Feature Channels: Neuro

• share
• favorite_border

Music that gives people "chills" drives the brain's pleasure centers.

• share
• favorite_border

Seeing others in pain can automatically engage the brain's empathy systems even if we are not paying attention, according to new research from Mount Sinai School of Medicine presented at the Annual Meeting of the Organization for Human Brain Mapping.

• share
• favorite_border

A new treatment for stroke recovery.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers us a technique called Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation to treat hallucinations.

• share
• favorite_border

Brain-computer interfaces "˜translate' what a person is thinking in words or actions.

• share
• favorite_border

The National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health has awarded a three-year, $3-million grant to Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University to establish a research center to study the neurological complications that afflict people infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers at Oxford University studied people who were learning to juggle and mastering a three-ball juggle.

• share
• favorite_border

Decisions in the social brain: When I know that you don't know.

• share
• favorite_border

Depression is a major public health problem, and one of the most important challenges for psychiatrists is to determine whether an individual with depression should receive cognitive-behavioral therapy or treatment with antidepressant medication.

• share
• favorite_border

Our ability to form long-term memories depends on cells in the brain making strong connections with each other. Yet while it's not well understood how those connections are made, lost or changed, the process is known to involve the movement of the AMPA receptor protein to and from those neuronal connections.

• share
• favorite_border

A team of scientists from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, or USU, have characterized the expression of Toll-like receptors (TLRs) and associated signaling in response to Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus (VEEV) infection.

• share
• favorite_border

Not everyone declines in cognitive function with age. Elderly people who exercise at least once a week, have at least a high school education and a ninth grade literacy level, are not smokers and are more socially active are more likely to maintain their cognitive skills through their 70s and 80s, according to research published in the June 9, 2009, print issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

• share
• favorite_border

Alzheimer's disease and its precursor, mild cognitive impairment, appear to be associated with an increased risk of death among both white and African American older adults according to a new, long-term research study by neurological experts at the Alzheimer's Disease Center at Rush University Medical Center. The study findings are published in the June issue of Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

• share
• favorite_border

Johns Hopkins brain scientists have figured out why a faulty protein accumulates in cells everywhere in the bodies of people with Huntington's disease (HD), but only kills cells in the part of the brain that controls movement, causing negligible damage to tissues elsewhere. The answer, reported this week in Science, lies in one tiny protein called "Rhes" that's found only in the part of the brain that controls movement.

• share
• favorite_border

The Brain Injury Research Center (BIRC) in the UCLA Department of Neurosurgery has been awarded a $4.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to research new ways to heal the brain after a traumatic brain injury, or TBI. Specifically, researchers will be looking at how to best feed the brain the nutrients it needs to optimize recovery.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have created a line of fruit flies that may someday help shed light on the mechanisms that cause insomnia in humans. The flies, which get a small fraction of the sleep of normal flies, resemble insomniac humans in several ways.

• share
• favorite_border

A drug with potential to prevent epilepsy caused by a genetic condition may also help prevent more common forms of epilepsy caused by brain injury, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

• share
• favorite_border

About half of all people who have a major stroke following a warning stroke (a transient ischemic attack or mild stroke) have it within 24 hours of the first event, according to research published in the June 2, 2009, print issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers studying a difficult-to-treat form of childhood epilepsy called infantile spasms have developed a line of mice that experiences seizures with features closely resembling those occurring in human infants. These genetically engineered mice provide a new opportunity for scientists to test treatments that may benefit children.

• share
• favorite_border

Many cases of age-related neurodegenerative disease fall into the gray zone between big, defined diseases such as Alzheimer or Parkinson disease. They are often misdiagnosed, which is a problem because mixed disease is not only common, but also quite different in its course from pathologically 'pure' disease. But there's also excitement and opportunity.

• share
• favorite_border

Just as our world buzzes with distractions "” from phone calls to e-mails to tweets "” the neurons in our brain are bombarded with messages. Research has shown that when we pay attention, some of these neurons begin firing in unison, like a chorus rising above the noise. Now, a study in the May 29 issue of Science reveals the likely brain center that serves as the conductor of this neural chorus.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers have identified the locking mechanism that allows some neurons to form synapses to pass along essential information. Mutations of genes that produce a critical cell-adhesion molecule involved in the work were previously linked to autism.

• share
• favorite_border

A drug currently FDA-approved for use in diabetes shows some protective effects in the brains of patients with relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis, researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine report in a study online in the Journal of Neuroimmunology.

• share
• favorite_border

The largest study of its kind to date shows that women may not be able to learn as well shortly before menopause compared to other stages in life. The research is published in the May 26, 2009, print issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

• share
• favorite_border

People who take cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins after a stroke may be less likely to have another stroke later, according to research published in the May 26, 2009, print issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers at Florida Atlantic University are investigating the molecular mechanisms of Huntington's disease (HD) to identify the pathways in the brain that are altered in response to mutant proteins, as well as to understand the cellular processes impacted by the disease in order to facilitate the development of effective pharmacological interventions. HD is a highly complex genetic, neurological disorder that causes certain nerve cells in the brain to waste away.

• share
• favorite_border

A Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center physician is among the first in the country to treat a patient using an FDA-approved liquid system for treating wide-necked brain aneurysms.

• share
• favorite_border

Chinese researchers have unlocked the mechanism of an emerging mind-body technique that produces measurable changes in attention and stress reduction in just five days of practice.

• share
• favorite_border

A new study shows that older people who are thinner or are losing weight quickly are at a higher risk of developing dementia, especially if they started out overweight or obese. The research is published in the May 19, 2009, print issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

• share
• favorite_border

Any child confronting an outraged parent demanding to know "What were you thinking?" now has a new response: "Scientists have discovered that my brain is organized differently than yours."

• share
• favorite_border

A new tool can help predict whether people age 65 and older have a high risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. Research on the tool is published in the May 13, 2009, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

• share
• favorite_border

It takes less than a minute for a stroke to change a person's life forever, but taking the time to make a few simple lifestyle adjustments and finding out how to recognize an attack when it happens can save thousands of lives.

• share
• favorite_border

Traumatic Brain Injury is the single most common cause of death and disability in children and adolescents, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Now, according to a new study by UCLA researchers, the effects of a blow to the head, whether it's mild or a concussion, can linger for years.

• share
• favorite_border

Significant and widespread cognitive problems appear to exist in schizophrenia in its earliest phase, making it very hard for people with the disorder to work, study or be social, according to a new study published by the American Psychological Association.

• share
• favorite_border

The web's foremost website on Alzheimer disease reports on the highlights from the 3rd annual Human Amyloid Imaging (HAI) conference held recently in Seattle, WA. Amyloid beta, a peptide that builds up abnormally in the brains of Alzheimer patients, can be studied by brain imaging. This landmark advance promises to yield new insights into how brain changes with aging and Alzheimer disease.

• share
• favorite_border

Swinging their arms helped participants in a new study solve a problem whose solution involved swinging strings, researchers report, demonstrating that the brain can use bodily cues to help understand and solve complex problems.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers have identified a key pathway that could lead to new therapies to repair nerve cells' protective coating stripped away as a result of autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis. An article appears in the May 13 online edition of the Journal of Neuroscience. The research may also lead to new therapies for autism, Alzheimer's disease, and perinatal brain injury.

• share
• favorite_border

UCLA researchers report that certain regions in the brains of long-term meditators were larger than non-meditators. Specifically, meditators showed significantly larger volumes of the hippocampus and areas within the orbito-frontal cortex, the thalamus and the inferior temporal gyrus "” all regions known for regulating emotions.

• share
• favorite_border

Early diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer's disease could save millions or even billions of dollars while simultaneously improving care, according to new work by University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers.

• share
• favorite_border

Change the lighting; improve your health. Researchers from Case Western Reserve University, the Louis Stokes Cleveland Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's Lighting Research Center and GE Consumer & Industrial have begun testing in a long-term care facility where daylight is not readily available.

• share
• favorite_border

Levels of biomarkers in the cerebrospinal fluid of individuals with very mild dementia may be associated with the rate at which their thinking, learning and memory skills decline, according to a report in the May issue of Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

• share
• favorite_border

Children who suffer traumatic brain injuries can experience lasting or late-appearing neuropsychological problems, highlighting the need for careful watching over time, according to two studies published by the American Psychological Association.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine and Duke University find that impaired brain plasticity may explain how disruption of a single gene in the brain can cause severe cognitive deficits.

• share
• favorite_border

For the last 10 years, postgraduate training in medicine has been under scrutiny, with studies citing concerns about resident fatigue and patient safety. Numerous adjustments were made by neurosurgical educators six years ago when the ACGME instituted the maximum 24-hour shift length and 80-hour resident work week. The Journal of Neurosurgery articles are the first to delve into this subject from the unique perspective of neurosurgery.

• share
• favorite_border

Continuing their groundbreaking research into the treatment of mood disorders in older adults, psychiatrists at the Weill Cornell Institute of Geriatric Psychiatry at the NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Westchester Division in White Plains will begin new studies on the effects of quetiapine (Seroquel: Astra Zeneca) and lamotrigine (Lamictal: GlaxoSmithKline).

• share
• favorite_border

Of dozens of candidates potentially involved in increasing a person's risk for the most common type of Alzheimer's disease that affects more than 5 million Americans over the age of 65, one gene that keeps grabbing Johns Hopkins researchers' attention makes a protein called neuroglobin.

• share
• favorite_border

The spinal column is the most common site for bone metastasis. Metastatic spinal tumors are the most common type of malignant lesions of the spine, accounting for an estimated 70 percent of all spinal tumors. Estimates indicate that 30 to 70 percent of patients with cancer will experience spread of cancer to their spine. Research analyzes the effectiveness of sterotactic body radiosurgery in patients with metastatic spinal tumors.

• share
• favorite_border

It is estimated that 60,000 new cases of Parkinson's disease (PD) are diagnosed each year, adding to the estimated one to 1.5 million Americans who currently have the disease. One early sign of PD is the loss of the sense of smell (dysosmia), which often occurs prior to any abnormal movements. The exact reason for this loss is still under investigation, although it may be due to the loss of the brain cells that are used to sense and/or process odors.

• share
• favorite_border

The World Health Organization rates major depression as the top cause of disability worldwide, with an estimated 340 million people suffering from an episode of major depression every year. Sadly, statistics show that the suicide rate in people with major depression is as high as 15 percent. Research investigates the use of a new and less invasive form of stimulation in patients with medically refractive major depression.

• share
• favorite_border

In 2007, an estimated 20,500 new cases of primary malignant brain and central nervous system tumors were diagnosed, of which 16,605 were estimated to be gliomas. Gliomas can present a challenge for surgical resection (removal) because they invade normal brain tissue that may be highly functional, so it is crucial to develop techniques for improved visualization of the tumor's margins. Research studies the correlation between local fluorescence and MRI-enhancement on patients undergoing brain tumor surgery.