Feature Channels: Neuro

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Parkinson's disease (PD) patients may confront a common but largely unrecognized challenge: the occurrence of impulse control disorders (ICDs) such as compulsive gambling, sexual behavior, eating, or spending. A team of investigators from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and the Parkinson's Disease Research, Education and Clinical Center (PADRECC) at the Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Medical Center conducted a pilot study and found that the opioid antagonist naltrexone may be an effective treatment for diminishing ICD symptoms in PD patients. The results were published in the journal Neurology.

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People who have the most common genetic mutation linked to obesity respond differently to pictures of appetizing foods than overweight or obese people who do not have the genetic mutation, according to a new study published in the Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM).

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A research team led by Raymond Tak Fai Cheung, PhD and student Lynn Yan-Hua Sang, PhD of the University of Hong Kong suggests a new therapeutic strategy for intracerebral hemorrhage: injecting self-assembling peptide nanofiber scaffolds (SAPNS) directly into a hemorrhagic lesion.

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Researchers at the UNC School of Medicine have found that the protein glycogen synthase kinase-3, or GSK-3, is crucial for proper brain development early in life.

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Sandia National Laboratories is working with Arizona State University on the challenge of recording and measuring signals from the brain.

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By analyzing the brainwaves of 16 individuals as they watched mainstream television content, researchers were able to accurately predict the preferences of large TV audiences, up to 90 percent in the case of Super Bowl commercials

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There's some good news for parents of preterm babies – latest research from the University of Adelaide shows that by the time they become teenagers, the brains of many preterm children can perform almost as well as those born at term.

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Salk scientists show that the little-known supportive cells are vital in cognitive function.

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New technologies for monitoring brain activity are generating unprecedented quantities of information. That data may hold new insights into how the brain works – but only if researchers can interpret it. To help make sense of the data, neuroscientists can now harness the power of distributed computing with Thunder, a library of tools developed at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Janelia Research Campus. Thunder speeds the analysis of data sets that are so large and complex they would take days or weeks to analyze on a single workstation – if a single workstation could do it at all. Janelia group leaders Jeremy Freeman, Misha Ahrens, and other colleagues at Janelia and the University of California, Berkeley, report in the July 27, 2014, issue of the journal Nature Methods that they have used Thunder to quickly find patterns in high-resolution images collected from the brains of active zebrafish and mice with multiple imaging techniques.

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Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have identified neural pathways that increase understanding of how the brain regulates body weight, energy expenditure, and blood glucose levels – a discovery that can lead to new therapies for treating Type 2 diabetes and obesity

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A study involving nearly 27,000 older adults on five continents found that nearly 1 in 10 met criteria for pre-dementia based on a simple test that measures how fast people walk and whether they have cognitive complaints. People who tested positive for pre-dementia were twice as likely as others to develop dementia within 12 years. The study, led by scientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University and Montefiore Medical Center, was published online on July 16, 2014 in Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

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Researchers at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research, have identified the functions of two classes of pheromone receptors, and found pheromones crucial to triggering the mating process in mice.

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Today, nearly 700,000 people in the U.S. are living with a brain tumor, and yet, when it comes to pinpointing causes or risk factors, scientists are still searching for answers.

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Researchers at UC San Francisco (UCSF) have discovered that endostatin, a protein that once aroused intense interest as a possible cancer treatment, plays a key role in the stable functioning of the nervous system.

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New research suggests that regularly monitoring your pulse after a stroke or the pulse of a loved one who has experienced a stroke may be a simple and effective first step in detecting irregular heartbeat, a major cause of having a second stroke. The study is published in the July 23, 2014, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

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A team from ASU and UC Irvine has discovered a key component to better understanding how traumatic memories may be strengthened in women. Their study's findings suggest that developing clinical treatments that could lower norepinephrine levels immediately following a traumatic event might offer a way to prevent this memory-enhancing mechanism from occurring.

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A new University of Iowa study, published online July 14 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, reveals a potential link between epilepsy and neurodegenerative disorders.

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Autoimmune disorders may share certain pathogenic mechanisms with cancer, according to a new report published in PLOS ONE by Linda Kusner, Ph.D., assistant research professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Physiology at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences.

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Researchers may be one step closer to better understanding how anesthesia works. A study in the August issue of Anesthesiology, the official medical journal of the American Society of Anesthesiologists® (ASA®), found stimulating a major dopamine-producing region in the brain, the ventral tegmental area (VTA), caused rats to wake from general anesthesia, suggesting that this region plays a key role in restoring consciousness after general anesthesia. Activating this region at the end of surgery could provide a novel approach to proactively induce consciousness from anesthesia in surgical patients, researchers say.

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Unclogging the body’s protein disposal system may improve memory in patients with Alzheimer’s disease, according to researchers in Korea.

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New research provides an intriguing glimpse into the processes that establish connections between nerve cells in the brain. These connections, or synapses, allow nerve cells to transmit and process information involved in thinking and moving the body.

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Two researchers from the University of Kentucky have demonstrated a connection between sensitivity to light or noise and increased emotional symptoms in teens who have suffered a concussion.

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The mysterious condition once known as “water on the brain” became less murky, thanks to a research group led in part by a Case Western Reserve researcher. The study illustrates how one genetic error can contribute to hydrocephalus. The findings appear online July 17 in the journal Neuron.

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A study published today found that almost 40 per cent of Ontario female prisoners have a history of traumatic brain injury (TBI). Unlike the men participating in the study, half of these women sustained a TBI before committing their first crime.

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By carefully watching nearly a hundred hours of video showing mother rats protecting, warming, and feeding their young pups, and then matching up what they saw to real-time electrical readings from the pups’ brains, researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center have found that the mother’s presence and social interactions — her nurturing role — directly molds the early neural activity and growth of her offsprings’ brain.

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Even mild traumatic brain injury may cause brain damage and thinking and memory problems, according to a study published in the July 16, 2014, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

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Neutron scattering research has revealed clear structural differences in the normal and pathological forms of a protein involved in Huntington’s disease.

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Fewer Americans are having strokes and those who do have a lower risk of dying from them finds a new study led by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health researchers.

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In a study that included a large sample of black and white U.S. adults from several communities, rates of stroke incidence and subsequent death decreased from 1987 to 2011, with decreases varying across age-groups, according to a study in the July 16 issue of JAMA.

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Researchers at the UNC School of Medicine show how the protein PARC/CUL9 helps neurons and brain cancer cells override the biochemical mechanisms that lead to cell death in most other cells.

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A team of researchers at the Neuroscience Institute at Georgia State University has discovered that hidden differences in the properties of neural circuits can account for whether animals are behaviorally susceptible to brain injury. These results could have implications for the treatment of brain trauma.

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University of Washington research in 7- and 11-month-old infants shows that speech sounds stimulate areas of the brain that coordinate and plan motor movements for speech. The study suggests that baby brains start laying down the groundwork of how to form words long before they actually begin to speak.

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Researchers shed new light on key mechanism in accumulation of protein plaques in Alzheimer’s disease patients; could open new avenues for developing a cure for Alzheimer's disease, which affects 5.2 million in the U.S. alone.

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A noninvasive optical imaging device developed at Cedars-Sinai can provide early detection of changes that later occur in the brain and are a classic sign of Alzheimer’s disease, according to preliminary results from investigators conducting a clinical trial in Australia. The researchers presented their findings July 15 in an oral presentation at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference 2014 in Copenhagen, Denmark.

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After a concussion, teens who are sensitive to light or noise may be more likely to also have emotional symptoms such as anxiety, according to a study released today that will be presented at The Sports Concussion Conference in Chicago, July 11 to 13, 2014, hosted by the American Academy of Neurology, the world’s leading authority on diagnosing and managing sports concussion. The conference will feature the latest scientific advances in diagnosing and treating sports concussion from leading experts in the field.

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Scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute have shed new light on the complex processes of nerve cell growth, showing that a particular protein plays a far more sophisticated role in neuron development than previously thought.

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Although it is rare, tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) can be a difficult and frightening diagnosis for parents and children. The genetic disorder causes nonmalignant tumors to form in many different organs, including the brain, eyes, kidneys and heart. If a child’s brain is affected by the disease, it can be especially debilitating since it can cause seizures, developmental delays, intellectual disability and autism.

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A research review identifying the clinical indicators most strongly associated with concussion is an important first step in the process of developing evidence-based guidelines for concussion diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment, according to a new report published by Neurosurgery, official journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.

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There has been heightened public concussion awareness in the last few years related to professional sports, in particular, the NFL. The most underreported, under diagnosed and underestimated head injury is concussion, with the number of cases ranging in the millions every year. The term “concussion” is not well defined in clinical or research contexts, contributing to confusion among patients, families, and health providers. This in-depth analysis includes extensive data from the strongest scientific research, providing an evidence-based foundation for diagnostic and prognostic criteria, and ultimately treatment guidelines.

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In newly published research in the journal Neuron, Michael Cole of Rutgers has determined that the underlying brain architecture of a person at rest is basically the same as that of a person performing a variety of tasks. This is important to the study of mental illness, says Cole, because it is easier to analyze a brain at rest.

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The American Academy of Neurology (AAN), the largest professional association of neurologists and a leading authority on sports concussion, is releasing a new position paper that states doctors have an ethical obligation to educate and protect athletes from sports concussion and clear them to play only when the athlete is medically ready, standing firm against objections from players, parents or coaches. The statement is published in the July 9, 2014, online issue of Neurology®.

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Although feelings are personal and subjective, the human brain turns them into a standard code that objectively represents emotions across different senses, situations and even people, reports a new study by Cornell University neuroscientist Adam Anderson.

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Researchers from Montefiore Medical Center and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University will present new findings at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference.

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Neurological scientists at Rush University Medical Center have found that using cinnamon, a common food spice and flavoring material, can reverse the biomechanical, cellular and anatomical changes that occur in the brains of mice with Parkinson’s disease (PD).

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A spinal mass was found in a woman with complete spinal cord injury 8 years after she had undergone implantation of olfactory mucosal cells to hopefully regain sensory and motor function. Authors caution that physicians should be vigilant in follow-up of patients who undergo stem cell interventions.

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If you’re so smart, why aren’t you rich? It may be that, when it comes to stock market success, your brain is heeding the wrong neural signals, according to a multi-institutional team of researchers.

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Researchers from the Sanders-Brown Center on Aging at the University of Kentucky have been able to confirm anecdotal information on patients with both Alzheimer's disease (AD) and cerebrovascular disease (CVD) using mouse models in two different studies.

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Study finds a modification to the transcriptional protein MEF2 that inhibits the growth of new brain cells and survival of existing cells. The findings show promise for therapeutic intervention for a variety of neurodegenerative disorders.

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Deep inside the brains of people with dementia and Lou Gehrig’s disease, globs of abnormal protein gum up the inner workings of brain cells – dooming them to an early death. But boosting those cells’ natural ability to clean up those clogs might hold the key to better treatment for such conditions.

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People with mild to moderate Parkinson’s disease who regularly walk for exercise may improve their motor function, mood, tiredness, fitness and some aspects of thinking abilities, according to a study published in the July 2, 2014, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.