Can lidocaine… mess up your brain?! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Lidocaine is a commonly used local anesthetic. BUT elderly patients who typically undergo more surgeries have long lasting memory issues after. Coincidence? Xiaohui Chen and colleagues from Fujian Medical University investigated! The team
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Buzz off, lover boy. This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Over the past THIRTY years, Hawaiian crickets have dramatically changed their mating calls. What gives? Unwanted attention, says Aaron Wikle and team from the University of Denver. Enter NON-native Hawaiian parasitic flies. They embed their
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Don’t come any closer! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. People with psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia, tend to need more personal space. Why? Enter, Louis Vinke and team at Massachusetts General Hospital. They recruited healthy adults and participants diagnosed with schizophrenia. While participants watched
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Take a chill pill! For the grandbabies! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Our D-N-A code makes us who we are! But how does stress affect that code? Enter Stephanie King and team at the University of Lethbridge. They investigated how stress is carried across
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I see the light! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Treating disease can be like a shot in the dark. If only we could see better. How can we brighten things up? Enter, Lila Halpers and team at the University of California, Irvine. They looked
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Your therapist doesn’t get you? Maybe try one named HAL… This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Dariya Ovsyannikova and team from the University of Toronto put ChatGPT in the psychoanalyst’s chair! Human study participants first read either a negative or positive emotional prompt. Then they
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Neuroscience goes punk? I’m a teenage lobotomy! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. No one wants to leave from their brain scan looking like Joey Ramone! But that bulky headgear for electroencephalograms is a guaranteed bad hair day. How can we make E-E-G’s … cooler
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As the childhood tune goes: your nose brain’s connected to your… ear brain?! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Why do certain culinary aromas make our ears perk up? Nathan Vogler and team at the University of Pennsylvania investigated. They identified a direct connection between
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Is the key to better sleep… Enzyme fight club?!? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. In tonight’s main event: Kinase vs Phosphatase! Kinases add specific molecules to other proteins, while phosphatases undo the work of the kinases. The activity balance of these proteins can determine
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We can all use a helping … finger? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Even doctors make mistakes. We’re all human after all! Or at least for now…Dun! Dun! DUN! Enter robots – good robots – and Hongbo Wang’s team at the University of Science
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