Just friends?

Wondering if your partner is cheating? His or her voice may be a dead giveaway.
New research by Albright College psychology professor Susan Hughes has found that men and women alter their voices when speaking to lovers versus friends and those variations can potentially be used to detect infidelity.
"It's not just that we change the sound of our voice, but that others can easily perceive those changes," said Hughes, an expert in evolutionary psychology and voice perception. The findings are included in a new article, "People Will Know We Are in Love: Evidence of Differences Between Vocal Samples Directed Toward Lovers and Friends," published this month in the Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. Researchers recruited 24 callers who were newly in love and still in the so-called honeymoon period. Callers were asked to phone their romantic partners, as well as a close same-sex friend, and in both cases engage in a conversation asking specifically "how are you?" and "what are you doing?"
Researchers then played the recordings to 80 independent raters who judged the samples for sexiness, pleasantness and degree of romantic interest. Raters were able to correctly identify whether the caller was speaking to a friend or lover. Researchers also found that women use a lower pitch, while men employ a higher one when speaking to their romantic partner.

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Brain May Flush out Toxins During Sleep

A good night's rest may literally clear the mind. Using mice, researchers showed for the first time that the space between brain cells may increase during sleep, allowing the brain to flush out toxins that build up during waking hours. These results suggest a new role for sleep in health and disease. The study was funded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), part of the NIH.
"Sleep changes the cellular structure of the brain. It appears to be a completely different state," said Maiken Nedergaard, M D, a leader of the study.
For centuries, scientists and philosophers have wondered why people sleep and how it affects the brain. Only recently have scientists shown that sleep is important for storing memories. In this study, Dr Nedergaard and her colleagues unexpectedly found that sleep may be also be the period when the brain cleanses itself of toxic molecules.
Their results, published in Science, show that during sleep a plumbing system called the glymphatic system may open, letting fluid flow rapidly through the brain. Dr Nedergaard's lab recently discovered the glymphatic system helps control the flow of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), a clear liquid surrounding the brain and spinal cord.

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IMPROVING SEX LIFE THROUGH YOGA

Partner yoga may help couples who are struggling with sexual dysfunction, according to sexual wellness experts at Loyola University Health System (LUHS).
This form of yoga uses massage, breathing exercises and mutually beneficial postures couples can do together to build trust, relax and have fun.
"Distance and resentment can develop in marriages over time," said Susan Walsh, psychologist and certified yoga instructor at LUHS. "Partner yoga can clear this negative energy and help a couple reconnect and become comfortable with touch and intimacy."
The most common problems that affect sexual health include decreased libido, painful intercourse, inability to have an orgasm, erectile dysfunction and premature ejaculation. Loyola's programme will address these issues in six weekly visits led by a team of obstetricians and gynecologists, urologists, psychologists, nurses, social workers, dietitians and yoga instructors.
“Our sexual wellness specialists recognise that there are many factors that affect intimacy," said Dr. Walsh, who also is an associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Neurosciences at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine. "Partner yoga will be one way that we help couples strengthen their relationship emotionally, physically and spiritually to ultimately build a deeper connection and improve sexual health."

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A Hair Raising Solution

Researchers at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) have devised a hair restoration method that can generate new human hair growth, rather than simply redistribute hair from one part of the scalp to another. According to a study published in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, The approach could significantly expand the use of hair transplantation to women with hair loss, who tend to have insufficient donor hair, as well as to men in early stages of baldness.
"About 90 percent of women with hair loss are not strong candidates for hair transplantation surgery because of insufficient donor hair," said co-study leader Angela M Christiano, PhD. "This method offers the possibility of inducing large numbers of hair follicles or rejuvenating existing hair follicles, starting with cells grown from just a few hundred donor hairs. It could make hair transplantation available to individuals with a limited number of follicles, including those with female-pattern hair loss, scarring alopecia, and hair loss due to burns."
The source of new hair: For the first time, researchers have been able to take human dermal papilla cells (those inside the base of human hair follicles) and use them to create new hairs.