News

Children learn to read by building a number of skills. Learn more about how reading works in this slideshow.

NIH seeks input on a proposed new research program to assess biological, chemical, psychosocial, and other environmental influences on child health outcomes. Join one of NIH’s webinars to learn more.

Stimulating a type of brain cell receptor launches a series of events that ultimately lead to the receptor’s deactivation in a subset of cells important for coordinating the activity of brain networks, report a team of scientists at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

The Cincinnati MR Imaging of Neurodevelopment (C-MIND) study was launched in 2009 to establish a new resource for the research community: a database of scans showing the structure and activity of the growing brain. C-MIND has taken an unprecedented look at what’s going on inside the heads of hundreds of kids from ages 0 to 18.

NICHD supports a variety of research projects and networks that are useful to neuroscientists. Find a detailed list here.

When animals are present, children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) have lower readings on a device that detects anxiety and other forms of social arousal when interacting with their peers.

NICHD’s Division of Intramural Research releases its 2014 annual report with progress updates from each program and laboratory.

Growing up poor affects the brain. That’s the conclusion of researchers from nine universities across the country who’ve completed the largest study of its kind to date.

Lack of vitamin E may contribute to cognitive disorders by robbing brain cells of a substance important for their structure, according to a study of zebrafish funded by the National Institutes of Health.

April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month, a time to acknowledge the importance of families and communities working together to prevent child abuse and neglect.

A new study has found that extremely overweight or obese children are slower than healthy-weight children to recognize when they have made an error during an ongoing activity, and are slower to correct the error.

About 22% of school-age children speak a language other than English at home, according to the US Census Bureau. The percentage is even higher, 64%, among Hispanic children. Still, it is commonly believed by some that teaching more than one language to children confuses them. Now, new research shows that in fact, bilingualism actually boosts the brain.

Researchers from the National Institutes of Health have entered into an agreement with biotechnology company Vtesse, Inc., of Gaithersburg, Maryland, to develop treatments for Niemann-Pick disease type C (NPC) and other lysosomal storage disorders.

NICHD Director Alan E. Guttmacher announced that, after an extensive national search, Alison Cernich, Ph.D., has been selected as Director of the National Center for Medical Rehabilitation Research.

Young children who have long-term high blood sugar levels are more likely to have slower brain growth, according to researchers at centers including the National Institutes of Health.

For 2 days in April 2014, military families, researchers, educational and health care service providers, and other stakeholders came together on the NIH campus to talk about military families. They were participants in a conference on Military-Connected Children with Special Health Care Needs and Their Families.

Nearly 55 percent of U.S. infants are placed to sleep with bedding that increases the risk of sudden infant death syndrome, or SIDS, despite recommendations against the practice, report researchers at the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and other institutions.

More than 40 percent of infants in a group who died of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) were found to have an abnormality in a key part of the brain, researchers report. The abnormality affects the hippocampus, a brain area that influences such functions as breathing, heart rate, and body temperature, via its neurological connections to the brainstem. According to the researchers, supported by the National Institutes of Health, the abnormality was present more often in infants who died of SIDS than in infants whose deaths could be attributed to known causes.

TBIs and concussions get a lot of attention in the news. In football players at all levels, repeated concussions have been linked to long-term health problems. Veterans have come back from wars with brain injuries caused by explosions. TBIs also happen in daily life. Children fall on the playground, and elderly people have balance problems that lead to more falls. As common as TBIs are, though, there is still much to learn about how to treat these injuries and how to deal with related problems over the long term.

When researchers triggered an immune response in the wombs of pregnant mice, their offspring showed signs of brain damage that lasted well into adulthood. The animal’s hippocampus—that’s the part of the brain responsible for memory and spatial orientation—was smaller, and they had poor motor skills and behavioral issues, like hyperactivity.