An amino acid whose role in the body has been all but a mystery appears to act as a potent seizure inhibitor in mice, according to a study by researchers at Johns Hopkins.
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Long-term administration of a drug that mimics the hunger-signaling hormone ghrelin protected Alzheimer’s disease-model mice from memory deterioration, despite a high-glycemic-index diet.
Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have teamed up with several other institutions and pharmaceutical companies, to publish the first 3D structures of a receptor implicated in many diseases of the brain and in normal physiology throughout the body.
By manipulating the activity of Activin receptors in the brain, researchers were able to increase or decrease cocaine-taking and relapse behavior in animal models. The study focused on receptors in regions of the brain involved in pleasure and reward.
A genetic disorder called neurofibromatosis (NF) causes benign tumors to grow on the brain, spinal cord, and other parts of the nervous system. There are no effective drugs to prevent or reverse NF.
Brain surgery is famously difficult for good reason: When removing a tumor, for example, neurosurgeons walk a tightrope as they try to take out as much of the cancer as possible while keeping crucial brain tissue intact — and visually distinguishing the two is often impossible. Now Johns Hopkins researchers report they have developed an imaging technology that could provide surgeons with a color-coded map of a patient’s brain showing which areas are and are not cancer.
An international team of researchers from Indiana University and Switzerland is using data mapping methods created to track the spread of information on social networks to trace its dissemination across a surprisingly different system: the human brain.
Migraine researchers and clinicians are excited about a new class of drugs called Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide (CGRP) monoclonal antibodies, which are showing promise in preventing attacks in high-frequency episodic migraine and chronic migraine. Numerous studies on these medications are being presented at this week's American Headache Society scientific meeting.
Studying mice, scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified a neural circuit in the retina that carries signals enabling the eye to detect movement. The finding could help in efforts to build artificial retinas for people who have suffered vision loss.
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Changes in the vaginal microbiome are associated with effects on offspring gut microbiota and on the developing brain, according to a new study published in Endocrinology, a journal of the Endocrine Society.
Researchers investigated mannitol use before and during transportation of patients with intracranial emergencies from peripheral hospitals to tertiary facilities that house neurosurgery departments. The authors found a 22% dosing error rate, with slightly more patients receiving a dose smaller, rather than larger, than the dose range recommended by the Brain Trauma Foundation.
Trending news releases with the most views in a single day. Topics include: new drug for heart disease, astronomy, sleep, stroke, diabetes, materials science, MERS, and U.S. Politics.
Scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute have established conclusively that an activating protein, called “Rhes,” plays a pivotal role in focusing the toxicity of Huntington’s disease.
Chemists at The Scripps Research Institute have invented the first practical, scalable method for synthesizing jiadifenolide, a plant-derived molecule that may have powerful brain-protecting properties.
Every 67 seconds someone is the United States develops Alzheimer’s disease or some form of dementia. James E. Galvin, M.D., M.P.H., one of the most prominent neuroscientists in the country, is at the helm of cutting-edge research, screening methods and clinical care for all forms of dementia and cognitive impairments as well as neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease.
New, ultra-high-field magnetic resonance images (MRI) of the brain by researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago provide the most detailed images to date to show that while the brain shrinks with age, brain cell density remains constant.
A new study from The Scripps Research Institute, Florida campus, integrates neuroscience and psychological research to reveal how sleep suppresses certain nerve cell activity that promotes forgetting, insuring that at least some memories will last.
A series of immersive virtual reality experiments has confirmed that the human brain’s internal navigation system works in the same fashion as the grid cell system recently found in other mammals.
Sonia Rocha-Sanchez, Ph.D., an associate professor of oral biology in the Creighton University School of Dentistry, and an expert in the biology and physiology of the inner ear, has developed a method to temporally modify the expression of the retinoblastoma-1 gene in mice. Modulation of the RB1 gene can allow for the regrowth of cells in the inner ear and potentially restore hearing and balance caused by the loss of sensory hair cells.
ROCHESTER, Minn. — The molecular makeup of brain tumors can be used to sort patients with gliomas into five categories, each with different clinical features and outcomes, researchers at Mayo Clinic and the University of California San Francisco have shown.. The finding could change the methods that physicians rely on to determine prognosis and treatment options. Previously, they relied on how patients’ tumors look under the microscope. The study is published online in the New England Journal of Medicine.
While participating in physical activities such as bike riding, dancing, walking and gardening and mentally stimulating activities such as crosswords and reading may reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease, they may not do so by affecting the underlying markers for the disease, according to a study published in the June 10, 2015, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Specialized brain proteins that are involved in the removal of damaged nerve cell materials may be detected in the blood of people who were diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment or dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease. In a select group of people who later developed dementia, the levels of the lysosomal proteins were abnormal while the people still had no problems with memory or thinking skills, according to a study published in the June 10, 2015, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Fragile X syndrome is the most common inherited intellectual disability and the greatest single genetic contributor to autism. Unlocking the mechanisms behind fragile X could make important revelations about the brain. In a new study published June 4 in the journal Cell Reports, researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Waisman Center and Department of Neuroscience show that two proteins implicated in fragile X play a crucial role in the proper development of neurons in mice.
Speech, emitted or received, produces an electrical activity in neurons that neuroscientists measure in the form of «cortical oscillations». To understand speech, as for other cognitive or sensory processes, the brain breaks down the information it receives to integrate it and give it a coherent meaning. But researchers could not confirm whether oscillations were signs of neuronal activity, or whether these oscillations played an active role in speech processing. Professor Anne-Lise Giraud and her team at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Geneva (UNIGE) reached such conclusions after having created a computerized model of neuronal microcircuits, which highlights the crucial role of neuronal oscillations to decode spoken language, independently of speakers’ pace or accent.
A study at the Vancouver Island Health Authority (government health plan) supports findings that costs of spinal cord stimulation implants are recouped due to decreased demands for medical treatment in chronic pain patients.
A previously unknown link between the immune system and the death of motor neurons in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, has been discovered by scientists at the CHUM Research Centre and the University of Montreal.
Brain inflammation caused by chronic nerve pain alters activity in regions that regulate mood and motivation, suggesting for the first time that a direct biophysical link exists between long-term pain and the depression, anxiety and substance abuse seen in more than half of these patients, UC Irvine and UCLA researchers report.
Brain lesions in children can be especially challenging to diagnose, according to a report in the journal Frontiers in Neurology by a multidisciplinary team of Loyola University Medical Center physicians.
Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, a team of UCLA researchers has shown for the first time that children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who are overly sensitive to sensory stimuli have brains that react differently than those with the disorder who don’t respond so severely to noises, visual stimulation and physical contact.
Researchers funded by the National Institute for Health Research to conduct a multi-center pilot study of spinal cord stimulation (SCS) in refractory chronic angina pectoris will advise NICE that a fully powered nationwide study is feasible, with SCS therapy and trial outcome measures shown to be acceptable and appropriate for future randomized controlled trials.
Children and adolescents who received deep brain stimulation for generalized dystonia maintained significant symptom relief for up to eight years, according to a study presented today at the 12th World Congress of the International Neuromodulation Society.
Winning research abstracts present: a custom neural prosthesis to combat paralysis; cellular evidence of stroke recovery; tuning treatment of Parkinson's disease; validation of a pain model; and comparing drug-free stimulation modes of pain treatment.
The witness on the stand says he saw the accused at the scene of the crime. Is he sure? How sure? The jury’s verdict could hinge on that level of certainty. Many decisions we make every day are influenced by our memories and the confidence we have in them. But very little is known about how we decide whether we can trust a memory or not. Cedars-Sinai researchers have identified a unique set of neurons in the medial temporal lobe, an area of the brain where memories and memory-based decisions are processed. They show that the activity of these neurons is indicative of the confidence by which a memory will be retrieved.
Trending news releases with the most views in a single day. Topics include: marijuana exposure in children, female viagra, botox for nerve pain, genetics, cancer and bone marrow transplants, stroke, dengue fever, and memory loss in epilepsy.
Weekly sessions of non-invasive repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation provided sufficient long-term pain relief in 61 percent of patients with central post-stroke pain, and delivered long-term relief for patients who continued for one year.
The ability of a carbon nanofiber pad to detect changing neurotransmitter concentrations was demonstrated in a proof-of-principle collaboration between engineers and neurosurgeons at NASA Ames Research Center and the Mayo Clinic. The active area was one-tenth the size of current deep-brain-stimulation electrical contacts.
Having a stroke ages a person’s brain function by almost eight years, new research finds – robbing them of memory and thinking speed as measured on cognitive tests.
Botulinum toxin could offer an effective new treatment for two forms of neuropathy—pain caused by different types of nerve injury, according to an experimental study published in Anesthesia & Analgesia.
New research from UAB identifies an epigenetic cause for why patients with temporal lobe epilepsy tend to have memory loss, and suggests a potential way to reverse that loss. The findings indicate the discovery may have implications for many other memory disorders.
The ability to delay gratification in chimpanzees is linked to how specific structures of the brain are connected and communicate with each other, according to researchers at Georgia State University and Kennesaw State University.
After a concussion, a person can have disturbed sleep, memory deficits and other problems for years, but a new study suggests that despite these, sleep still helps them to overcome memory deficits, and the benefit is equal to that seen in individuals with no history of mild traumatic brain injury.
This conclusion is based on a new study conducted on rats at the University of Haifa. Prof. Mouna Maroun, the researcher leader, explains that given the similarity between the mechanisms in rats and humans responsible for coping with stress, “the immediate significance is that we cannot go on treating children affected by stress in the same way and with the same drugs that we use for adult patients”
About one-third of patients admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU) will develop delirium, a condition that lengthens hospital stays and substantially increases one’s risk of dying in the hospital, according to a new study led by Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers appearing in the British Medical Journal.
– Individuals with a higher level of moral reasoning skills showed increased gray matter in the areas of the brain implicated in complex social behavior, decision making, and conflict processing as compared to subjects at a lower level of moral reasoning, according to new research from the Perelman School of Medicine and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in collaboration with a researcher from Charité Universitätsmediz in Berlin, Germany. The team studied students in the Masters of Business Administration (MBA) program at the Wharton School. The work is published in the June 3rd edition of the journal PLOS ONE.