Neuroscientists are finding that, as we get older, our aging brains are proving surprisingly malleable, and in ways not previously anticipated. But there are limitations.
Researchers at UCLA have identified a novel molecule in the brain that, after stroke, blocks the formation of new connections between neurons. As a result, it limits the brain’s recovery. In a mouse model, the researchers showed that blocking this molecule—called ephrin-A5--induces axonal sprouting, that is, the growth of new connections between the brain’s neurons, or cells, and as a result promotes functional recovery.
Researchers at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) have discovered that some cases of glioblastoma, the most common and aggressive form of primary brain cancer, are caused by the fusion of two adjacent genes. The study also found that drugs that target the protein produced by this genetic aberration can dramatically slow the growth of glioblastomas in mice. The findings were published today in the online edition of the journal Science.
Johns Hopkins scientists have discovered a "scaffolding" protein that holds together multiple elements in a complex system responsible for regulating pain, mental illnesses and other complex neurological problems.
In a study published online in Science, researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have determined the complete wiring diagram for the part of the nervous system controlling mating in the male roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans, an animal model intensively studied by scientists worldwide.
The anesthetic agent ketamine has a fast-acting antidepressant effect, but that doesn't improve the response to electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) for severe depression, according to a study in the August issue of The Journal of ECT, official journal of the International Society for ECT and Neurostimulation. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.
Jianhua Xing, a Virginia Tech assistant professor of biology, and his colleagues recommend further study of how rope-like polymers called microtubules function. They computational comparations of two models of microtubules, a component of cell cytoskeletons.
Raising levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine in the frontal cortex of the brain significantly decreased impulsivity in healthy adults, in a study conducted by researchers at the Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center at the University of California, San Francisco.
A study, performed in mice and utilizing post-mortem samples of brains from patients with Alzheimer’s disease, found that a single event of a moderate-to-severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) can disrupt proteins that regulate an enzyme associated with Alzheimer’s. The paper, published in The Journal of Neuroscience, identifies the complex mechanisms that result in a rapid and robust post-injury elevation of the enzyme in the brain.
Research shows an increase in deaths from motor vehicle accidents in areas where fewer neurosurgeons are available.
Creating a device out of human cells that simulates brain chemistry is the goal of a $6.4 million grant which is part of major new federal initiative to develop a series of “organs on a chip” designed to improve the drug development process.
Watching videos on YouTube may be a new way to show the treatment for a common cause of vertigo, which often goes untreated by physicians, according to a study published in the July 24, 2012, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Required online rules meetings for Michigan high school coaches this fall will include a concussion education module from U-M’s Michigan NeuroSport and Pediatric Trauma Program.
Ever wonder how the human brain, which is constantly bombarded with millions of pieces of visual information, can filter out what’s unimportant and focus on what’s most useful? The process is known as selective attention and scientists have long debated how it works. But now, researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center have discovered an important clue. Evidence from an animal study, published in the July 22 online edition of the journal Nature Neuroscience, shows that the prefrontal cortex is involved in a previously unknown way.
Scientists at Washington University in St. Louis who were decoding the activity of populations of neurons in the motor cortex discovered that they could tell how a monkey was planning to approach a reaching task, in effect, reading their minds.
Higher levels of a certain fat in the blood called ceramides may increase a person’s risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, according to a study published in the July 18, 2012, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
A new guideline released by the American Academy of Neurology recommends several treatments for people with Huntington’s disease who experience chorea—jerky, random, uncontrollable movements that can make everyday activities challenging. The guideline is published in the July 18, 2012, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Researchers have provided direct experimental evidence linking diabetes to the onset of Alzheimer’s disease. The study also identified an experimental model that could become an important new tool for AD research.
Using a two-photon microscope capable of peering deep within living tissue, researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have found new evidence that alpha-synuclein protein build-up inside neurons causes them to not only become “leaky,” but also to misfire due to calcium fluxes.
Metabolic syndrome, a term used to describe a combination of risk factors that often lead to heart disease and type 2 diabetes, seems to be linked to lower blood flow to the brain, according to research by the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.
Adding stroke severity to a hospital 30-day mortality model based on claims data for Medicare beneficiaries with acute ischemic stroke was associated with improvement in predicting the risk of death at 30 days and changes in performance ranking regarding mortality for a considerable proportion of hospitals
Among patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (MS), treatment with the widely-prescribed drug to treat MS, interferon beta, was not associated with less progression of disability
Using adult stem cells, Johns Hopkins researchers and a consortium of colleagues nationwide say they have generated the type of human neuron specifically damaged by Parkinson’s disease (PD) and used various drugs to stop the damage.
Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University and Montefiore Medical Center found that people with a form of mild cognitive impairment (MCI), a risk factor for developing Alzheimer’s disease, have twice the risk of dying compared with cognitively normal people. Those with dementia have three times the risk. The findings are being presented at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Vancouver this week.
Mayo Clinic researchers have found a novel way to monitor real-time chemical changes in the brains of patients undergoing deep brain stimulation (DBS).
Activity lingers longer in certain areas of the brain in those with Alzheimer’s than it does in healthy people, Mayo Clinic researchers who created a map of the brain found. The results suggest varying brain activity may reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease. The study, “Non-stationarity in the “Resting Brain’s” Modular Architecture,” was presented at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference and recently published in the journal PLoS One.
Scientists have assembled the most detailed chronology to date of the human brain’s long, slow slide into full-blown Alzheimer’s disease.
A new study shows that taking part in a stress management program may help people with multiple sclerosis (MS) prevent new disease activity. The study is published in the July 11, 2012, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
A new psychology study from The University of Texas at Austin found that people associate past memories with novel information. This memory-binding process allows people to better understand new concepts and make future decisions. The findings could lead to better teaching methods, as well as treatment of degenerative neurological disorders, such as dementia.
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have identified two key regulatory proteins critical to clearing away misfolded proteins that accumulate and cause the progressive, deadly neurodegeneration of Huntington’s disease (HD).
In the current online issue of PLoS ONE, researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine say they have identified a set of laboratory-based biomarkers that can be useful for understanding brain-based abnormalities in schizophrenia. The measurements, known as endophenotypes, could ultimately be a boon to clinicians who sometimes struggle to recognize and treat the complex and confounding mental disorder.
Johns Hopkins researchers say they have discovered that the central nervous system’s oligodendroglia cells, long believed to simply insulate nerves as they “fire” signals, are unexpectedly also vital to the survival of neurons. Damage to these insulators appears to contribute to brain injury in neurodegenerative diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease for the Yankee baseball great who died from the disease.
The ability for substances to pass through the blood-brain barrier is increased after adult stroke, but not after neonatal stroke, according to a new study the UCSF that will be published July 11 in the Journal of Neuroscience.
Botulinum toxin may help prevent shaking or tremor in the arms and hands of people with multiple sclerosis (MS), according to new research published in the July 3, 2012, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
A research effort called the Human Connectome Project is seeking to explore, define, and map the functional connections of the human brain. An update on progress in and upcoming plans for the Human Connectome Project appears in the July 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.
Using an in vitro cell model of Huntington’s disease (HD), researchers at FAU's Schmidt College of Medicine have discovered a novel mechanism and potential link between mutant huntingtin, cell loss and cell death or apoptosis in the brain, which is responsible for the devastating effects of this disease.
Researchers at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging have corrected the genetic mutation responsible for Huntington’s Disease (HD) using a human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) that came from a patient suffering from the incurable, inherited neurodegenerative disorder. Scientists took the diseased iPSCs, made the genetic correction, generated neural stem cells and then transplanted the mutation-free cells into a mouse model of HD where they are generating normal neurons in the area of the brain affected by HD.
An interdisciplinary team of scientists have successfully tagged a protein that regulates the neurotransmitter serotonin with tiny fluorescent beads, allowing them to track the movements of individual molecules for the first time. This capability makes it possible to study the manner in which serotonin regulates mood, appetite and sleep at a new level of detail.
Smoking, head injury, pesticide exposure, farming and less education may be risk factors for a rare sleep disorder that causes people to kick or punch during sleep, according to a study published in the June 27, 2012, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
A picture may be worth a thousand calories, a new study suggests. Looking at images of high-calorie foods stimulates the brain’s appetite control center and results in an increased desire for food, according to the study, which will be presented Monday at The Endocrine Society’s 94th Annual Meeting in Houston.
UCLA researchers discovered that a diet enriched with a popular omega-3 fatty acid and an ingredient in curry spice preserved walking ability in rats with spinal-cord injury. Published June 26 in the Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine, the findings suggest that these dietary supplements help repair nerve cells and maintain neurological function after degenerative damage to the neck.
Deep brain stimulation reduces binge eating in mice, suggesting that this surgery, which is approved for treatment of certain neurologic and psychiatric disorders, may also be an effective therapy for obesity. Presentation of the results will take place Sunday at The Endocrine Society’s 94th Annual Meeting in Houston.
In a paper published in the June 24, 2012 online issue of Nature Genetics, a team of doctors and scientists, led by researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, say de novo somatic mutations in a trio of genes that help regulate cell size and proliferation are likely culprits for causing hemimegalencephaly, though perhaps not the only ones.
Preventing diabetes or delaying its onset has been thought to stave off cognitive decline -- a connection strongly supported by the results of a 9-year study led by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and the San Francisco VA Medical Center.
Double-cortex syndrome primarily affects females and arises from mutations on a gene located on the X chromosome. Drs. Susanne Bechstedt and Gary Brouhard have used a highly advanced microscope to discover how these mutations cause a malformation of the human brain.
A "brain pacemaker" called deep brain stimulation (DBS) remains an effective treatment for Parkinson's disease for at least three years.
A new delivery method for levodopa/carbidopa, a common dual-drug Parkinson’s disease (PD) regimen, significantly improved the duration of the drugs’ effectiveness in people with advanced PD.
With a single drug treatment, researchers at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine can silence the mutated gene responsible for Huntington’s disease, slowing and partially reversing progression of the fatal neurodegenerative disorder in animal models.
A protein required to regrow injured peripheral nerves has been identified by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The finding, in mice, has implications for improving recovery after nerve injury in the extremities. It also opens new avenues of investigation toward triggering nerve regeneration in the central nervous system, notorious for its inability to heal.
A surgical technique using a muscle flap from the thigh restores facial motion—and the ability to smile—in patients with facial nerve paralysis resulting from neurofibromatosis type 2 (NF2), reports a study in this month's special "Operative Neurosurgery" supplement to 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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