Using 10-year-old archival brain tissue from patients with Alzheimer’s disease, a research team from NYU Langone Medical Center has developed a novel method to examine the structure and function of proteins at the cell level -- providing greater means to study protein changes found in Alzheimer’s disease.
The animal brain is so complex, it would take a supercomputer and vast amounts of data to create a detailed 3-D model of the billions of neurons that power it.But computer scientists and a professor of ophthalmology at the University of Utah have developed software that maps out a monkey’s brain and more easily creates a 3-D model, providing a more complete picture of how the brain is wired. Their process was announced this week at Neuroscience 2015, the annual Society for Neuroscience meeting in Chicago.
Evidence is mounting that drugs used to treat depression and Alzheimer’s disease also can help patients recover from strokes.
Researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center say they have added to evidence that a shell-shaped region in the center of the mammalian brain, known as the thalamic reticular nucleus or TRN, is likely responsible for the ability to routinely and seamlessly multitask.
A new study, led by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute, the Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System and University of California San Diego School of Medicine shows that increasing a crucial membrane protein in nerve cells within the brain can improve learning and memory in aged mice.
Little can be done to help the hundreds of thousands of people whose severe strokes have left them with one arm stuck close to the sides of their bodies like a broken wing. A 30-patient study by Washington researchers, however, has found that magnetically stimulating a specific part of their brains can affect arm movements — raising hope that, in the future, a short course of therapy targeting this area could help to free the arm and restore some use of the stroke-affected limb.
Researchers at Massachusetts Eye and Ear/Harvard Medical School and Boston University have successfully shown neuroprotection in a Parkinson’s mouse model using new techniques to deliver drugs across the naturally impenetrable blood-brain barrier. Their findings, published in Neurosurgery, lend hope to patients around the world with neurological conditions that are difficult to treat due to a barrier mechanism that prevents approximately 98 percent of drugs from reaching the brain and central nervous system.
New model described in the journal CHAOS represents how the mind processes sequential memory and may help understand psychiatric disorders
The most sensitive commercial magnetometers require near absolute zero temperatures, but researchers have now built a device with superior performance at a relatively balmy 77 K
Rowan University researchers have developed a blood test that can accurately detect early-stage Parkinson's disease and differentiate it from later stages of the disease. The test can also distinguish Parkinson's from other neurological (Alzheimer's and multiple sclerosis) and non-neurological diseases (breast cancer).
Researchers find a protein that's involved in helping control the architecture of connections between neurons – a basic process involved in both healthy and diseased brains.
A new and comprehensive study has found that celiac patients are at no increased risk for dementia before or after their diagnosis of celiac disease.
Babies born prematurely face an increased risk of neurological and psychiatric problems that may be due to weakened connections in brain networks linked to attention, communication and the processing of emotions, according to new research at Washington University School of Medicine.
An FDA-approved drug for leukemia improved cognition, motor skills and non-motor function in patients with Parkinson’s disease and Lewy body dementia in a small phase I clinical trial, report researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington. In addition, the drug, nilotinib (Tasigna® by Novartis), led to statistically significant and encouraging changes in toxic proteins linked to disease progression (biomarkers).
A research team led by Assia Shisheva, Ph.D., professor of physiology in Wayne State University’s School of Medicine, has made breakthrough advancements on a new molecular mechanism that may provide a means to “melt” pathological clumps known as Lewy clumps. These clumps are a hallmark sign of Parkinson's disease.
A new study by University at Buffalo researchers marks a step toward understanding the Huntingtin protein (Htt) is responsible for Huntington's disease. The research shows that Htt controls the movement of precious cargo traveling up and down neurons, the cells that form the core of the nervous system in animals.
A study, published today in the American Journal of Psychiatry, is the first to find that immune cells are more active in the brains of people at risk of schizophrenia* as well as those already diagnosed with the disease.
Vestigial organs, such as the wisdom teeth in humans, are those that have become functionless through the course of evolution. Now, a psychologist at the University of Missouri studying vestigial muscles behind the ears in humans has determined that ancient neural circuits responsible for moving the ears, still may be responsive to sounds that attract our attention. Neuroscientists studying auditory function could use these ancient muscles to study positive emotions and infant hearing deficits.
Researchers in the Epilepsy Genetics Program of the Krembil Neuroscience Centre have discovered a gene mutation that increases the risk of sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP) in patients with mild forms of the disease.
Findings reveal a key role of the BET protein family in the regulation of selected genes that control normal development and function of nerve cells
U-M Health System researchers are testing technology that gives brain surgeons real-time microscopic vision of tumors. “It allows the surgical decision-making process to become data driven instead of relying on the surgeon’s best guess,” said Daniel Orringer, MD, the U-M neurosurgeon piloting the technology with a team of physicians and medical school students.
Having a high stress job may be linked to a higher risk of stroke, according to an analysis of several studies. The meta-analysis is published in the October 14, 2015, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
PHILADELPHIA – Epilepsy affects more than 65 million people worldwide. One-third of these patients have seizures that are not controlled by medications. In addition, one-third have brain lesions, the hallmark of the disease, which cannot be located by conventional imaging methods. Researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have piloted a new method using advanced noninvasive neuroimaging to recognize the neurotransmitter glutamate, thought to be the culprit in the most common form of medication-resistant epilepsy. Their work is published today in Science Translational Medicine.
Using advanced brain imaging, researchers have matched certain behavioral symptoms of schizophrenia to features of the brain’s anatomy. The findings, from a research team at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis could be a step toward improving diagnosis and treatment of schizophrenia.
A team of UCLA scientists has found that brain areas linked to social behaviors are both underdeveloped and insufficiently networked in youths with high functioning autism spectrum disorder (ASD) compared to study participants without ASD.
New studies from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania clarify how two crucial features of audition are managed by the brain.
A pioneering surgical technique has restored some hand and arm movement to patients immobilized by spinal cord injuries in the neck, reports a new study at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The researchers assessed outcomes of nerve-transfer surgery in nine quadriplegic patients with spinal cord injuries in the neck. Every patient in the study reported improved hand and arm function.
A unique study at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles of newborns treated with hypothermia for hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) – a condition that occurs when the brain is deprived of an adequate oxygen supply – confirms its neuroprotective effects on the brain.
The new technique allows scientists to study diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s using cells from human patients
The Nantz National Alzheimer Center at Houston Methodist Hospital is part of a landmark clinical trial that looks at removing a key protein from the brain to prevent memory loss at least a decade before symptoms are noticed in healthy older adults.
Why are there gender-specific roles in caring for offspring? Weizmann Institute scientists used optogenetics to change maternal behavior and levels of male aggression in mice – work that could reveal how male and female brains function in conventional gender-related activities and shed new light on disorders such as postpartum depression and autism.
A study of people with multiple sclerosis (MS) found that those who spent time in the sun every day during the summer as teens developed the disease later than those reporting not spending time in the sun every day. The study, which was published in the October 7, 2015, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology, also found that people who were overweight at age 20 developed the disease earlier than those who were average weight or underweight.
A multi-institutional team led by scientists at the Indiana University School of Medicine have discovered an immune system gene associated with higher rates of amyloid plaque buildup in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients and older adults at risk for the disease.
Women with a gene variant (APOEe4 allele) associated with Alzheimer’s disease experience a steeper decline in body mass index (BMI) after age 70 than those women without the version of the gene, whether they go on to develop dementia or not.
A diet high in processed fructose sabotages rat brains’ ability to heal after head trauma, UCLA neuroscientists report. Revealing a link between nutrition and brain health, the finding offers implications for the 5.3 million Americans living with a traumatic brain injury, or TBI.
A study by scientists at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles has shown that tissue-engineered colon derived from human cells is able to develop the many specialized nerves required for function, mimicking the neuronal population found in native colon.
Scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute have uncovered a significant—and potentially treatable—relationship between a chemical that helps transmit signals in the brain and genetic mutations present in a subset of individuals with autism spectrum disorder.
Stroke is very rare in children, but colds, flu and other minor infections may temporarily increase stroke risk in children, according to a study published in the September 30, 2015, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The study also found routine childhood vaccines may decrease the risk of stroke.
Latest Research Highlights from ACSM— September 2015
The brain uses similar computations to calculate the direction and speed of objects in motion whether they are perceived visually or through the sense of touch.
Chimpanzees’ personality traits are linked to the anatomy of specific brain structures, according to researchers at Georgia State University, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and University of Copenhagen.
Scientists at Duke Medicine are using transparent fish to watch in real time as Cryptococcal meningitis takes over the brain. The resulting images are worthy of a sci-fi movie teaser, but could be valuable in disrupting the real, crippling brain infection that kills more than 600,000 people worldwide each year.
Researchers at the Vanderbilt Sports Concussion Center (VSCC) are using novel sound wave technology as part of an attempt to more rapidly and accurately diagnose sports concussions on the sidelines during games.
Brittany Brown has watched her daughter, Amaree, 6, struggle with hundreds of seizures every day for the past six years. Now, a new treatment is providing hope.
A new science called Neurogastronomy brings chefs and neuroscientists together to improve quality of life for patients with taste & smell deficits. The inaugural International Society of Neurogastronomy symposium is November 7, 2015, featuring internationally-renowned chefs, scientists, and food technologists.
Researchers at UCSF have succeeded in mapping the genetic signature of a unique group of stem cells in the human brain that seem to generate most of the neurons in our massive cerebral cortex.
Novel brain-computer interface technology created by University of California, Irvine researchers has allowed a paraplegic man to walk for a short distance.
People who get dizzy several minutes after standing up may be at risk of more serious conditions and even an increased risk of death, according to new research published in the September 23, 2015, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Neuroscientists have uncovered the brain malady responsible for tinnitus and for chronic pain — the uncomfortable, sometimes agonizing sensations that persist long after an initial injury.
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