“The cells of the body can do without it because they use asparagine provided through diet. Asparagine, however, is not well transported to the brain via the blood-brain barrier,” said senior co-author of the study Dr. Jacques Michaud, who found that brain cells depend on the local synthesis of asparagine to function properly.
Although PCBs have been banned in the United States since 1979, University of Montreal and CHU Sainte-Justine researcher Maryse Bouchard has found that higher levels of the toxin was associated with lower cognitive performance in seniors.
Neurosurgeons at UC San Diego Health System are using a new approach to visualize the brain’s delicate anatomy prior to surgery. The novel technique allows neurosurgeons to see the brain’s nerve connections thus preserving and protecting critical functions such as vision, speech and memory. No needles, dyes or chemicals are needed to create the radiology scan. The main imaging ingredient? Water.
After a mild concussion, special brain scans show evidence of brain abnormalities four months later, when symptoms from the concussion have mostly dissipated, according to research published in the November 20, 2013, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
New research from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai reveals long-term cocaine abuse may be associated with deficits in parts of the brain involved in monitoring and overseeing one’s own behavior.
Certain neurons in the brain’s “face-recognition center” perform differently in patients who have autism. In what are believed to be the first studies of their kind, Cedars-Sinai researchers recording the real-time firing of individual nerve cells in the brain found that a specific type of neuron in a structure called the amygdala performed differently in people who suffer from autism spectrum disorder than in those who do not.
Alexander disease is a devastating brain disease that almost nobody has heard of — unless someone in the family is afflicted with it. Alexander disease strikes young or old, and in children destroys white matter in the front of the brain. Many patients, especially those with early onset, have significant intellectual disabilities.
UCLA researchers have shown that teenagers with anxiety disorders show increased activity in a specific part of the brain, the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), when they are interpreting a neutral situation negatively. Ultimately, the mPFC may serve as a biomarker for illness.
The University of Kentucky is the first to conduct a trial of regenerative treatment strategy for Parkinson’s disease. The trial combines the deep brain stimulation procedure with grafting of a patient’s peripheral nerve tissue into the brain, anticipating that the nerve graft will allow the brain to heal itself. If successful, this procedure could change the treatment of Parkinson’s disease and possibly halt or reverse brain degeneration caused by the disease.
A new blood biomarker correctly predicted which concussion victims went on to have white matter tract structural damage and persistent cognitive dysfunction following a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). If validated in larger studies, this blood test could identify concussion patients at increased risk for persistent cognitive dysfunction or further brain damage and disability if returning to sports or military activities.
A new pilot study led by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center suggests that the brain changes associated with meditation and stress reduction may play an important role in slowing the progression of age-related cognitive disorders like Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias.
Ask Patricia Gibson and she can tell you numerous stories that convey the misconceptions associated with epilepsy.
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have used genetic engineering of human induced pluripotent stem cells to specifically and precisely parse the roles of a key mutated protein in causing familial Alzheimer’s disease (AD), discovering that simple loss-of-function does not contribute to the inherited form of the neurodegenerative disorder.
Saint Louis University researchers found that antioxidant extracts from spearmint and rosemary fight mild cognitive impairment in an animal model.
University of Adelaide researchers have taken a step forward in unravelling the causes of a commonly inherited intellectual disability, finding that a genetic mutation leads to a reduction in certain proteins in the brain.
People in middle age who have a high blood pressure measure called pulse pressure are more likely to have biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease in their spinal fluid than those with lower pulse pressure, according to research published in the November 13, 2013, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Even as the rate of diagnosis has reached 11 percent among American children aged 4 to 17, neuroscientists are still trying to understand attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). One classic symptom is impulsivity — the tendency to act before thinking.
The novel compound IRL-1620 may be useful in treating Alzheimer’s disease (AD) as it has been shown to prevent cognitive impairment and oxidative stress in animal models.
New research from the Cleveland Clinic shows most patients with diabetes and obesity who undergo gastric bypass not only experience remission of their diabetes and lose significant weight, but they also reduce their risk of having a heart attack by 40 percent and their risk for suffering a stroke by 42 percent, over a 10-year time horizon.
Using scores obtained from cognitive tests, Johns Hopkins researchers think they have developed a model that could help determine whether memory loss in older adults is benign or a stop on the way to Alzheimer’s disease.
A specialized type of brain cell that tamps down stem cell activity ironically, perhaps, encourages the survival of the stem cells’ progeny, Johns Hopkins researchers report. Understanding how these new brain cells “decide” whether to live or die and how to behave is of special interest because changes in their activity are linked to neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, mental illness and aging.
Pregnant women may transmit the damaging effects of stress to their unborn child by way of the bacteria in their vagina and through the placenta, suggest new findings from two animal studies presented by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania at Neuroscience 2013, the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience.
Hospitals vary in management of children with traumatic brain injury—particularly in monitoring and preventing the harmful effects of increased intracranial pressure (ICP), according to a study in the November 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.
A new study led by Ryan P. Duncan of Washington University at St. Louis suggests that patients with Parkinson’s disease who experience freezing episodes are more likely to have impaired balance. This study highlights the importance of conducting further research on freezing episodes and treatment options.
As little as 20 minutes of moderate exercise three times per week during pregnancy enhances the newborn child’s brain development, according to researchers at the University of Montreal and its affiliated CHU Sainte-Justine children’s hospital. This head-start could have an impact on the child's entire life.
A team of scientists led by researchers from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research have identified a novel therapeutic approach for the most frequent genetic cause of ALS, a disorder of the regions of the brain and spinal cord that control voluntary muscle movement, and frontal temporal degeneration, the second most frequent dementia.
Psychology and neurobiology researchers develop new brain imaging model to examine how memories are used in decision making.
A Columbia-led research team has clinically validated a new method for predicting time to nursing home residence or death for patients with Alzheimer’s. The method uses data from a single patient visit, and is based on a complex model of Alzheimer’s progression developed by consecutively following two sets of Alzheimer’s patients for 10 years each.
Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified a chain reaction that triggers the regrowth of some damaged nerve cell branches, a discovery that one day may help improve treatments for nerve injuries that can cause loss of sensation or paralysis.
Investigators at Johns Hopkins have found a known genetic pathway to be active in many difficult-to-treat pediatric brain tumors called low-grade gliomas, potentially offering a new target for the treatment of these cancers.
In the largest study on the topic to date, research shows that speaking a second language may delay the onset of three types of dementias. The research is published in the November 6, 2013, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
In a study led by Duke researchers, monkeys have learned to control the movement of both arms on an avatar using just their brain activity.
Stroke patients treated at hospitals with neurology residency programs are significantly more likely to get life-saving clot-busting drugs than those seen at other teaching or non-teaching hospitals, new Johns Hopkins-led research suggests.
For the first time, UCLA researchers created a a virtual world that allowed them to manipulate a rodent's environment, and found that separate areas of a brain can work together, or be at odds.
Groundbreaking clinical study shows patented magnesium formula prevents synapse loss and reverses memory decline in mice with Alzheimer’s Disease.
For the first time in a large study sample, the decline in brain function in normal aging is conclusively shown to be influenced by genes, say researchers from the Texas Biomedical Research Institute in San Antonio and Yale University.
A stem cell therapy previously shown to reduce inflammation in the critical time window after traumatic brain injury also promotes lasting cognitive improvement, according to preclinical research at UTHealth in Houston.
In an attempt to reverse paralysis in patients with spinal cord injuries, researchers are electrically stimulating the spinal neurons of their patients in hopes of allowing them to stand and walk again.
It was once thought that each cell in a person's body possesses the same DNA code and that the particular way the genome is read imparts cell function and defines the individual. For many cell types in our bodies, however, that is an oversimplification. Studies of neuronal genomes published in the past decade have turned up extra or missing chromosomes, or pieces of DNA that can copy and paste themselves throughout the genomes.
Few things scare parents more than witnessing their child suffer a seizure. November is Epilepsy Awareness Month, and pediatric neurologists at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center offer a quick primer on pediatric seizures to help parents navigate this often-terrifying experience.
A small molecule called VIP, known to synchronize time-keeping neurons in the brain’s biological clock, has the startling effect of desynchronizing them at higher dosages, says a research team at Washington University in St. Louis. Neurons knocked for a loop by a burst of VIP are better able to re-synchronize to abrupt shifts in the light-dark cycle like those that make jet lag or shift work so miserable.
Our vision depends on exquisitely organized layers of cells within the eye’s retina, each with a distinct role in perception. Johns Hopkins researchers say they have taken an important step toward understanding how those cells are organized to produce what the brain “sees.” Specifically, they report identification of a gene that guides the separation of two types of motion-sensing cells, offering insight into how cellular layering develops in the retina, with possible implications for the brain’s cerebral cortex.
Researchers at Johns Hopkins say they have found that a gene already implicated in human speech disorders and epilepsy is also needed for vocalizations and synapse formation in mice. The finding, they say, adds to scientific understanding of how language develops, as well as the way synapses — the connections among brain cells that enable us to think — are formed.
Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute scientists have discovered how retinal neurons claim prime real estate in the brain by controlling the abundance of a protein called aggrecan. The discovery could shed light on how to repair the injured brain.
In a study published in Neuron, Tufts neuroscientists report that exposure therapy, a common treatment for anxiety disorders, remodels an inhibitory junction in the mouse brain. The findings improve the understanding of how exposure therapy suppresses fear responses and may aid in the development of more effective treatments for anxiety disorders.
With the help of computerized eye trackers, a new cognitive science study finds that at least 50 percent of people can see the movement of their own hand even in the absence of all light.
A discovery from Case Western Reserve and Cleveland Clinic researchers could provide epilepsy patients invaluable advance guidance about their chances to improve symptoms through surgery.
Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery for adults, but for babies it's their foremost tool for learning. Now researchers from the University of Washington and Temple University have found the first evidence revealing a key aspect of the brain processing that occurs in babies to allow this learning by observation.
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