Study finds impact of social disadvantages on fetal brain development

Human evolution has long been tied to growing brain size, and new research suggests prenatal hormones may have played a surprising role. By studying the relative lengths of the index and ring fingers, a marker of prenatal exposure to oestrogen and testosterone, researchers found that higher prenatal oestrogen exposure was associated with larger head size in newborn boys.

The scientists have discovered that the adolescent brain does more than prune old connections. During the teen years, it actively builds dense new clusters of synapses in specific parts of neurons.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), through its Regional Medical Research Centre, Bhubaneswar (RMRCBB) and National Institute of Malaria Research (NIMR), in partnership with the Department of Biotechnology-National Institute of Immunology (DBT-NII), is currently developing a novel recombinant chimeric malaria vaccine candidate, named AdFalciVax.

India's manufacturing landscape is undergoing a significant transformation, fueled by robust infrastructure development and supportive government policies, as revealed in a recent report by Cushman & Wakefield named Elevating India's Manufacturing Resilience: Charting the Path to Self-Reliance.

Scientists discovered that a previously uncharacterized subset of immune cells may play an important role in the development of allergy illnesses and explain disparities between urban and rural populations.

Millions of kilometers of rivers around the world are carrying antibiotic pollution at levels high enough to promote drug resistance and harm aquatic life, a new study warns.

Growth patterns during a child's first two years of life may shape pubertal growth and adult height, but have little effect on pubertal timing, according to research presented at the first Joint Congress of the European Society of Paediatric Endocrinology (ESPE) and the European Society of Endocrinology (ESE).

Dancing fluidly with someone requires social coordination. This skill requires coordinating movements with others while also processing dynamic sensory input, such as sounds and visuals.

People with autism are typically diagnosed by clinical observation and assessment. To deconstruct the clinical decision process, which is often subjective and difficult to describe, researchers used a large language model (LLM) to synthesize the behaviors and observations that are most indicative of an autism diagnosis.

Good parenting can make a huge difference as newborns learn to communicate and process information. An increasing amount of early childhood development research has indicated that parent training is a worthwhile investment in improving childhood outcomes.