Crayfish make surprisingly complex, cost-benefit choices, finds a University of Maryland study -opening up a new line of research to help unravel the cellular brain activity involved in human decisions. It concludes crayfish are a practical way to identify the neural circuitry and chemistry of decision making. No direct way exists to do this in primates.
In diverse neurodegenerative diseases ranging from Parkinson’s to Alzheimer’s, researchers have long noted accumulations of a little-understood neuronal protein called α-synuclein. Pathological and genetic evidence strongly suggested that excessive α-synuclein played a role in the evolution of these diseases, but it was unclear how too much α-synuclein culminated in synaptic damage and neurodegeneration.
UCLA scientists tested whether networks of brain cells kept alive in culture could be “trained” to keep time. The findings suggest that networks of brain cells in a petri dish can learn to generate simple timed intervals.
A new study shows that a mentally active lifestyle may protect against the memory and learning problems that often occur in multiple sclerosis (MS). The study is published in the June 15, 2010, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
A molecule implicated in Alzheimer’s disease interferes with brain cells by making them unable to “recycle” the surface receptors that respond to incoming signals, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found.
xperts from Johns Hopkins Medicine hosted a press conference following a continuing medical education program on the epidemiology of head injury in professional football. The program was an evidence-based review of traumatic brain injury in the sport.
Newly published research sharply expands knowledge of the composition of human spinal fluid. This added awareness of proteins found in normal fluid may be a future aid in diagnosis and treatment of neurological conditions.
In what has been hailed as a breakthrough, scientists have outlined the molecular mechanism of membrane transport. The research shows how a protein transforms its shape to transport substances across the cell membrane in order to regulate transmission of the brain's messages across the synaptic gap from one neuron to another.
Representatives of the German Centre for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), the UK Medical Research Council (MRC) and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) today signed a cooperation agreement that aims to establish and apply harmonised guidelines and technologies for research on neurodegenerative diseases.
Once damaged, nerves in the spinal cord normally cannot grow back and the only drug approved for treating these injuries does not enable nerve regrowth. Publishing online this week in the Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine show that treating injured rat spinal cords with an enzyme, sialidase, improves nerve regrowth, motor recovery and nervous system function.
Driving to and from work is a habit for most commuters – we do it without really thinking. But before our commutes became routine, we had to learn our way through trial-and-error exploration. A new study out of MIT has found that there are two brain circuits involved with this kind of learning and that the patterns of activity in these circuits evolve as our behaviors become more habitual.
Neuroscientists at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have found that removing three key inhibitory molecules from myelin – the insulating material that surrounds nerve cell fibers – does not significantly boost the ability of injured spinal axons to regenerate and restore themselves to full function.
The ability to diagnose and treat brain dysfunction without surgery may rely on a new method of noninvasive brain stimulation using pulsed ultrasound developed by a team of scientists led by William “Jamie” Tyler, a neuroscientist at Arizona State University.
A protein that helps build the brain in infants and children may aid efforts to restore damage from multiple sclerosis and other neurodegenerative diseases, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found.
In an effort to create a uniform and accurate method for determining brain death, the American Academy of Neurology has issued an updated guideline that provides doctors with a step-by-step process for determining brain death in adults. The guideline is published in the June 8, 2010, issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
A quick, painless eye measurement shows promise as a way to diagnose multiple sclerosis in its very early stages, and to track the effectiveness of treatments, researchers from UT Southwestern Medical Center have found in a multicenter study.
A recent retrospective study by four Michigan physicians shows strong evidence that symptoms of headache, dizziness and anxiety in some patients with traumatic brain injury potentially could be alleviated or even eliminated with specialized eyeglass lenses containing prisms. These lenses resulted in 71.8 percent reduction of symptoms.
Reducing a protein called beta-amyloid in young mice with a condition resembling Down syndrome improves their ability to learn, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found.
A Johns Hopkins and Japanese research team has generated the first comprehensive genetic “parts” list of a mouse hypothalamus, an enigmatic region of the brain — roughly cherry-sized, in humans — that controls hunger, thirst, fatigue, body temperature, wake-sleep cycles and links the central nervous system to control of hormone levels.
There are biological motivations behind the stereotypically poor decisions and risky behavior associated with adolescence, new research from a University of Texas at Austin psychologist reveals.
Researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine have found that certain types of specializations on nerve cells called “spines” are depleted as a person ages, causing cognitive decline in the part of the brain that mediates the highest levels of learning.
A "brain pacemaker" called deep brain stimulation (DBS) is an equally effective treatment for Parkinson's disease in two different regions of the brain.
A brain mechanism involved in both dreaming and waking from sleep may hold the key to new, more effective anesthetics and stimulants, reported neuroscientists at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS). Researchers in the UAMS Center for Translational Neuroscience discovered that cells in the part of the brainstem that controls sleep, dreaming and waking exhibit the same type of electrical activity as when the cortex of the brain is alert or during learning.
Researchers from the University of Michigan have found neural tissue contains imbalanced levels of proteins, which may explain the brain’s susceptibility to a debilitating childhood movement disorder.
300 neurosurgeons from 22 of the nations’ top medical institutions will battle it out in NYC’s Central Park on Sat., June 5 – an annual event that provides an opportunity for neurosurgeons to trade in the operating room for the softball field for a day – to support Columbia University Medical Center’s Pediatric Brain Tumor Research Fund.
Close relationship researchers have previously found that Easterners (those from collectivistic cultures such as China) seem to regard love differently from Westerners (those from individualist cultures such as the United States).
The use of modified measles virus may represent a new treatment for a childhood brain tumor known as medulloblastoma, according to a new study appearing in Neuro-Oncology.
People with brain injuries may produce low amounts of melatonin, which affects their sleep, according to a study published in the May 25, 2010, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
They might not be known for their big brains, but fruit flies are helping to make scientists and doctors smarter about what causes Huntington’s disease and how to treat it. New research, published in the journal GENETICS describes a laboratory test that allows scientists to evaluate large numbers of fruit fly genes for a possible role in the formation of plaque-like protein aggregates within cells. Those genes often have counterparts in humans, which might then be manipulated to stop or slow the formation of plaque-like protein aggregates, the hallmark of Huntington’s and several other neurodegenerative diseases.
Experts from aerospace, military and civilian science, research and medicine will discuss the latest research and therapies related to brain injuries, spinal cord mapping and image-guided therapy for treating traumatic injuries.
Researchers at MIT and Hebrew University identify specific classes of neurons involved with learning and match them to their mammalian counterparts.
Neurobiology researchers in Chicago and Montreal report they've identified a nervous system pathway that runs parallel to brainstem locomotion command circuitry in vertebrates. University of Illinois at Chicago biologist Simon Alford says the finding may suggest new ways for treating symptoms of Parkinson's disease.
A multisite study led by a UCLA researcher has developed an effective, non-medication treatment for children and adolescents with Tourette's and related tic disorders that has shown improvement similar to that found in recent anti-tic medication studies.
A new study from the UCLA Pediatric Epilepsy Surgery Program found that surgery at UCLA to treat catastrophic pediatric epilepsy has improved over the past two decades and has led to more successful outcomes, including freedom from seizures. The researchers credit improvements in diagnostic technology and experience in selection and operations as reasons for the program's success.
The high-fat ketogenic diet can dramatically reduce or completely eliminate debilitating seizures in most children with infantile spasms, whose seizures persist despite medication, according to a Johns Hopkins Children’s Center study published online April 30 in the journal Epilepsia.
A new study shows that altered blood flow in the brain due to high blood pressure and other conditions may lead to falls in elderly people. The research will be published in the May 18, 2010, issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Each year, unintentional falls in the United States account for more than 16,000 deaths and 1.8 million emergency room visits.
300 neurosurgeons from 22 of the nations’ top medical institutions will battle it out in NYC’s Central Park on Sat., June 5 – an annual event that provides an opportunity for neurosurgeons to trade in the operating room for the softball field for a day – to support Columbia University Medical Center’s Pediatric Brain Tumor Research Fund.
In a new study published in the Journal of Neurophysiology, MIT neuroscientists report on a new method to analyze brain imaging data – one that may paint a clearer picture of how our brain produces and understands language.
Scientists regularly discard up to 90 percent of the signals from monitoring of brain waves, one of the oldest techniques for observing changes in brain activity. Now, though, researchers have found evidence that these data may contain significant information about how the brain works.
The news that Vice President Joe Biden's 41-year-old son has suffered a stroke is highlighting the problem of strokes in young people.
A stroke spokesman for the American Academy of Neurology is available to speak about stroke related to Vice President Joe Biden's oldest son suffering a mild stroke.
Researchers investigating a regulatory protein involved in a rare genetic disease have shown that it may be related to epileptic and autistic symptoms in other more common neurological disorders. A team of researchers demonstrated how mutations in the STRAD-alpha gene can cause a disease called PMSE (polyhydramnios, megalencephaly, and symptomatic epilepsy) syndrome, found in a handful of Amish children.
By analyzing the genomes of patients with schizophrenia, genetics researchers have discovered numerous copy number variations—deletions or duplications of DNA sequences—that increase the risk of developing schizophrenia. Significantly, many of these variations occur in genes that affect signaling among brain cells.
Neurological research and clinical care received a significant boost today as Imperial College London and McGill University of Montreal entered an agreement enabling them to work more closely together in this field.
New research by scientists at Cedars-Sinai’s Maxine Dunitz Neurosurgical Institute suggests that a drug currently approved to treat erectile dysfunction may significantly enhance the delivery of the anti-cancer drug Herceptin to certain hard-to-treat brain tumors. The research, published in the current issue of the journal PLoS ONE, could help doctors improve treatments for lung and breast cancers that have metastasized to the brain.
Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have discovered how the genetic mutation that causes Fragile X syndrome, the most common form of inherited mental retardation, interferes with the “pruning” of nerve connections in the brain. Their findings appear in the April 29 issue of Neuron.
The protein that has long been suspected by scientists of being the master switch allowing brains to function has now been verified by Iowa State University researcher Yeon-Kyun Shin. The professor of biochemistry, biophysics and molecular biology has shown that the protein called synaptotagmin1 (Syt1) is the sole trigger for the release of neurotransmitters in the brain.
Fifty-four percent of liver patients also display neurocognitive impairments such as short term memory loss, a study found. Average score of impaired patients was lower than that of patients with early-stage Alzheimer's disease.
University of Maryland Grollman Lecturer “walks” students down 30 years toward possible new therapies.
A new study shows that people with a common heart defect may also be more likely to have brain aneurysms. The study is published in the May 4, 2010, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
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