The lack of ability to “smell fear” may reveal clues about behaviour and brain development in people with autism, according to a new study. We may not be aware of it, but research suggests many people are able to smell fear. In fact, the ability to subliminally detect and respond to odours may relate to a variety of emotions we feel, ranging from happiness to aggression. But in a new study published in Nature Neuroscience, Professor Noam Sobel and collaborators at the Weizmann Institute of Science suggest this ability might be disrupted in people with autism. People with autism often have difficulty processing sensory information.
November 29, 2017
Autism typically involves the inability to read social cues. We most often associate this with visual difficulty in interpreting facial expression, but new research at the Weizmann Institute of Science suggests that the sense of smell may also play a central role in autism. As reported in Nature Neuroscience, Institute researchers show that people on the autism spectrum have different – and even opposite – reactions to odors produced by the human body. These odors are ones that we are unaware of smelling, but which are, nonetheless, a part of the nonverbal communication that takes place between people, and which have been shown to affect our moods and behavior. Their findings may provide a unique window on autism, including, possibly, on the underlying developmental malfunctions in the disorder.
November 27, 2017
While humans aren’t as smell-dependent as many other animals, studies have shown we respond differently to others when they’re emitting certain olfactory signals—even if we can’t consciously detect them. In a study published today in Nature Neuroscience, researchers find that men with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) sometimes respond differently to these chemical cues in human sweat than do people without the disorder, indicating that such responses may partly explain the disorder’s symptoms.
November 27, 2017
Pancreatic cancer is deadly: It’s difficult to detect and bedeviling to treat. Just 20 percent of patients survive a year after diagnosis. Less than 10 percent make it to the five-year mark. But recent discoveries — both in the lab and in patients — are raising hope. They’re still early stage. Yet they offer new insight into the causes and progression of the disease — and they may ultimately help doctors better detect, and treat, this difficult cancer.
November 16, 2017
Researchers on the quest to solve the puzzle of what causes deafness got one small step closer with the announcement that scientists at Tel Aviv University and the Weizmann Institute of Science have mapped a certain type of RNA (a molecule essential to the coding and expression of genes) that exists in close proximity to the genes related to hearing.
November 12, 2017
November 14 is World Diabetes Day and the month of November is National Diabetes Month in the United States. While there is not yet a cure for diabetes, many Israeli researchers and companies offer improved approaches for avoiding, managing and treating the condition. Diabetes is a chronic disease that occurs when the pancreas cannot make insulin – the hormone that regulates blood sugar — or when the body cannot make good use of the insulin it makes.
November 09, 2017
In this video on Business Insider, Prof. Eran Segal explains why what – and when – we eat is so important.
November 02, 2017
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