American brain vs Chinese brain

[Yaxya]

The mechanics of dyslexia vary from East to West


A new study finds that brain mechanics of dyslexics in Hong Kong and in Chicago as they try to read may be as different as Chinese is from English.

A dyslexic in Hong Kong is not the same as a dyslexic in Chicago.

Both may find it harder to make their way through even fairly simple written material than other people to do.

But a new study finds that their brain mechanics as they try to read may be as different as Chinese is from English. The report appeared last week in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The difference may be explained by the fact that English is an alphabetic language, the researchers said. A reader sees a letter and associates it with a sound. Chinese characters, on the other hand, correspond to syllables and require much more memorization.

When the researchers used functional MRI machines to look at the workings of the brain, they found differences in the temporoparietal and occipitotemporal regions for English speakers, and in the left middle frontal gyrus region for Chinese speakers.

"The fact that Chinese and Western dyslexics show structural abnormalities in different brain regions suggests that dyslexia may even be two different brain disorders in two cultures," the researchers wrote.

A PLUS FOR HYPERTENSION Could there be an upside to high blood pressure? Well, it may lower the chances of having headaches, including migraines, researchers have reported.
That may well be the only good thing to be said for high blood pressure, a cause of serious health problems. It also reflects a shift in thinking about what role blood pressure plays in headaches.

For years, the researchers write in the journal Neurology on Monday, scientists assumed that people with high blood pressure were more likely to get headaches. Then studies found no association.

But recently, evidence is showing that the relationship may be the opposite of what was first believed.

The study, led by Dr. Erling Tronvik of Trondheim University Hospital in Norway, looked at data from more than 50,000 people in that country over two different periods.

The biggest benefit was found in people with the highest pulse pressure, a measurement of the difference between the diastolic and systolic pressure at the moment the heart beats. They had up to 50 percent fewer headaches.

The explanation for why hypertension may reduce headaches, the researchers said, may lie in the tendency of people with high blood pressure to have stiffer artery walls - a condition that can lead to less overall pain.