Latest news with #Augusta
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Dopamine Doesn't Work in Our Brains Quite The Way We Thought
Dopamine is one of the most extensively studied chemical messengers in the human brain, and yet scientists are still figuring out how it works to accomplish so much. For years, the classic view has been that, when released, dopamine slowly diffuses through the brain like a chemical megaphone, broadcasting information far and wide to numerous target cells. Recently, however, that perspective has changed. Newer research suggests that dopamine is also capable of short, sharp whispers, precisely directed within milliseconds to neighboring cells. If researchers are right, this localized signal could be a "fundamental building block" that's overlooked in the brain's dopamine system. Related: Dopamine in the brain is different to dopamine in the rest of the body. In the blood, dopamine helps modulate the function of multiple organs as well as our immune responses. In the brain, it's a chemical messenger involved in mediating a diversity of animal behaviors – from movement and mood to sleep and memory to reward and motivation. Neurons that release dopamine are known to do so with different firing patterns, and yet it's not clear what messages these specific signals encode, or why. The ability to send both fast and slow signals could explain how the brain's dopamine system can achieve so much with such specificity. Under a special microscope, which is well-suited to imaging living tissues, scientists at the University of Colorado and Augusta University in the US triggered a release of local dopamine in the brains of live mice. They then watched, using fluorescent staining, as it activated receptors in only a few, tiny areas of nearby neurons. This short-range activation elicited a rapid neural response. Broader dopamine release, meanwhile, is widespread and elicits a slower response. "Our current research found that dopamine signaling and transmission in the brain is much more complex than we thought," says pharmacologist Christopher Ford from the University of Colorado. "We knew that dopamine plays a role in many different behaviors, and our work gives the beginning of a framework for understanding how all those different behaviors could all be regulated by dopamine." The specific neurons studied by Ford and colleagues come from the brain's striatum – a part of the basal ganglia involved in motor and reward systems that is rich in dopamine-releasing neurons. The striatum receives dopamine inputs from various parts of the brain, and it is implicated in neurodegenerative disorders like schizophrenia, addiction, and ADHD. Parkinson's disease, for instance, is marked by a degeneration of dopamine neurons connecting to the striatum. A better understanding of how dopamine sends signals in this part of the brain could be crucial for coming up with new treatments for a variety of conditions. "We are really only at the tip of the iceberg in trying to understand how dysfunctions in dopamine contribute to diseases like Parkinson's disease, schizophrenia or addiction," says Ford. "More work is needed to grasp how these specific changes in dopamine signaling are affected in these different neurological and psychiatric diseases." The study was published in Science. Related News 5 Questions That Could Reveal a Truth About Your Aging Common Sweetener Could Damage Critical Brain Barrier, Risking Stroke Parkinson's Disease Has a Smell That Some Dogs Can Detect Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Augusta commission looks to fill empty seat Tuesday
AUGUSTA, Ga. (WJBF) – Alvin Mason said goodbye to the Augusta commission five weeks ago, and now there's a call for city leaders to do their job and fill the seat.'We got a lot of things on the table that the community is depending on us to make decisions on and having such a gap like that in District Four, we owe it to everyone involved to get the process moving,' said Commissioner Don get the commission back to full strength, six commissioners need to approve a nominee .'We're going to go in tomorrow to the meeting and listen to the nominations. We might take action tomorrow and we might not,' said Mayor Pro-Tem Wayne the commission appoints to replace Mason will see a lot of election action if they want to remain in the seat, because there will be a special election this year and the seat is up again next year.'So whoever is appointed, we would have to have a special election in November, so they would have to run for that, and then they would have to turn around and run again in May,' said Election Director Travis Doss.'Whoever decides to run will be pressed with you have to run in November, you'll have to run in May, so it's going to be not an easy challenge for somebody,' said times, commissioners can't come to an agreement, but city leaders believe there will be a decision at Tuesday's meeting.'I'm optimistic about that. I'm optimistic that all realize that with everything we have on the table, that we got to get this filled,' said Clark. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
When and where are 2026 men's golf majors? Venue, locations, dates for Masters, PGA, U.S. Open, British Open
The 2025 men's major season is complete, with Rory McIlroy accomplishing the career Grand Slam at the Masters, Scottie Scheffler getting two legs closer to doing the same at the PGA and The Open, and J.J. Spaun earning his maiden major in dramatic fashion at the U.S. Open. Here's a look at when and where the Big 4 (in bold) will be contested in 2026, as well as a few other high profile events in the men's professional game (note: PGA Tour has not released its full '26 schedule): DATE EVENT LOCATION DEFENDING CHAMP March 12-15 The Players Championship TPC SawgrassPonte Vedra Beach, Fla. Rory McIlroy April 9-12 Masters Tournament Augusta National Golf ClubAugusta, Ga. Rory McIlroy May 14-17 PGA Championship Arnonimink Golf ClubNewtown Square, Pa. Scottie Scheffler June 18-21 U.S. Open Shinnecock Hill Golf ClubSouthampton, N.Y. J.J. Spaun July 16-19 The Open Championship Royal BirkdaleSouthport, England Scottie Scheffler Aug. 20-23 Tour Championship East Lake Golf ClubAtlanta, Ga. (TBD; Scheffler, 2024 winner) Sept. 24-27 Presidents Cup Medinah Country ClubMedinah, Ill. United States
Perth Now
3 days ago
- Sport
- Perth Now
Magnificent seven? Scheffler plays down career slam
Scottie Scheffler has moved just one triumph away from joining golf's most elite club and could become part of a 'magnificent seven' if he completes the career grand slam of major championship victories at next year's US Open. Yet after his magisterial British Open win at Royal Portrush earned him the third leg of the slam on Sunday, the American superstar was quick to brush aside all the talk of a potential date with destiny at the Shinnecock Hills course on Long Island, New York next June. In April, there was much hoopla as Rory McIlroy became the sixth member of the career slam club when he joined Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods with his emotional Augusta triumph as the only men in the modern era to complete the Masters, US Open, British Open and PGA set. The greatest walk in golf. The Open (@TheOpen) July 20, 2025 The Northern Irishman was the first new member of that club for 25 years, but just a year later, Scheffler is widely fancied to be the next, such is his current pre-eminence in the game. Asked how he'd feel about a career slam before turning 30, though, Scheffler didn't really want to address the thought on Sunday. "I mean, it would obviously be very cool, but that's not what motivates me. I'm just trying to get the most out of myself, looking forward to the challenge of continuing to play professional golf, and every week is different," he shrugged. "This week, I was the best player, but the beauty is, we gotta tee up in Memphis again in a couple weeks (in a PGA event), and we start all over back at even par. "It's one of those funny things that since Rory accomplished that this year, it's on the front of everybody's mind, just because it is such an historic accomplishment in the game of golf. "What a tremendous thing for Rory to be able to accomplish. To win all four major championships is pretty dang special, it's for sure a career achievement. "But I don't focus too much on that stuff. When this season ends after the Ryder Cup for me, I'll get home, assess where my game's at and things I can improve on and then kind of go from there. "I don't think about winning tournaments. I just look at the body of work I have and just think about ways to improve." Once again, the most striking thing after Scheffler's four-stroke win at Portrush was his keenness to play down the magnitude of what he's achieving when his main priorities, as he once again reminded everyone, are "my faith, my family and golf is third in that order." COULD SCHEFFLER JOIN THE CAREER GRAND SLAM CLUB? Gene Sarazen (14 years to complete the 'slam' between 1922-35) Ben Hogan (8 years - 1946 to 1953) Gary Player (7 years - 1959-1965) Jack Nicklaus (5 years - 1962-1966) Tiger Woods (4 years - 1997-2000) Rory McIlroy (15 years - 2011-2025) Scottie Scheffler (5 years? 2022-2026?)
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Calling Scottie Scheffler 'boring' slights star's complete dominance
If any golf fan or media member ever uses the word "boring" in connection to Scottie Scheffler, their Masters credentials should be revoked, their golf clubs taken away and their country club logo polo shirts burned into a heap of ash. Because what is the point of this game if not to witness and recognize the brilliance, ruthlessness and efficiency of the greatest player we have seen since Tiger Woods? It has been in fashion over the past few years during Scheffler's rise to dismiss him as a personality, as an entity, regardless of his performance on the course. Too vanilla. Too understated. Too wholesome. Too much of a regular guy to lure the masses into watching a major championship Sunday. It's true that if Woods was dominating the Open Championship the way Scheffler did this weekend, culminating with a four-stroke victory and fourth major title, it would be a national event. Scheffler does not have that kind of pull now and probably never will. It's possible nobody ever will. But to downplay Scheffler because he doesn't generate that kind of fan adoration, or to ignore the fascinating moment he's creating right now for golf, is to completely miss the point. If you aren't enthralled watching somebody run laps around their peers in a sport that isn't supposed to produce week-in, week-out dominance, did you even like golf in the first place? If you aren't entertained by a player who picks the right strategy on almost every hole, controls his distances far better than anyone on the planet and is now an increasingly Woodsian clutch putter on major weekends, maybe pickleball is more your speed. What, do you want Scheffler to fist pump a little more? Start beefs with Rory McIlroy and Bryson DeChambeau? Reveal a messy personal life with a bashed-in windshield? Sorry, but that's not the way the Scheffler era is going to go down. Nor is it going to be an obsessive march toward Woods in the all-time major count the same way that Woods devoted his career to chasing down Jack Nicklaus' record of 18. In fact, it seems just as possible that whenever Scheffler inevitably wins a U.S. Open to complete his career Grand Slam, he might just head home to Texas for good, knowing there won't be much more to add to his legacy in the game. And we can speculate about that possibility because of what Scheffler revealed at his news conference before the Open began. The question was about how long Scheffler had ever celebrated a victory. What followed was a 494-word answer in which Scheffler described a phenomenon that many elite athletes, and particularly in this generation, understand innately but hesitate to talk about publicly. "It feels like you work your whole life to celebrate winning a tournament for, like, a few minutes," Scheffler said. "It only lasts a few minutes, that kind of euphoric feeling. To win the Byron Nelson Championship at home, I literally worked my entire life to become good at golf to have an opportunity to win that tournament. You win it, you celebrate, get to hug my family, my sister's there, it's such an amazing moment. Then it's like, OK, what are we going to eat for dinner? Life goes on. "Is it great to be able to win tournaments and to accomplish the things I have in the game of golf? Yeah, it brings tears to my eyes just to think about because I've literally worked my entire life to be good at this sport. To have that kind of sense of accomplishment, I think, is a pretty cool feeling. To get to live out your dreams is very special, but at the end of the day, I'm not out here to inspire the next generation of golfers. I'm not out here to inspire someone to be the best player in the world because what's the point? This is not a fulfilling life. It's fulfilling from the sense of accomplishment, but it's not fulfilling from a sense of the deepest places of your heart." He went on from there, talking about the wrestling match in his mind between desperately wanting to win tournaments such as the Masters and the Open and then realizing that, as soon as it's over, you kind of just move on to the next thing. "At the end of the day, sometimes I just don't understand the point," he said. If only Woods ever said anything half that interesting or revealing about his state of mind. Instead, he spent most of his prime regurgitating cliches and keeping his most humanizing qualities private until they unintentionally spilled out into the public realm. But Woods was a different phenomenon. He literally changed the game with his length of the tee, his physicality, his Black and Asian identity, his charismatic celebrations. It was fascinating and thrilling to watch it in real time, even as inevitable as his victories often seemed. Scheffler's superpower is that he clearly doesn't need this. He's driven to be great, but he also understands at age 29 that his life isn't going to be different in any meaningful way if he wins four majors or 14, and even his mood isn't going to change for more than a few minutes whether he wins or loses. And lately, there have been a lot of wins: 17 of them in his past 80 tournaments on the PGA Tour, with a statistical profile that puts him a lot closer to Woods than most people recognize. What Scheffler did this week at Royal Portrush to crush the field was clinical and skillful and often just breathtaking. Maybe that kind of monotonous winning doesn't sell a lot of golf clubs or watches to the casual fan, but it's authentic to a player who should only be accused of boring the masses in one sense: He's figured out this game in a way only a small handful of others ever have. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Scottie Scheffler's continued dominance far from boring
