The latest advances in treating neurologic disorders such as stroke, headache, Parkinson's disease, epilepsy and sleep disorders are detailed in a special issue of the journal Neurologic Clinics.
Eleven years after the first edition, a new edition of the Sturge-Weber Syndrome textbook has been published by the Sturge-Weber Foundation in New Jersey. Co-author E. Steve Roach, MD, is chief of Neurology and vice-chair of Pediatrics at Nationwide Children’s Hospital.
New research shows that an intravenous (IV) treatment may cut a person’s risk of dying from bacterial meningitis. The research is published in the September 29, 2010, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The treatment is called dexamethasone.
Tufts biologists have regenerated spinal cord and muscle by using a drug cocktail to trigger an influx of sodium ions into injured cells. This approach requires no gene therapy and can be administered after injury has occurred. The treatment applies most directly to spinal cord repair and limb loss. Proof of principle may apply to many tissues.
Turns out the silent and stoic response to stress might be a guy thing after all. A new study by USC researchers reveals that stressed men looking at angry faces had diminished activity in the brain regions responsible for understanding others’ feelings.
The world’s largest study using neuroimaging of stroke patients struggling to regain ability to communicate finds that brain cells outside the damaged area can take on new roles.
Family members and close friends are more sensitive to early signs of Alzheimer's dementia than traditional screening tests, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
Learning mindfulness meditation may help people who have multiple sclerosis (MS) with the fatigue, depression and other life challenges that commonly accompany the disease, according to a study published in the September 28, 2010, issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Chronic subdural hematoma is a frequently encountered problem in neurosurgical practice and the perception is that it is a benign disease, with easy-to-treat lesions. Research showed that the mortality rate increased considerably at 6-month and 1-year follow-up, after what was considered successful treatment. The authors liken the continued increased mortality following treatment of CSDH to the similar and widely reported phenomenon in patients who have undergone successful surgery for hip fracture, surmising that CSDH unmasks underlying medical conditions and exacerbates them.
Sugar molecule used In common food and household products like Febreze® Fabric Refresher called Hydroxypropyl Beta Cyclodextrin (HPßCD) will be delivered into twins’ central nervous system in an attempt to stop neurological progression of Niemann Pick Type C disease.
A study led by St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital investigators links the muscle weakness and other symptoms of a rare neurodegenerative disease to a misstep in functioning of a normal protein, rather than its build-up inside cells.
Understanding how the brain recognizes objects is a central challenge for understanding human vision, and for designing artificial vision systems. (No computer system comes close to human vision.) A new study by MIT neuroscientists suggests that the brain learns to solve the problem of object recognition through its vast experience in the natural world.
We’ve all heard the saying about people who can’t walk and chew gum at the same time, but it turns out that walking and talking is difficult enough, especially for people with Parkinson’s disease who are at increased risk for falls with injury.
The first oral medication for multiple sclerosis was approved today by the Food & Drug Administration. Physicians praised the decision to approve the drug, called fingolimod, saying it would give multiple sclerosis patients new options for treatment.
Neurological researchers at Rush University Medical Center have found a new therapeutic target that can potentially lead to a new way to prevent the progression of Alzheimer’s disease. The target called neutral sphingomyelinase (N-SMase) is a protein that when activated, can cause a chain of reactions in the cell leading to neuronal death and memory loss.
A $634,000 grant from the Department of Defense is allowing researchers at the University at Buffalo to investigate a trio of environmental factors and their influence on the progression of multiple sclerosis.
Electrical stimulation of the brain in a patient with severe obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) led to some unanticipated benefits—"effortless" smoking cessation and weight loss, according to a case report in the September issue of Neurosurgery, official journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons.
A new study shows that aspirin, given intravenously (IV), may be a safe and effective option for people hospitalized for severe headache or migraine, undergoing medication withdrawal. The research will be published in the September 21, 2010, issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Currently, there are no drugs available to treat TBI: a variety of single drugs have failed clinical trials, suggesting a possible role for drug combinations. Testing this hypothesis in an animal model, researchers at SUNY Downstate Medical Center tested five drugs in various combinations. Their observations, published recently in the journal PLoS One, suggest a potentially valuable role for minocycline plus N-acetylcysteine to treat TBI.
Elevated levels of a growth protein in the brains of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients is linked to impaired neurogenesis, the process by which new neurons are generated, say researchers at the University of California, San Diego in today’s edition of The Journal of Neuroscience.
New research suggests that old age may not play a role in why older people become forgetful. According to a study published in the September 15, 2010, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology, the same brain lesions that are associated with dementia are responsible for mild memory loss in old age.
Simply getting older is not the cause of mild memory lapses often called senior moments, according to a new study by researchers at the Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center. The study found that even the very early mild changes in memory that are much more common in old age than dementia are caused by the same brain lesions associated with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias.
An unprecedented five-year, $30-million effort to generate a first-of-its kind map of all the major circuits in the human brain is being led by Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the University of Minnesota’s Center for Magnetic Resonance Research (CMRR).
A new study shows that white men and boys are living longer with muscular dystrophy due to technological advances in recent years, but that the lives of African-American men and boys with muscular dystrophy have not been extended at the same rate. The research will be published in the September 14, 2010, issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
A new study led by researchers at Columbia University Medical Center has identified a novel molecular pathway underlying Parkinson’s disease and points to existing drugs which may be able to slow progression of the disease.
The pathway involved proteins – known as polyamines – that were found to be responsible for the increase in build-up of other toxic proteins in neurons, which causes the neurons to malfunction and, eventually, die. The study is the first to identify a mechanism for why polyamines are elevated in the first place and how polyamines mediate the disease.
A new look at tests of mental aging reveals a good news-bad news situation. The bad news is all mental abilities appear to decline with age, to varying degrees. The good news is the drops are not as steep as some research showed, according to a study published by the American Psychological Association.
Five minutes in a scanner can reveal how far a child's brain has come along the path from childhood to maturity and potentially shed light on a range of psychological and developmental disorders, scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have shown.
In a surprising and unexpected discovery, scientists at NYU Langone Medical Center have found that a single type of gene acts as a master organizer of motor neurons in the spinal cord. The finding, published in the September 9, 2010 issue of Neuron, could help scientists develop new treatments for diseases such as Lou Gehrig’s disease or spinal cord injury.
A team of scientists, led by University of California, San Diego School of Medicine researchers, has synthesized hundreds of new compounds with the potential of reducing the production of the A-beta 42 peptide, a primary component of Alzheimer’s disease (AD).
Scientists want to provide the users of prosthetic limbs the ability to feel what they are touching or experience the comforting perception of holding hands.
In an early step toward letting severely paralyzed people speak with their thoughts, University of Utah researchers translated brain signals into words using two grids of 16 microelectrodes implanted beneath the skull but atop the brain.
A new study shows that mild cognitive impairment (MCI) may affect more men than women. The research is published in the September 7, 2010, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
One of the most severe complications of brain surgery is a pulmonary embolism. But a study in the Journal of Neurosurgery suggests that screening methods used to access the risk of pulmonary embolisms may fall short.
New research shows that mentally stimulating activities such as crossword puzzles, reading and listening to the radio may, at first, slow the decline of thinking skills but speed up dementia later in old age. The research is published in the September 1, 2010, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Just 11 hours of learning a meditation technique induces positive structural changes in brain connectivity by boosting efficiency in a part of the brain that helps a person regulate behavior in accordance with their goals, researchers report.
Scientists have discovered how the cancer drug Gleevec attacks beta-amyloid, the primary component of senile plaques in Alzheimer's disease. The finding suggests that drugs modeled on Gleevec could provide new treatments for this disease.
New research shows that multiple sclerosis (MS) activity can increase during spring and summer months. The research is published in the August 31, 2010, issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Two high-fat diets — the classic ketogenic and a modified version of the Atkins — can reduce and, in some cases, completely eliminate seizures in children with a common seizure disorder known as absence epilepsy, say researchers from Johns Hopkins Children’s Center
People with insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes appear to be at an increased risk of developing plaques in the brain that are associated with Alzheimer’s disease, according to new research published in the August 25, 2010, issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Researchers at Johns Hopkins have shown that using specific drugs can protect nerve cells in mice from the lethal effects of Parkinson’s disease. The researchers’ findings are published in the August 22 issue of Nature Medicine.
A clue to the causes of autism and mental retardation lies in the synapse, the tiny intercellular junction that rapidly transfers information from one neuron to the next. Neuroscientists report that a protein called APC (adenomatous polyposis coli) plays a key role in synapse maturation, and APC dysfunction prevents the synapse function required for typical learning and memory.
Whether it’s sports, poker or the high-stakes world of business, there are those who always find a way to win when there’s money on the table. Now, for the first time, psychology researchers at Washington University in St. Louis are unraveling the workings of a novel brain network that may explain how these “money players” manage to keep their heads in the game.
At the University of Michigan, researchers and physicians are taking a new approach to diagnosing, preventing and researching concussion at a new clinic dedicated to a neurological strategy: the Michigan NeuroSport Concussion Program.
$14.1 million awarded to 38 physicians and researchers in the U.S. and abroad to continue the battle against neuromuscular diseases. The Muscular Dystrophy Association has approved the research grants for ALS, Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, Spinal Muscular Atrophy and other muscles diseases.
Teens who are overweight, get little exercise or who smoke may be more likely to have frequent headaches and migraines than teens with none of these factors, according to a study published in the August 18, 2010, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.