skill

Brain damage affects artistic skill

Researchers in the US felt that artistic skill is often preserved after brain damage. It's not really known how the brain influences artistic creativity. But you might assume that brain damage from a stroke, dementia, or trauma// - would destroy your ability to create. Researchers at University of Dallas, set out to look at how professional and amateur artists, as well as those with no in...

Arithmetic Skills Found To Diminish With Progression Of Alzheimer’s Disease

A new study finds Alzheimer’s patients lose the ability to do simple mathematical calculations as their disease progresses. // Researchers conducted a study to look at the association between calculation skills and Alzheimer’s disease. The study included 20 patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Eleven of the patients had mild Alzheimer’s disease and nine were diagnosed with moderate Alzheim...

Physical Activity Good For Developing Cognitive Skills

Longer, more intense physical activity can help maintain cognitive skills in people as they age, say researchers according to // a new study. For the study researchers reviewed data on 295 men born between 1900 and 1920 from the Finland, Italy, and Netherlands Elderly (FINE) study. The length and intensity of physical activities of the participants was measured and cognitive function was...

Medulloblastoma Irradiation In Young Children Found To Impair IQ And Reading Skills

Radiation could be doing more harm than what you think. Low doses of radiation have been found to result in a reading impairment in children. It is not uncommon for children who suffer from medulloblastoma to undergo irradiation therapy // . The fact that this could result in affecting IQ and reading skills of younger children rather than destroying the tumor would need critical evaluati...

Developing Specific Skills Ensure Better Grades In US Kids

President Bush’s No Child Left Behind law has focused mainly on providing children with good grades rather than social development of the child.// A new study now says that programs that target anti-social behavior in schools also go a long way in improving overall academic performances. The study conducted by researchers by University of Washington's Social Development Research Group...

High Blood Pressure Leads to Rusting of Cognitive Skills

A survey of 26 other large studies has found that indicators of heart-health factors "like high blood pressure, diabetes and exercise habits" played a key role in the overall health of the brain as well. Cognitive// skills like reasoning and ability to learn decrease with age and lead to Alzheimer's disease or other forms of dementia. However, regular exercise, social contact and intellec...

Understanding Basic Motor Skills

Johns Hopkins researchers have induced mutations in mice to understand the various steps involved in learning basic motor skills. // The study mainly aims at following the behavior of two proteins and the specific steps they take to control a neuron's ability to learn by adapting to signals from other nerve cells. The findings were published in the journal Neuron. The study shows how the...

Lack Of Social Skills Linked To Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

A new study has found that poor social skills in some people may be due to their inability of the brain to process faces//. Known as autism spectrum disorder (ASD), it is characterised by varying degrees of impairment in communication skills, social interaction and restricted, repetitive and stereotyped patterns of behaviour. It had been thought that lack of social skills...

Sexy Images and Lingerie Challenge A Man’s Decision Making Skill

Catching sight of a pretty woman is enough to challenge a man’s decision-making skills, reveals a new research conducted by Belgian researchers. // Men shown images of lingerie or sexy women before attempting to play a financial game more likely to accept unfair offers. Furthermore, this effect was more pronounced when men had high testosterone levels. This study for the first time hi...

Effect Of Alcohol On Motor Skills

Researchers at Dartmouth are probing into the effects of alcohol on the brain. The findings show how the brain processes information even when reeling under intoxication.// It is noticed that people under the influence of alcohol do manage to retain certain motor skills and are able to work reasonably well. The researchers are trying to work out how exactly this comes about. "We found...

Bubble-Blowing Infants may Learn Language Skills Faster

Infants capable of performing complex mouth movements like blowing bubbles and licking their lips are more likely to pick up language quickly, researchers say. // Katie Alcock and fellow researchers at Lancaster University in Britain studied 120 toddlers and carried out a series of tests to identify skills that might predict a child's ability to develop language. They look...

Doctors In US Lack Skills For The Diagnosis Of TB

Reports have indicated that doctors in the US U.S. doctors often misdiagnose tuberculosis due to the rarity of the condition, leaving some patients to suffer for years.// Tuberculosis is among the most common infectious diseases in the world, and according to the World Health Organization, has taken the lives of around 1.7 million in the year 2004. A tuberculosis bacterium has the abi...

Parenting skills to manage bad behaviour

Psychologists at the University of Canberra claim that they may have mastered the art of dealing with bad behaviour of children. // Positive parenting program was developed 2 years ago by a team at the clinical master unit, with an intention to make parenting more pleasant. Minimizing stress and anxiety levels in parents by altering children’s behaviour was the aim. Researcher, Penny...

Many Medical Students Unprepared for Skilled Prescribing

Many medical students are unprepared for skilled prescribing, warn doctors in this week’s BMJ.Evidence of poor prescribing in the UK is abundant, write Jeffrey Aronson and colleagues.// Effective treatments are often underprescribed and prescription errors are common, especially when new doctors start work in hospitals. The reasons for these errors are manifold, say the authors. Some...

Incentives to stop Zimbabwe skills exodus

The Zimbabwe government has decided to spend US$2 million to curb a massive exodus of skilled workers like doctors, lawyers and nurses from the country.// This amount was allocated by the government as a part if a skills retention package. The state-controlled Herald was told by Washington Mbizvo, chairperson of a special government taskforce on skills retention, that improvement of con...

Campaign Against Cosmetic Surgeries Performed By Less-Skilled Non-physicians Launched

A group of dermatology surgeons have launched a public awareness campaign warning people against undertaking cosmetic surgery from less-skilled non-physicians performing the procedures.// The surgeons have cautioned that undergoing procedures like Botox injections, laser hair removal, microdermabrasion and chemical peels, which if performed by improperly trained personnel might result...

Skilled Obstetricians to avoid unnecessary Caesareans

A recent report has cautioned that junior doctors’ poor training is resulting in unnecessary emergency Caesarean births in many cases. Senior doctors have reported in this// week’s British Medical Journal (BMJ) that expert obstetricians can prevent several emergency Caesareans. Currently, in the UK, the decision whether to try a vaginal birth, using forceps or a ventouse, or carry out...

Lack of Equipment and Skilled Doctors Costing Civilian Lives in Iraq

Doctors working in Iraq admit that more than half of the civilians killed could have been saved if better medical equipment and more experienced staff and were available.// Writing in this week’s BMJ, Bassim Al Sheibani and colleagues say that as the violence escalates, the reality is that they cannot treat many of the victims. Official figures from Iraqi authorities and U...

Babies with Cleft Conditions, Pierre Robin Sequence May Need Extended Treatment for Poor Feeding Skills

A new study looking at the feeding skills of newborns with cleft conditions found that the prevalence of poor feeding steadily decreased within one year//, but that longer treatment may prove necessary for those with Pierre Robin sequence (PRS) or a syndrome. The study is published in the latest issue of The Cleft Palate–Craniofacial Journal.Poor feeding skills are relatively common in ne...

Children’s Verbal Skills Are Sharpened by Positive Parenting Behavior

Positive parenting habits may be the reason for enhanced verbal skills among preschoolers, and the perceived superiority of breast milk// over bottle milk in influencing cognitive abilities does not really hold water, a new study has shown. The findings have been published in the Journal Pediatrics. The study has found that some of the advantages in the brain attributed to nutrients...

Best HIV-Prevention Programs Help People Build Skills

A new evidence review is arming local health agencies with the most effective ways of stopping the spread of HIV – role-playing, better personal communication and proper condom use, for example.// But the government-backed study excluded from consideration needle-exchange and substance-abuse programs because they are not eligible for federal funding despite evidence of their effectiven...

Robotic Model To Teach Surgical Skills

Computer scientists at Johns Hopkins are making mathematical models to depict the safest and most effective ways to perform a surgery.// Surgical tasks such as suturing, dissecting and joining tissue are well illustrated in this model. The team's long-term goal is to develop an objective way of evaluating a surgeon's work and to help doctors improve their operating room skills. Ultima...

Latest Research on Visual Skills is an Eye Opener

Neuro science has trudged rough terrain towards understanding how the human brain learns to recognize objects. Pawan Sinha, a professor at the Massachusetts// Institute of Technology, in 2003 launched a project to study how visual skills are acquired. The project named "Project Prakash" aims to study, identify and, treat, children who are blind from birth, in India. The case of a lady bor...

Surgeons Skilled in Playing Video Games are Good at Simulated Surgery

A report in the February issue of Archives of Surgery suggests that surgeons portraying skill in playing video games fared better// during a course on simulated surgery skills. James C. Rosser Jr., M.D., of Beth Israel Medical Center, New York, and colleagues asked 33 surgeons (21 residents and 12 attending physicians) about their video game–playing habits, then assessed their perform...

No-scalpel Vasectomies by Skilled Surgeons may Speed Recovery

Among the birth control options for men no-scalpel vasectomies are highly preferred by the physicians. But despite its popularity //there is no definitive statistics to claim about the superiority of this procedure, as much has been stressed about the importance of the training. Yet training is not always available or sought, said lead reviewer Dr. Lynley Cook, a public health physici...

Combination of Brain Scans, Reading Skill Tests can Predict Kids Reading Problems

Researchers have found that functional brain scans and tests of reading skills when taken together are better at predicting which children will have ongoing reading problems. The study was conducted by a team of researchers led by led by Fumiko Hoeft at Stanford University School of Medicine. As part of the study, researchers examined 73 Pittsburgh-area children of ag...

Toddlers to Be Trained to Improve Their Communication Skills

Toddlers will be trained how to talk in an effort to apprehend the appalling decline in children's communication skills . A recent study revealed that half of the kids are not capable to form a sentence together at the age of five. Therefore, ministers are promoting the use of the unique "early talk" programme, targeted at infants from their initial months to age fiv...

Cognitive Skills Focused Curriculum may Lessen Kids' Behavioural Problems

A recent research has found that curriculum focused on cognitive skills may improve child behaviour. According to a recent study in Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences children who were taught a curriculum that focused on self-discipline and consideration of their own and others' emotions were found to display greater social competence and less behavioural and emotional prob...

More Than Humour or Great Look It is the Kissing Skills That Work Wonders!

Most Brits dont believe that a good sense of humour or great look is whats really needed to make a relationship work, but their partners kissing skills . A poll by online dating agency Match.com reveals that one in three Brits have dumped a lover because they were a miserable kisser. Eight out of the ten people who answered the questionnaire given by the website said th...

Tourettes Syndrome in Children may also Result in Superior Learning Skills

Researchers have found that children with Tourettes syndromean inherited neurological disorder with onset in childhood, have the propensity to learn certain mental grammar skills much faster than their peers without the disorder. According to neurologists at Georgetown University Medical Center and the Kennedy Krieger Institute, the findings suggest that abnormalities in the brain...