news 2021

Maternal pheromones play an important role in infant sociability, according to a new study at CHU Sainte-Justine. Maternal pheromones enhance synchrony between the infant's and the mother's brains, suggesting their role in the development of the baby's "social instinct" and opening the door to new therapeutic strategies for developmental disorders.

When baby 'Neve' died 10,000 years ago, she was accorded a proper burial recognizing her as a full person, archeologists on a dig in Italy find. The baby girl was born roughly 10,000 years ago, after the end of the last Ice Age in what is now Liguria, northwestern Italy, but didn't survive more than two months.

A first-of-its-kind study by Schulich Medicine & Dentistry researchers dispels a controversial gender dysphoria theory that activists and experts have called inaccurate and harmful to transgender people. Greta Bauer, PhD, and her team at Trans Youth CAN! found no evidence in a recent study to support the idea of rapid onset gender dysphoria (ROGD) - a proposed condition often used as an argument against providing gender-affirming medical care to young people.

With thousands of wells and counting, the Northeast region of British Columbia is one of Canada's most important hubs of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking - the process of blasting pressurized liquid at rock formations to fracture them and release the natural gas trapped inside. Part of the region sits atop the Montney Formation, a massive, football-shaped tract of land that stretches into northwestern Alberta and is believed to contain one of the world's richest reserves of shale gas.

A child plays with sensory-based objects during a day camp in January 2020, held by the Sensory Perception Research lab at Western University. (Maggie MacLellan/Western Communications) By Maggie MacLellan, Special to Western News November 15, 2021 Results of a recent study on sensory abilities in autistic children may have positive consequences to the way supports are provided to them, helping increase their quality of life.

In her Ph.D. research, Christiane Kammogne found that ethnicity is a significant factor in mental health in the Canadian workplace. When Christiane Kammogne left Cameroun after completing a bachelor's degree in management, the concept of work-related stress wasn't on her radar screen. In 2011, two years after arriving in France, she was astonished to learn of suicides among employees at the company where she was employed as an HR advisor.

Mercury exposure in people may be low even when it is sometimes present in elevated levels in traditional foods. The benefits of consuming traditional foods tend to outweigh the risks of possible mercury contamination, according to a recent study. The research, which was part of a larger biomonitoring project to address community concerns about environmental contaminants in traditional foods, such as fish, also found that mercury exposure in people may be low even when it is sometimes present in elevated levels.

A new study published in the journal PLOS ONE from researchers at Simon Fraser University (SFU) and the University of British Columbia (UBC) has found that young adults feel highly responsible for protecting themselves and others against the spread of COVID-19, but face confusion when trying to comply with public health orders due to inconsistent messaging and ineffective outreach strategies.

A meta-analysis conducted at CHU Sainte-Justine and UdeM reveals that suicidal tendencies can often precede substance-use disorders, not just cause them. The idea that alcohol, cannabis, and other drug abuse and dependence disorders lead to suicidal tendencies in adolescents and young adults is being challenged by the results of a new study in PLOS ONE conducted at Université de Montréal and CHU Sainte-Justine children's hospital.

A new study UdeM study suggests that young boys who do sports tend to be have better mental health when they reach middle childhood and be more active in early adolescence. Boys who participate in sports in early childhood are less likely to experience later depressive and anxiety symptoms - known as emotional distress - in middle childhood, a new study led by Université de Montréal psychoeducator Marie-Josée Harbec.

The capacity of coral reefs to provide ecosystem services relied on by millions of people worldwide has declined by half since the 1950s, according to a new University of British Columbia-led study. The study offers the first comprehensive look at what climate change, overfishing, and habitat destruction of coral reefs mean for their ecosystem services, or the ability of the reef to provide essential benefits and services to humans, including food, livelihoods, and protection from storms.