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Home > UC Science Today > The weekly roundup - Feb 3rd
Podcast: UC Science Today
Episode:

The weekly roundup - Feb 3rd
Category: Science & Medicine
Duration: 00:02:05
Publish Date: 2017-02-01 18:00:00
Description: Does talking or singing to a newborn really their brain development? This week on Science Today, we chatted with neurologist Mercedes Paredes of the University of California, San Francisco to find out. She says this type of stimulation may affect inhibitory neurons, which keep fine-tuning and shaping infants’ brains during the first couple months of life. "These cells are reaching their target, these brain regions that control the development of motor skills, social skills and language skills. So, I imagine that they might play a role in that. And understanding how they do that will be important for parents knowing, OK, these are the foundations of how the milestones develop." And as far as we’re concerned, talking or singing to newborns is hard to resist! But how about when those babies become adolescents? There may not be as much talking going then as they hole up in their rooms using social media. But how is that affecting their brains? UCLA’s Adriana Galván says there’s still not enough data to determine the impact because the media itself is still relatively new. "And so we don’t have the long-term data over many years to determine what it’s doing to the brain, but certainly we do know that it’s another form of teenagers having more social interactions, having greater reactions emotionally to things that they see on media or read about, but we don’t really know what it’s doing to the brain, yet, but stay tuned - a lot of people are doing that research." Finally, with heavy rainfalls helping quench the parched state of California, there are some questions being raised in the aftermath of drought. UC Berkeley biologist Todd Dawson says in the last couple of years, droughts have killed millions of trees in the Golden State. "Will we have to manage our forests in different ways? So for example, we have to thin some of our forests, so the limited water resources that we have can keep at least some trees alive, but maybe not at the densities that our current forests are at." So Dawson calls for scientists to work more closely with governmental agencies to choose the best environmental strategies, especially when it comes to water. That’s all for now – if you want to hear these and other University of California research stories, subscribe to Science Today on iTunes. I’m Larissa Branin, thanks for listening. Subscribe to Science Today: iTunes: apple.co/1TQBewD Stitcher: www.stitcher.com/podcast/science-today Follow us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ucsciencetoday Stories mentioned in this roundup: https://soundcloud.com/sciencetoday/baby_brain https://soundcloud.com/sciencetoday/adolescent_brain_research https://soundcloud.com/sciencetoday/drought_aftermath
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