The question of how animals orient themselves in space has been extensively studied, but only in two-dimensional settings – until now. Weizmann Institute research, conducted with bats wearing purpose-built miniature equipment, reveals for the first time how three-dimensional volumetric space is perceived in the brain.
A bizarre twist on the usual way proteins are made may explain mysterious symptoms in the grandparents of some children with mental disabilities. The discovery may lead to better treatments for older adults with a recently discovered genetic condition called Fragile X-associated Tremor Ataxia Syndrome.
Neuroscientists from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and the University of Toronto have developed an efficient and reliable method of analyzing brain activity to detect autism in children. Their findings appear today in the online journal PLOS ONE.
Americans with brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease or multiple sclerosis (MS) who need to see a neurologist may face longer wait times or have more difficulty finding a neurologist, according to a new study published in the April 17, 2013, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The findings are being released as nearly 150 neurologists will descend on Capitol Hill next Tuesday, April 23, 2013, to encourage Congress to protect patients’ access to neurologists and ensure there will be care for the one in six Americans currently affected by brain disease.
Neuroscientists at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) have taken a major step in their efforts to help people with memory loss tied to brain disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease.
Studying rats’ ability to navigate familiar territory, Johns Hopkins scientists found that the hippocampus uses remembered spatial information to imagine routes the rats then follow. Their discovery has implications for memory loss due to Alzheimer's disease and aging.
For the first time, researchers have linked autism in a mouse model of the disease with abnormalities in specific regions of the animals’ chromosomes.
The taste of beer, without any effect from alcohol itself, can trigger dopamine release in the brain, which is associated with drinking and other drugs of abuse, Indiana University School of Medicine researchers reported.
Specific DNA once dismissed as junk plays an important role in brain development and might be involved in several devastating neurological diseases, UC San Francisco scientists have found.
New research suggests that fainting may be genetic and, in some families, only one gene may be responsible. However, a predisposition to certain triggers, such as emotional distress or the sight of blood, may not be inherited. The study is published in the April 16, 2013, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Fainting, also called vasovagal syncope, is a brief loss of consciousness when your body reacts to certain triggers. It affects at least one out of four people.
Unique modification to microtubules makes nerve cells' cytoskeleton singularly robust.
Researchers at Case Western Reserve School of Medicine have discovered a technique that directly converts skin cells to the type of brain cells destroyed in patients with multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy and other so-called myelin disorders. This discovery appears today in the journal Nature Biotechnology.
A new study is challenging a long held belief among speech therapists and audiologists that bad behavior in young children with hearing implants is an indicator of device failure and a predictor of poor language development.
Advanced Spinal Cord Stimulator Lead Anchoring And Multiple Lead Placement Technique Through An Individual Port: A Case Serie To introduce a novel and advanced lead anchoring technique as well as introduce the emerging technology of large single port introducers and percutaneous paddle leads.
New study shows what happens in the brain to make music rewarding.
Using a miniature electronic device implanted in the brain, scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have tapped into the internal reward system of mice, prodding neurons to release dopamine, a chemical associated with pleasure. This implantable LED device is smaller than the eye of a needle and activates brain cells with light. The scientists report their findings in the journal Science.
The irony of getting away to a remote place is you usually have to fight traffic to get there. After hours of dodging dangerous drivers, you finally arrive at that quiet mountain retreat, stare at the gentle waters of a pristine lake, and congratulate your tired self on having "turned off your brain."
Walter Kaye, MD, professor of psychiatry and director of the Eating Disorder Treatment and Research Program at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine. and colleagues are beginning to be use advanced brain imaging technologies to study and improve eating disorder treatments.
Building on their history of innovative brain-imaging techniques, scientists at Brookhaven have developed a new way to use light and chemistry to map brain activity in fully-awake, moving animals, opening a new window to the study of brain diseases.
For scientists working to uncover the mysteries of the brain, fat is a problem. The fats inside cells bend and scatter light, obscuring researchers’ views when they try to peer deep into tissue. A new technique developed by HHMI scientists solves that problem by removing the fat from the brain and supporting the remaining brain structures in a hydrogel—literally giving scientists a clear view of an intact brain. The technique, called CLARITY, transforms biological tissue into an optically transparent sample that retains its original structure and molecular information.
Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have shed light on one of the major toxic mechanisms of Alzheimer’s disease. The discoveries could lead to a much better understanding of the Alzheimer’s process and how to prevent it.
Deep inside your brain, a legion of stem cells lies ready to turn into new brain and nerve cells when you need them. New research shows the vital role of a type of internal “spring cleaning” that both clears out garbage inside the cells, and keeps them in their perpetual stem-cell state.
African-Americans with a variant of the ABCA7 gene have almost double the risk of developing late-onset Alzheimer’s disease compared with African-Americans who lack the variant. The largest genome-wide search for Alzheimer’s genes in African-Americans, the study was led by Columbia University Medical Center. It will be published in JAMA (4/10/13 issue).
Researchers are testing two applications in new ways in an attempt to improve mobility in stroke survivors. One combines electrical muscle stimulation with active biking motion. The other uses wireless sensors to track and measure mobility.
We’re all fatheads. That is, our brain cells are packed with fat molecules, more of them than almost any other cell type. Still, if the brain cells’ fat content gets too high, they’ll be in trouble. In a recent study in mice, researchers at Johns Hopkins pinpointed an enzyme that keeps neurons’ fat levels under control, and may be implicated in human neurological diseases.
The American Academy of Neurology (AAN) has released an evidence-based guideline on treating neurocysticercosis, a tapeworm infection causing seizures that is common in developing countries and is now on the rise in developed countries, including the United States. The guideline is published in the April 9, 2013, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
A study from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine offers new insights into how the nervous system processes hot and cold temperatures. The research led by neuroscientist Mark J. Zylka, PhD, associate professor of cell biology and physiology, found an interaction between the neural circuits that detect hot and cold stimuli: cold perception is enhanced when nerve circuitry for heat is inactivated.
Research presented at the Genetics Society of America’s annual Drosophila Research Conference in Washington, D.C., holds clues to potential treatment for motor neuron diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
The recent discovery of circulating "nano-sized extracellular vesicles" (EVs) carrying proteins and nucleic acids derived from brain tumors may lead to exciting new avenues for brain cancer diagnosis, monitoring, and treatment, according to a special article in the April 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 functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technique may provide neurosurgeons with a non-invasive tool to help in mapping critical areas of the brain before surgery, reports a study in the April 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 from Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center found that it is nearly impossible for patients to determine the true cause of their migraine episodes without undergoing formal experiments.
Preventive Measures, Genetic Risks, New Diagnostic Tools Needed to Identify Effects of Traumatic Brain Injury in Athletes, Soldiers
A paper published this month in the prestigious medical journal The Lancet Neurology suggests that a broad spectrum of developmental and psychiatric disorders, ranging from autism and intellectual disability to schizophrenia, should be conceptualized as different manifestations of a common underlying denominator, ‘developmental brain dysfunction,’ rather than completely independent conditions with distinct causes.
A technology being developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory promises to provide clear images of the brains of children, the elderly and people with Parkinson’s and other diseases without the use of uncomfortable or intrusive restraints.
Scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute have for the first time identified a pair of drugs already approved for human use that show anti-prion activity and, for one of them, great promise in treating rare and universally fatal disorders, such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, caused by misfolded proteins called prions.
Joint study by U-M Health System and RAND estimates total dementia care costs at $159- $200 billion a year, expected to nearly double with aging population
Why is it so hard for some people to resist the least little temptation, while others seem to possess incredible patience, passing up immediate gratification for a greater long-term good? The answer, suggests a new study from Washington University in St. Louis, is that patient people focus on future rewards in a way that makes the waiting process seem much more pleasurable.
UCLA researchers have used a brain-imaging tool and stroke risk assessment to identify signs of cognitive decline early on in individuals who don't yet show symptoms of dementia.
A study in mice with genetic mutations seen in human Alzheimer's disease found that the feeling of hunger itself may protect against the disease.
The American Academy of Neurology (AAN) supports the Obama administration’s new brain research initiative, set to launch in 2014 with $100 million in federal funding. The AAN statement is posted at http://www.aan.com/news/?event=read&article_id=11189.
The major announcement by President Obama is attended by the scientists who propelled the Brain Activity Map Project -- neuroscientists and nanoscientists who joined to become a major catalyst for the new BRAIN Initiative.
Experts at the George Washington University are available to comment on President Obama's announcement about a new initiative to better understand the human brain.
Risk prediction tools that estimate future risk of heart disease and stroke may be more useful predictors of future decline in cognitive abilities, or memory and thinking, than a dementia risk scores, according to a new study published in the April 2, 2013, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
In the latest issue of Neurosurgical Focus, researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania review research showing that this ability to visualize relevant white matter tracts during glioma resection surgeries can improve accuracy.
Johns Hopkins scientists say they have evidence from animal studies that a type of central nervous system cell other than motor neurons plays a fundamental role in the development of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a fatal degenerative disease. The discovery holds promise, they say, for identifying new targets for interrupting the disease’s progress.
Researchers from Tel Aviv University describe experiments that could lead to a new approach for treating Parkinson’s disease using a common sweetener, mannitol. This research is presented April 6 at the Genetics Society of America’s 54th Annual Drosophila Research Conference in Washington D.C., April 3-7, 2013.
While the public today is better educated and aware of the risks of brain injuries, March – also known as National Brain Injury Awareness Month - is a good time to educate ourselves and others that suspected head injuries, especially concussions, shouldn’t be ignored, say Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (RWJUH) experts.
Considerable opportunity exists to improve interventions and outcomes of traumatic brain injury (TBI) in older adults, according to three studies published in the recent online issue of NeuroRehabilitation by researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
Researchers at UAB found that only 1 in 5 veterans reported receiving brain injury education while serving in the military. The researchers, whose findings were published this week in the Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation, believe a lack of accurate knowledge could lead to misdiagnosis or misinterpretation due to the many symptoms that can overlap among brain injury and other conditions like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression and chronic pain.
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