Month: April 2022

Our ability to look at abstract symbols and map them onto sounds is one of the key skills for becoming a competent reader. In the academic world, this is known as phonological processing, and this skill can vary from person to person, with conditions like dyslexia making it more difficult for some.    In a new study, a team of researchers tested two supposedly opposing hypotheses on how brain structures relate to reading skill, and rather strangely, found some support for both.  The human brain is naturally asymmetrical, and some of the structures on the left side are thought to be involved in language processing; according to the hypothesis called 'cerebral lateralization', the more asymmetry here, the better one's reading ability. On the other hand, it might also be that the presen...

A health worker prepares a dose of Pfizer-BioNTech's coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine as the COVID-19 vaccination campaign continues amid talks of a fourth dose for high-risk groups including those over the age of 60, in Malcha shopping mall, Jerusalem, December 22, 2021. REUTERS/Ammar Awad Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register April 14 (Reuters) - The following is a summary of some recent studies on COVID-19. They include research that warrants further study to corroborate the findings and that has yet to be certified by peer review. Fourth vaccine dose protects vs Omicron for at least a month A fourth dose of the COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer (PFE.N) and BioNTech (22UAy.DE) provided significant added protection against severe disease, hospitalization an...

Multiple coronavirus variants — and subvariants of those variants — are spreading throughout the United States and the world, raising questions about which COVID-19 symptoms to look out for. The backdrop: New COVID-19 variants are popping up all over the world right now. Some of the variants are subvariants of the omicron variant or recombinant variants that combine two different strains. Symptoms: Northwestern’s Dr. Michael Angarone, an associate professor of medicine in infectious diseases, told NBC Chicago that key COVID-19 symptoms right now are similar to other coronavirus symptoms. “So this is the same virus, so SARS Coronavirus 2, so we’re seeing the same symptoms,” he said. Yes, but: Dr. Gregory Huhn, an infectious disease physician, t...