Feature Channels: Neuro

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The new study found that children with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder integrated in regular schools find it difficult to perform writing tasks. This can impair their academic achievements, social availability, and self-confidence. Prof. Sara Rosenblum, who authored the study, comments: “The education system addresses reading skills, but there is insufficient attention to writing skills

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Mediodorsal thalamus allows us to incorporate new information in decision-making.

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The University of Chicago's Biological Sciences Division announces a new major in neuroscience, giving students in the undergraduate College an opportunity to focus on the brain and nervous system.

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Rats that responded to cues for sugar with the speed and excitement of binge-eaters were less motivated for the treat when certain neurons were suppressed, researchers discovered.

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Not all habits are bad. Some are even necessary. But inability to switch from acting habitually to acting in a deliberate way can underlie addiction and obsessive compulsive disorders. Working with a mouse model, an international team of researchers demonstrates what happens in the brain for habits to control behavior.

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A surgically implanted neuroprosthesis—programmed to stimulate coordinated activity of hip, knee, and ankle muscles—has led to substantial improvement in walking speed and distance in a patient with limited mobility after a stroke, according to a single-patient study in the American Journal of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, the official journal of the Association of Academic Physiatrists. The journal is published by Wolters Kluwer.

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Increase in the brain's grey matter proof that the brain has the ability to rescue itself.

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Click to visit the Aging Channel

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Evidence is mounting that a diet mimicking the effects of fasting has health benefits beyond weight loss, with a new USC-led study indicating that it may reduce symptoms of multiple sclerosis.

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When nerve cells have to communicate with each other in our brains, it involves release of small signal molecules, the so-called neurotransmitters, which act as chemical messengers in specific points of contact between nerve cells, called synapses. Here the released neurotransmitter is bound and registered by receptors at the surface of the receiving nerve cell. This will, in turn, trigger a signal which is sent on to other nerve cells.

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A neurosurgeon who specializes in deep brain stimulation (DBS) is seeking a target in the brains of bi-polar disorder patients for possible DBS implantation to provide help to them.

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A study from The Scripps Research Institute suggests external stimulation guides certain neurons’ early development so that inhibitory neurons split into two different types of neurons, each with a different job, adding another level of complexity and regulation to the brain’s circuitry.

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Johns Hopkins researchers report they have inadvertently found a way to make human muscle cells bearing genetic mutations from people with Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

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After eating a meal, you can thank your vagus nerve for sensing and signaling that feeling of fullness to your brain. That same nerve also detects nutrients and controls digestion. The vagus has long been recognized as a remarkable internal sensory system, regulating breathing and heart rate among other functions. Yet how it receives the information it uses to perform these tasks has been less well-known.

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UTHealth’s Mobile Stroke Unit —the nation’s first — is one of many ways the UT System’s 14 health and academic institutions are fighting stroke through research, technology and patient care.

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As the difficulty of making a decision based on sensory evidence increases, activity in the brain’s insular cortex also increases, according to researchers at Georgia State University.

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Life sometimes takes an unexpected turn, whether you’re a scientist or a nematode. Take, for example, the curveball thrown to graduate student Candice Yip when she set out to study nerve growth in the head of Caenorhabditis elegans and instead discovered how an abnormal number of sensory neurons share space throughout the tiny worm’s body.

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Click to go to the Sex and Relationships News Source

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Two young women, one disabled by a mortar blast in Afghanistan and the other injured in several battles while helping women in Baghdad, are the first two women veterans in Sandia National Laboratories’ Wounded Warrior Career Development Program (WWCDP).

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Approximately half of patients hospitalized with traumatic brain injuries are anemic, according to recent studies, but anemia’s effects on the recovery of these patients is not clear. Now, researchers from the University of Missouri School of Medicine have found evidence that anemia can negatively influence the outcomes of patients with traumatic brain injuries.

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Researchers have identified a group of immune system genes that may play a role in how long people can live after developing a common type of brain cancer called glioblastoma multiforme, a tumor of the glial cells in the brain. The research is published in the May 25, 2016, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

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New, screen-printed, flexible MRI coils may be able to reduce the amount of time it takes to get an MRI scan. Researchers funded by the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), have developed light and flexible MRI coils that produce high quality MRI images and in the future could lead to shorter MRI scan time periods.

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A study led by Achala Vagal, MD, associate professor at the University of Cincinnati (UC) College of Medicine and a UC Health radiologist, looked at a group of untreated acute stroke patients and found that there was no evidence of time dependence on damage outcomes for the penumbra (tissue that is at risk of progressing to dead tissue but is still salvageable if blood flow is returned) but rather an association with collateral flow—or rerouting of blood through clear vessels.

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A team led by Achala Vagal, MD, associate professor at University of Cincinnati College of Medicine researchers wanted to see whether differences in race, sex and/or age mattered when it came to neuroimaging use, and these findings, which showed a difference for young patients, men and African-Americans, will be presented at the American Society of Neuroradiology’s annual meeting May 25 in Washington, DC.

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The visible impacts of depression and stress that can be seen in a person's face -- and contribute to shorter lives -- can also be found in alterations in genetic activity, according to newly published research from the Indiana University School of Medicine and the Scripps Research Institute.

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In a paper published in the current Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine and Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System say existing screening tools for mild cognitive impairment (MCI) result in a false-negative error rate of more than 7 percent. These persons are misclassified as not having MCI based on standard screening instruments but actually do have MCI when more extensive testing is conducted.

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For the eighth year in a row, Loyola University Medical Center has received the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With the Guidelines®-Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award.

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Researchers are making progress in understanding exactly how sleep helps the brain lay down memories and remove waste products. The findings may have implications for diseases in which sleep and memory are impaired. Alzforum reports.

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UCLA neuroscientists have identified in mice how the brain links different memories over time. The findings suggest a possible intervention for people suffering from age-related memory problems.

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Click to visit the Children's Health Channel

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Mariana was brought to Loyola Medical Center to treat a rare brain tumor at the young age of five. Her treatment process was extensive, including surgery, radiation and intense chemotherapy. Throughout it all, Mariana kept an optimistic attitude.

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UT Southwestern Medical Center has joined an international consortium of leading universities to study the effectiveness of various stroke treatments from the patient’s perspective.

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Why We Get Tired When We Stay Up Too Late, Pain and Anxiety Drug Linked to Birth Defects, Old Drug Could Fight Brain Cancer and more in the Neuroscience and Neurology News Source

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In this month’s release, find new embargoed research about state-level firearm ownership and suicide rates; the impact of state laws on young people’s views on marijuana; and academic dysfunction in students with concussions.

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Adults with hypertension who are age 75 years and older, including those who are frail and with poor overall health, could benefit from lowering their blood pressure below current medical guidelines. The multi-institutional investigation was published online in The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) and presented at the American Geriatrics Society Annual Scientific Meeting on May 19. The findings could have broad health implications for older Americans, 75 percent of whom have high blood pressure.

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Coprophagia, eating one’s feces, is common in animals but rarely seen in humans. Mayo Clinic researchers reviewed the cases of a dozen adult patients diagnosed with coprophagia over the past 20 years and found that the behavior is associated with a wide range of neuropsychiatric disorders, particularly neurodegenerative dementias. The findings are published in the Journal of Neurology.

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New study explores the effect baby vocalizations have on adult cognition.

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Studying fruit flies, whose sleep is remarkably similar to that in people, Johns Hopkins researchers say they’ve identified brain cells that are responsible for why delaying bedtime creates chronic sleepiness.

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Wolters Kluwer, a leading global provider of information and point-of-care solutions for the health care industry, is pleased to announce that its Lippincott Williams & Wilkins (LWW) journal portfolio has won 24 awards across 18 categories, including Publication of the Year, in the American Society of Healthcare Publication Editors (ASHPE) annual awards competition. ASHPE recognizes member articles and publications for editorial, design, print and online award categories.

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A drug commonly used to treat pain, epilepsy, anxiety and other brain health disorders may be associated with an increased risk of major birth defects, according to a study published in the May 18, 2016, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

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A 24-hour rhythm of cellular detoxification in flies and mammals is coordinated by a neuropeptide that also drives feeding in both organisms. Many detoxification genes are expressed with a circadian rhythm in the mouse liver and in the fruitfly equivalent called the fat body. This work could eventually have implications for chronotherapy -- the study of the timing of when best to take medications.

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More research on usage of ketamine as an antidepressant is needed.

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Researchers from the University of Wisconsin investigate drug delivery to the brain.

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New research from St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital shows support interventions by child life specialists decrease sedation use and costs associated with cranial radiation therapy.

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Why people on immunosuppressant drugs for autoimmune conditions have a higher incidence of an often-fatal brain disease may be linked to a mutation in a common virus, according to researchers at Penn State College of Medicine.

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Glioblastoma, the most common form of brain cancer is a deadly disease for which at present there is no cure. Now, researchers have published research results that show how repurposing the old drug flavopiridol could be an effective strategy to cut short sugar availability and impair cancer growth.

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Deterioration in a person’s ability to smell can sometimes be an early sign of neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s. Now, researchers at the Monell Center have established a collaboration with the Brain Health Registry to gain better insight into how changes in a person’s sense of smell may relate to health status and cognitive function.

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Non-Hispanic blacks are almost twice as likely as non-Hispanic whites to be diagnosed with schizophrenia, but they’re significantly less likely to receive medication for treatment, according to researchers.

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People suffering from major depressive disorder may have altered purine metabolism, according to a new study from the University of Eastern Finland and Kuopio University Hospital. Purines are nitrogenous compounds that serve as building blocks for DNA and they also play a role in cellular signalling, among other things.

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A new study from Uppsala University shows that compared to non-shift workers, shift workers needed more time to complete a test that is frequently used by physicians to screen for cognitive impairment. However, those who had quit shift work more than five years ago completed the test just as quick as the non-shift workers. The findings are published in the journal Neurobiology of Aging.