A study presented at the annual meeting of the American Association of Neuromuscular & Electrodiagnostic Medicine (AANEM) adds more credence to a growing awareness of the high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in neuromuscular disease.
During the first 24 hours after a stroke, attention to detail --such as hospital bed positioning -- is critical to patient outcomes.
Turns out your mom was right: scratching an itch only makes it worse. New research from scientists at the Center for the Study of Itch at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis reveals that scratching causes the brain to release serotonin, which intensifies the itch sensation.
Researchers at the Krembil Neuroscience Centre have potentially discovered a major cause of dementia. In this type of dementia, there is damage to the white matter (nerve fibres) of the brain apparent on computerized tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans of older individuals.
Myasthenia gravis is a disorder than can be associated with abnormal function outside of skeletal muscle. Two studies presented at the annual meeting of the American Association of Neuromuscular & Electrodiagnostic Medicine (AANEM) demonstrate that there is a significant proportion of myasthenia patients with arrhythmias and co-morbid inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
Lou Gehrig’s disease, also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, attacks muscle-controlling nerve cells – motor neurons – in the brain, brainstem and spinal cord. Patients typically survive only three to five years after diagnosis. Now, with publication of a study by investigators at the Cedars-Sinai Board of Governors Regenerative Medicine Institute, ALS researchers know the effects of the attack are worsened, at least in part, by the aging and failure of support cells called astrocytes, which normally provide nutrients, housekeeping, structure and other forms of assistance for neurons.
Diets high in fat and low in carbohydrates, such as the ketogenic or modified Atkins diet, may reduce seizures in adults with tough-to-treat epilepsy, according to a review of the research published in the October 29, 2014, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Sleep apnea may affect your ability to form new spatial memories, such as remembering where you parked your car, new research led by NYU Langone Medical Center sleep specialists suggests. The study, published online Oct. 29 in Journal of Neuroscience, demonstrates through the playing of a specific video game that disruption of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep as a consequence of sleep apnea impairs spatial memory in humans even when other sleep stages are intact.
An team of scientists led by Virginia Tech reports that the strength of a person’s reaction to repulsive images can forecast their political ideology. The brain’s response to a single disgusting image was enough to predict an individual’s political ideology.
Everyone knows that exercise makes you feel more mentally alert at any age. But do you need to follow a specific training program to improve your cognitive function? Science has shown that the important thing is to just get moving. It's that simple. In fact, this was the finding of a study conducted at the Institut universitaire de gériatrie de Montréal (IUGM), an institution affiliated with Université de Montréal, by Dr. Nicolas Berryman, PhD, Exercise Physiologist, under the supervision of Dr. Louis Bherer, PhD, and Dr. Laurent Bosquet, PhD, that was published in the journal AGE (American Aging Association) in October.
Scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute have uncovered a major contributor to Huntington’s disease, a devastating progressive neurological condition that produces involuntary movements, emotional disturbance and cognitive impairment.
The researchers from the Virginia Tech – Wake Forest University School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences described in their article in Technology published by the World Scientific Publishing Company that they have created “a tool for blood-barrier-brain disruption that uses bursts of sub-microsecond bipolar pulses to enhance the transfer of large molecules to the brain.”
A survey of 1,600 residents in Uganda found that overall knowledge about stroke there was poor, although knowing what to do for a stroke – go to the hospital – was good. Three-quarters of those surveyed did not know any stroke risk factors and warning signs, or recognize the brain as the organ affected.
Dietary cocoa flavanols—naturally occurring bioactives found in cocoa—reversed age-related memory decline in healthy older adults, according to a study led by Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) scientists.
UCLA researchers have developed a benchmark to assess how well stem cell culture conditions in the lab resemble counterparts in the developing embryo
For patients with a severe type of stroke called subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH), treatment at a hospital that treats a high volume of SAH cases is associated with a lower risk of death, reports a study in the November issue of Neurosurgery, official journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.
Researchers discover the cell events in the brains of individuals with Down syndrome that lead to the amyloid pathology observed in the brains of patients with Alzheimer’s disease. The findings support a novel approach to treating and preventing both diseases.
Using a technique that illuminates subtle changes in individual proteins, chemistry researchers at Cornell University have uncovered new insight into the underlying causes of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS).
New research led by Cornell University neuroscientist Nathan Spreng shows for the first time that engaging brain areas linked to so-called “off-task” mental activities (such as mind-wandering and reminiscing) can actually boost performance on some challenging mental tasks. The results advance our understanding of how externally and internally focused neural networks interact to facilitate complex thought, the authors say.
Bariatric surgery may be a risk factor for a condition that causes severe headaches, according to a study published in the October 22, 2014, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Future prevention and treatment strategies for vascular diseases may lie in the evaluation of early brain imaging tests long before heart attacks or strokes occur, according to a systematic review conducted by a team of cardiologists, neuroscientists, and psychiatrists from Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and published in the October issue of JACC Cardiovascular Imaging.
Scientists have described a way to convert human skin cells directly into a specific type of brain cell affected by Huntington’s disease, an ultimately fatal neurodegenerative disorder. Unlike other techniques that turn one cell type into another, this new process does not pass through a stem cell phase, avoiding the production of multiple cell types, report researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
Complex biochemical signals that coordinate fast and slow changes in neuronal networks keep the brain in balance during learning, according to an international team of scientists from the RIKEN Brain Science Institute in Japan, UC San Francisco (UCSF), and Columbia University in New York.
New work by a pioneering scientist details how subtle changes in mitochondrial function may cause a broad range of common metabolic and degenerative diseases.
Developing invisible implantable medical sensor arrays, a team of University of Wisconsin-Madison engineers has overcome a major technological hurdle in researchers’ efforts to understand the brain. The team described its technology, which has applications in fields ranging from neuroscience to cardiac care and even contact lenses, in the Oct. 20 issue of the online journal Nature Communications.
A graphene, one-atom-thick microelectrode now solves a major problem for investigators looking at brain circuitry. Pinning down the details of how individual neural circuits operate in epilepsy and other brain disorders requires real-time observation of their locations, firing patterns, and other factors.
In advance of the American Epilepsy Society’s (AES) Annual Meeting in December, the organization has offered highlights of groundbreaking research being studied at a number of institutions regarding the effectiveness of cannibidiol (CBD) and its derivatives as a viable treatment for people with epilepsy.
Researchers at the University of Adelaide have discovered two potential treatments for traumatic brain injury that are most effective when given at different stages after the injury has occurred.
A new guideline from the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) and the American Association of Neuromuscular & Electrodiagnostic Medicine (AANEM) recommends guidance on how doctors should evaluate the full picture—from symptoms, family history and ethnicity to a physical exam and certain lab test results—in order to determine what genetic tests may best diagnose a person’s subtype of limb-girdle or distal muscular dystrophy. The guideline is published in the October 14, 2014, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
A new guideline recommends guidance on how doctors should evaluate the full picture in order to determine what genetic tests may best diagnose a person’s subtype of limb-girdle or distal muscular dystrophy.
A new study by scientists from The Scripps Research Institute, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and other institutions suggests a cause of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.
Here are seven surprising things you may not know about stroke, including how strokes are surprisingly common in young people and U.S. presidents, and how sex can trigger a stroke.
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have identified a new fusion protein found in approximately 15 percent of secondary glioblastomas or brain tumors. The finding offers new insights into the cause of this cancer and provides a therapeutic target for personalized oncologic care.
A UCLA study shows how, in pregnant mice, inflammation, a first line defense of the immune system, can trigger an excessive division of neural stem cells that can cause “overgrowth” in the offspring’s brain, and, ultimately, autistic behavior.
The results of a four-year international study of 2,060 cardiac arrest cases across 15 hospitals worldwide concluded that there is a unique experience of death for humans that appears far broader than what has been referred to as so called near-death experiences (NDEs). Dr. Sam Parnia, Assistant Professor of Critical Care Medicine and Director of Resuscitation Research at Stony Brook Medicine is lead author of the study, which is published in the journal Resuscitation.
New research conducted at the Florida State University-based National High Magnetic Field Laboratory has revealed a new, innovative way to classify the severity of a stroke, aid in diagnosis and evaluate potential treatments.
Epilepsy.com, the largest website worldwide dedicated to epilepsy and seizures, will begin hosting Epilepsy Grand Rounds, a monthly seminar series by the George Washington University Epilepsy Center.
Women with a healthy diet and lifestyle may be less likely to have a stroke by more than half, according to a study published in the October 8, 2014, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
A new study from UCLA found that a drug being evaluated to treat an entirely different disorder helped slow the progression of Parkinson’s disease in mice.
The only drug currently approved for treatment of stroke’s crippling effects shows promise, when administered as a nasal spray, to help heal similar damage in less severe forms of traumatic brain injury.
A new book co-authored by a distinguished Boston neurologist and a University of Massachusetts Amherst mathematician takes readers behind the scenes at Harvard Medical School’s neurology unit to show how a seasoned diagnostician faces down bizarre neurological defects and life-altering disorders including Parkinson’s disease and ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease). In Reaching Down the Rabbit Hole: A Renowned Neurologist Explains the Mystery and Drama of Brain Disease (St. Martin’s Press, Sept. 30), Harvard Medical School neurologist Dr. Allan Ropper and Brian Burrell, senior lecturer of mathematics and statistics at UMass Amherst and author of six books, including 2005’s Postcards from the Brain Museum, share real-life stories of individuals afflicted with fantastic perceptual and intellectual aberrations.
The signs of dementia are the same in any language. And symptoms of traumatic brain injury are similar regardless of socioeconomic status or place of birth. But the tools neuropsychologists use to assess and measure cognitive ability are not necessarily standardized from one country to another – or even from one neighborhood to another nearby. Cedars-Sinai's Enrique Lopez, PsyD, is working to change that.
It is estimated that as many as half of patients taking cancer drugs experience a decrease in mental sharpness. While there have been many theories, what causes “chemo brain” has eluded scientists.
Women who are anxious, jealous, or moody and distressed in middle age may be at a higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease later in life, according to a nearly 40-year-long study published in the October 1, 2014, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Studying mice with a genetic change similar to what is found in Kabuki syndrome, a inherited disease of humans, Johns Hopkins researchers report they have used an anticancer drug to “open up” DNA and improve mental function.
Researchers used human iPSC stem cells to grow brand new nerves in a rat model of spinal cord injury. The neurons grew tens of thousands of axons that extended the entire length of the spinal cord. The iPSCs were made using the skin cells of an 86 year old male, demonstrating that even in an individual of advanced age, the ability of the cells to be turned into a different cell type (pluripotency) remained.
Though it seems simple, feeling that something is wet is quite a feat because our skin does not have receptors that sense wetness. UK researchers propose that wetness perception is intertwined with our ability to sense cold temperature and tactile sensations such as pressure and texture.
Here’s another reason why it’s a good idea to hit the gym: it can improve memory. A new Georgia Institute of Technology study shows that an intense workout of as little as 20 minutes can enhance episodic memory, also known as long-term memory for previous events, by about 10 percent in healthy young adults.
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