About The Study: In this randomized clinical trial of older adults with diabetes, participants in the smart speaker group showed significant improvements in mental distress, quality of life, diabetes self-care, and glycemic control. These findings suggest that this easily implemented self-management intervention could enhance health outcomes in this population.

Recently, there has been convergence of thought by researchers in the fields of memory, perception, and neurology that the same neural circuitry that produces conscious memory of the past not only produces predictions of the future, but also conscious perception of the present.

 

In a new perspective in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, researchers explain that although our conscious perception appears to simply mirror the external world, due to neural processing delays this intuitive feeling must be wrong. Instead, unconscious perceptual mechanisms represent a timeline that is then consciously remembered. Because the default mode network, along with the frontoparietal control and salience networks, are critical for simulation and memory, they are also critical for consciousness.

Two studies conducted by researchers at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Rome campus, may pave the way for a new non-surgical treatment for craniosynostosis, a condition characterized by severe craniofacial malformations.Two studies conducted by researchers at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Rome campus, may pave the way for a new non-surgical treatment for craniosynostosis, a condition characterized by severe craniofacial malformations.

A short-term oat-based diet appears to be surprisingly effective at reducing the cholesterol level. This is indicated by a trial by the University of Bonn, which has now been published in the journal Nature Communications. The participants suffered from a metabolic syndrome – a combination of high body weight, high blood pressure, and elevated blood glucose and blood lipid levels. They consumed a calorie-reduced diet, consisting almost exclusively of oatmeal, for two days. Their cholesterol levels then improved significantly compared to a control group. Even after six weeks, this effect remained stable. The diet apparently influenced the composition of microorganisms in the gut. The metabolic products, produced by the microbiome, appear to contribute significantly to the positive effects of oats.