonia-the inability to experience pleasure, which is a common symptom of depression.

Bone repair depends on skeletal progenitor cells (SPCs) moving to injured areas and developing into bone-forming cells, but how these cells respond to their surroundings remains unclear.

In a 50-year follow-up study, men with a low cardiovascular risk in their 40s retained their functional capacity, happiness and quality of life better than others as they aged.

As an embryo develops from a small cluster of stem cells, those once "blank slate" cells begin to take on more specialized roles like brain, liver, or muscle cells, and organize themselves into three-dimensional structures such as tissues and organs.