Feature Channels: Neuro

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A protein marker the mice carry that reacts to different calcium levels allows many different cell types to be studied in a new way.

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New York University biologists have identified a mechanism that helps explain how the diversity of neurons that make up the visual system is generated.

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It’s common knowledge that teenage boys seem predisposed to risky behaviors. Now, a series of new studies is shedding light on specific brain mechanisms that help to explain what might be going on inside juvenile male brains.

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A new treatment under investigation for multiple sclerosis (MS) is safe and tolerable in phase 1 clinical trials, according to a study published August 27, 2014, in Neurology® Neuroimmunology & Neuroinflammation, a new online-only, freely accessible, specialty medical journal. The publication is part of the Neurology® family of journals, published by the American Academy of Neurology.

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Functional magnetic resonance imaging may help to better predict and understand depression in young adults.

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By manipulating neural circuits in the brain of mice, scientists have altered the emotional associations of specific memories. The research, led by Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator Susumu Tonegawa at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), reveals that the connections between the part of the brain that stores contextual information about an experience and the part of the brain that stores the emotional memory of that experience are malleable.

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Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute solved the mystery of why a specific signaling pathway can be associated with alcohol dependence. The new research shows the gene, Nf1, regulates gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), a neurotransmitter that lowers anxiety and increases relaxation feelings.

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The effectiveness of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) treatment may hinge significantly upon sleep quality, report researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System in a paper published today in the Journal of Neuroscience.

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High-dose erythropoietin (EPO; a hormone) administered within 42 hours of birth to preterm infants was associated with a reduced risk of brain injury, as indicated by magnetic resonance imaging, according to a study in the August 27 issue of JAMA.

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Weight loss surgery can curb alterations in brain activity associated with obesity and improve cognitive function involved in planning, strategizing and organizing, according to a new study published in the Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM).

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Exercising to improve our cardiovascular strength may protect us from cognitive impairment as we age, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Montreal and its affiliated Institut universitaire de gératrie de Montréal Research Centre.

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A study is shining new light on a sleep disorder called “sleep drunkenness.” The disorder may be as prevalent as affecting one in every seven people. The research is published in the August 26, 2014, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

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Implantating deep brain stimulation devices poses no greater risk of complications to older patients than it does to younger patients with Parkinson’s disease, researchers at Duke Medicine report.

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Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have found one of the keys to why certain glioblastomas – the primary form of a deadly brain cancer – are resistant to drug therapy. The answer lies not in the DNA sequence of the tumor, but in its epigenetic signature. These findings have been published online as a priority report in the journal Oncotarget.

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For patients who need surgery for facial pain caused by trigeminal neuralgia, the most cost-effective procedure is the least often used, reports a study in the September issue of Neurosurgery, official journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.

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Children and adolescents with autism have a surplus of synapses in the brain, and this excess is due to a slowdown in a normal brain “pruning” process during development, according to a study by neuroscientists at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC). Because synapses are the points where neurons connect and communicate with each other, the excessive synapses may have profound effects on how the brain functions. The study was published in the August 21 online issue of the journal Neuron.

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According to researchers at the University of Montreal, the regions of the brain below the cortex play an important role as we train our bodies’ movements and, critically, they interact more effectively after a night of sleep. While researchers knew that sleep helped us the learn sequences of movements (motor learning), it was not known why.

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Monthly blood transfusions can substantially reduce the risk of recurrent strokes in children with sickle cell disease (SCD) who have already suffered a silent stroke, according to the results of an international study by investigators at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, Vanderbilt University and 27 other medical institutions.

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A new study suggests that colds and other minor infections may temporarily increase stroke risk in children. The study is published in the August 20, 2014, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

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A new study suggests that colds and other minor infections may temporarily increase stroke risk in children. The study found that the risk of stroke was increased only within a three-day period between a child’s visit to the doctor for signs of infection and having the stroke.

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Scientists at Seattle Children’s Research Institute have discovered an area of the brain that could control a person’s motivation to exercise and participate in other rewarding activities – potentially leading to improved treatments for depression.

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Patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease currently have no treatment options to slow brain cell deterioration. Researchers at Houston Methodist’s Nantz National Alzheimer Center are studying an investigational drug that proposes to do just that.

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The area of the brain involved in multitasking and ways to train it have been identified by a research team at the IUGM Institut universitaire de gériatrie de Montréal and the University of Montreal. The research includes a model to better predict the effectiveness of this training

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Reported online today in the journal Brain, findings from researchers at the University of Toronto and Harvard University show that a group of inhibitory neurons, whose loss leads to sleep disruption in experimental animals, are substantially diminished among the elderly and individuals with Alzheimer’s disease.

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A new web-based program developed by University of Kentucky Markey Cancer Center researchers will provide a simple, free way for healthcare providers to determine which brain tumor cases require testing for a genetic mutation.

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Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found a new way that internal body clocks are regulated by a type of molecule known as long non-coding RNA.

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A new study demonstrates that the immune system can produce cells with stem cell properties. The study was conducted on crayfish, but the mechanism proposed may also be applicable in evolutionarily higher organisms, perhaps even humans.

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Lupus and other rheumatologic diseases can initially present as neurological disorders such as headaches and seizures, and thus delay diagnosis for many months. And treatments can cause adverse neurological effects.

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The August tip sheet includes information on Parkinson's disease and depression, locally advanced pancreatic cancer, a stem cell clinic for heart patients and more.

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New Penn Medicine research shows that neuropsychiatric symptoms such as depression, anxiety and fatigue are more common in newly diagnosed Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients compared to the general population. The study also found that initiation of dopamine replacement therapy, the most common treatment for PD, was associated with increasing frequency of impulse control disorders and excessive daytime sleepiness. The new findings, the first longitudinal study to come out of the Parkinson's Progression Markers Initiative (PPMI), are published in the August 15, 2014, issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

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Researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center and elsewhere, using a mouse model, have recorded the activity of individual nerve cells in a small part of the brain that works as a “switchboard,” directing signals coming from the outside world or internal memories. Because human brain disorders such as schizophrenia, autism, and post-traumatic stress disorder typically show disturbances in that switchboard, the investigators say the work suggests new strategies in understanding and treating them.

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A team led by scientists from the Florida campuses of The Scripps Research Institute and the Mayo Clinic have designed a therapeutic strategy targeting a specific genetic mutation that causes a common form of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and a type of frontotemporal dementia.

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A team of researchers at Mayo Clinic and The Scripps Research Institute in Florida have developed a new therapeutic strategy to combat the most common genetic risk factor for the neurodegenerative disorders amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD).

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A new technique developed by Elisa Konofagou, associate professor of biomedical engineering and radiology at Columbia Engineering, has demonstrated for the first time that the size of molecules penetrating the blood-brain barrier can be controlled using acoustic pressure—the pressure of an ultrasound beam—to let specific molecules through. This innovative method, published in the Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow & Metabolism, may help improve drug delivery to the brain.

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A University of Utah team discovered a method for turning a small, $40 needle into a 3-D microscope capable of taking images up to 70 times smaller than the width of a human hair.

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Contrary to popular belief, not all meditation techniques produce similar effects of body and mind. Indeed, a recent study by researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) has demonstrated for the first time that different types of Buddhist meditation – namely the Vajrayana and Theravada styles of meditation - elicit qualitatively different influences on human physiology and behaviour, producing arousal and relaxation responses respectively.

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A study from The Scripps Research Institute’s Florida campus and Columbia University shows the huntingtin gene plays a critical role in long-term memory.

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“One of the consequences of our new model will be to focus early childhood intervention on developing the particular strengths of the child’s brain, rather than exclusively trying to correct missing behaviors, a practice that may be a waste of a once in a lifetime opportunity,” Laurent Mottron, University of Montreal

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Treatments that involve neck manipulation may be associated with strokes, although this association is not proven, according to an American Heart Association Scientific Statement written by lead author Dr. Jose Biller of Loyola University Medical Center and other stroke experts.

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Chronic pain, which persists despite the fact that an injury has healed, can last for many months or years and may affect up to 15 percent of the adult population at any point in time. While it is a condition in its own right, it can be a component of other conditions. Neurostimulation, which involves stimulating pain-sensing nerves to convert painful sensations into nonpainful ones, offers a minimally invasive and reversible alternative to medication. A new report from an international team of experts provides comprehensive information on the safety and effectiveness of this type of treatment for conditions including failed back surgery syndrome and complex regional pain syndrome. More studies are needed for conditions such as peripheral neuropathic pain, postamputation pain and nerve pain from shingles.

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Researchers at the University of Montreal and CHU Sainte-Justine Research Centre have traced the origins of ADHD, substance abuse and conduct disorder, and found that they develop from the same neurocognitive deficits, which in turn explains why they often occur together.

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Sharpened pencils: check; notebooks and paper: check; school schedule: check. As a parent, this check list may seem familiar to you. It is a clear indication that back-to-school season is here and that means preparing your child for the school year as best as you can. Children’s Hospital Los Angeles is helping you and your child finalize the list by providing top 10 expert tips on keeping your child healthy and safe all year round.

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Dangerous brain tumors hijack the brain’s existing blood supply throughout their progression, by growing only within narrow potential spaces between and along the brain’s thousands of small blood vessels. The findings help explain why drugs that aim to stop growth of new vessels have failed in brain tumor clinical trials.

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Neuromodulation appropriateness consensus committee questions and answers regarding neurostimulation and the committee findings

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The Neuromodulation Appropriateness Consensus Committee consists of 60 neurostimulation experts convened by the International Neuromodulation Society to respond to the need to better define use of these advanced medical devices.

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A recent study conducted by researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and the University of Hawaii demonstrates a new approach to measuring early brain development of infants, resulting in more accurate whole brain growth charts and providing the first estimates for growth trajectories of subcortical areas during the first three months after birth.

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A rare metabolic disease that caused hundreds of seizures daily for 6-year-old Chloe Olivarez is now significantly under control as part of a clinical trial led by Dr. Juan Pascual that uses a medicinal oil for treatment.