A new study shows that having depression may nearly double your risk of developing dementia later in life. The research will be published in the July 6, 2010, issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Researchers at Rush University Medical found that depressive symptoms show little change during the development and progression of Alzheimer’s disease. The study suggests depression is a true risk factor for Alzheimer's disease and not just an early sign of the disease.
A new study by researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine finds that a comparable region in the brains of chickens concerned with analyzing auditory inputs is constructed similarly to that of mammals.
A South Dakota State University researcher and his colleagues elsewhere have discovered a previously unreported mitochondrial protein that interacts with a protein known to play a role in Alzheimer’s disease.
Until now, the cause of depression in people with MS was not well understood. Now, in the first such study in living humans, researchers at UCLA suggest the cause is not psychological, but physical: atrophy of a specific region of the hippocampus, a critical part of the brain involved in mood and memory, among other functions.
New research has identified the memory and brain scan tests that appear to predict best whether a person with cognitive problems might develop Alzheimer’s disease. The research is published in the June 30, 2010, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology
Neural circuitry is constantly changing to meet the challenges of its environment. Neuroscientist Tobias Bonhoeffer tells how new techniques enable researchers to watch this process of adaptation as never before.
Researchers at Rush University Medical Center have found that lower, though not necessarily impaired, performance on tests measuring story learning or retention and processing speed in motor tasks dependent on visual control, as well as symptoms of depression, predicted subsequent cognitive decline in a normal population.
Study used MRI to detect deterioration of white matter bracts in the brains of healthy adults at high risk for Alzheimer's disease. Data suggest that changes in white matter connections may be among the earliest brain changes in Alzheimer's disease, which may prove important for early detection by non-invasive imaging.
Using an experimental mouse model for malaria, an international group of scientists has discovered that adding antioxidant therapy to traditional antimalarial treatment may prevent long-lasting cognitive impairment in cerebral malaria.
A trial of a novel radioactive compound readily and safely distinguished the brains of Alzheimer’s disease patients from healthy volunteers on brain scans and opens the doors to making such imaging available beyond facilities that can manufacture their own radioactive compounds. The results, reported by a Johns Hopkins team in the June Journal of Nuclear Medicine, could lead to better ways to distinguish Alzheimer’s from other types of dementia, track disease progression and develop new therapeutics to fight the memory-ravaging disease.
Most concussions deliver a force of 95Gs to the human body, reports head injury expert Kim Gorgens of the University of Denver. Football players absorb 103Gs on their hits.
A team of researchers led by NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center has developed a method to predict post-stroke recovery of language by measuring the initial severity of impairment. Being able to predict recovery has important implications for stroke survivors and their families, as they plan for short and long-term treatment needs. Findings are reported online in the journal Stroke.
A team of researchers, led by scientists at the University of California, San Diego, have identified a key player in the dramatic loss of neurons in mice and fly models, a discovery that could help illuminate the role of mitochondrial dysfunction in human neurodegenerative disorders, such as Parkinson’s disease.
Researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine have found that the drug carvedilol, currently prescribed for the treatment of hypertension, may lessen the degenerative impact of Alzheimer’s disease and promote healthy memory functions.
A group of tests may help predict which people with Parkinson’s disease are more likely to fall, according to a study published in the June 23, 2010, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
An organic compound found in red wine – resveratrol – has the ability to neutralize the toxic effects of proteins linked to Alzheimer’s disease, according to research led by Rensselaer Professor Peter M. Tessier.
UNC researchers are the first to identify brain abnormalities in children at high risk for schizophrenia shortly after birth. The finding could lead to earlier detection of schizophrenia and enable better prevention and treatment.
An earlier study has shown that the stress of the Second Lebanon War in Israel increased the frequency of attacks in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients. The present study reveals that a potential way to minimize MS exacerbation is by directly coping with the situation.
Using a newly applied scientific technique, researchers at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California (USC) have reached surprising findings about the role of nature versus nurture in the development of the neural circuits in the auditory cortex, the area of the brain that is responsible for processing information about sound.
The first trial of a new model for testing Alzheimer's treatments has reassured researchers that a promising class of drugs does not exacerbate the disease if treatment is interrupted.
With the generous support of Families of Spinal Muscular Atrophy, researchers in the University of Utah Department of Neurology are making significant headway in the fight against the disease. Once very poorly understood, SMA is now considered one of the genetic conditions closest to finding an effective treatment.
Laboratory mouse study suggests that cold sensing develops well after birth. Cold sensing neural circuits in newborn mice take around two weeks to become fully active. The finding adds to understanding of the cold sensing protein TRPM8 (pronounced trip-em-ate), and suggests possible biological basis of cold sensing in humans.
For patients with quadriplegia, mutism and lower cranial nerve paralysis (locked-in syndrome), their only means of interacting with others is through vertical gaze and upper eyelid movements, using eye-coded communication strategies.
An in-depth analysis by the AANS, utilizing just-released 2009 head injury statistics from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission yielded some alarming trends. According to the AANS analysis, there were an estimated 446,788 sports-related head injuries treated at U.S. hospital emergency rooms in 2009, an increase by nearly 95,000 from the prior year. Many of these injuries are preventable.
Crayfish make surprisingly complex, cost-benefit choices, finds a University of Maryland study -opening up a new line of research to help unravel the cellular brain activity involved in human decisions. It concludes crayfish are a practical way to identify the neural circuitry and chemistry of decision making. No direct way exists to do this in primates.
In diverse neurodegenerative diseases ranging from Parkinson’s to Alzheimer’s, researchers have long noted accumulations of a little-understood neuronal protein called α-synuclein. Pathological and genetic evidence strongly suggested that excessive α-synuclein played a role in the evolution of these diseases, but it was unclear how too much α-synuclein culminated in synaptic damage and neurodegeneration.
UCLA scientists tested whether networks of brain cells kept alive in culture could be “trained” to keep time. The findings suggest that networks of brain cells in a petri dish can learn to generate simple timed intervals.
A new study shows that a mentally active lifestyle may protect against the memory and learning problems that often occur in multiple sclerosis (MS). The study is published in the June 15, 2010, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
A molecule implicated in Alzheimer’s disease interferes with brain cells by making them unable to “recycle” the surface receptors that respond to incoming signals, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found.
xperts from Johns Hopkins Medicine hosted a press conference following a continuing medical education program on the epidemiology of head injury in professional football. The program was an evidence-based review of traumatic brain injury in the sport.
Newly published research sharply expands knowledge of the composition of human spinal fluid. This added awareness of proteins found in normal fluid may be a future aid in diagnosis and treatment of neurological conditions.
In what has been hailed as a breakthrough, scientists have outlined the molecular mechanism of membrane transport. The research shows how a protein transforms its shape to transport substances across the cell membrane in order to regulate transmission of the brain's messages across the synaptic gap from one neuron to another.
Representatives of the German Centre for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), the UK Medical Research Council (MRC) and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) today signed a cooperation agreement that aims to establish and apply harmonised guidelines and technologies for research on neurodegenerative diseases.
Once damaged, nerves in the spinal cord normally cannot grow back and the only drug approved for treating these injuries does not enable nerve regrowth. Publishing online this week in the Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine show that treating injured rat spinal cords with an enzyme, sialidase, improves nerve regrowth, motor recovery and nervous system function.
Driving to and from work is a habit for most commuters – we do it without really thinking. But before our commutes became routine, we had to learn our way through trial-and-error exploration. A new study out of MIT has found that there are two brain circuits involved with this kind of learning and that the patterns of activity in these circuits evolve as our behaviors become more habitual.
Neuroscientists at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have found that removing three key inhibitory molecules from myelin – the insulating material that surrounds nerve cell fibers – does not significantly boost the ability of injured spinal axons to regenerate and restore themselves to full function.
The ability to diagnose and treat brain dysfunction without surgery may rely on a new method of noninvasive brain stimulation using pulsed ultrasound developed by a team of scientists led by William “Jamie” Tyler, a neuroscientist at Arizona State University.
A protein that helps build the brain in infants and children may aid efforts to restore damage from multiple sclerosis and other neurodegenerative diseases, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found.
In an effort to create a uniform and accurate method for determining brain death, the American Academy of Neurology has issued an updated guideline that provides doctors with a step-by-step process for determining brain death in adults. The guideline is published in the June 8, 2010, issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
A quick, painless eye measurement shows promise as a way to diagnose multiple sclerosis in its very early stages, and to track the effectiveness of treatments, researchers from UT Southwestern Medical Center have found in a multicenter study.
A recent retrospective study by four Michigan physicians shows strong evidence that symptoms of headache, dizziness and anxiety in some patients with traumatic brain injury potentially could be alleviated or even eliminated with specialized eyeglass lenses containing prisms. These lenses resulted in 71.8 percent reduction of symptoms.
Reducing a protein called beta-amyloid in young mice with a condition resembling Down syndrome improves their ability to learn, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found.
A Johns Hopkins and Japanese research team has generated the first comprehensive genetic “parts” list of a mouse hypothalamus, an enigmatic region of the brain — roughly cherry-sized, in humans — that controls hunger, thirst, fatigue, body temperature, wake-sleep cycles and links the central nervous system to control of hormone levels.
There are biological motivations behind the stereotypically poor decisions and risky behavior associated with adolescence, new research from a University of Texas at Austin psychologist reveals.
Researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine have found that certain types of specializations on nerve cells called “spines” are depleted as a person ages, causing cognitive decline in the part of the brain that mediates the highest levels of learning.
A "brain pacemaker" called deep brain stimulation (DBS) is an equally effective treatment for Parkinson's disease in two different regions of the brain.
A brain mechanism involved in both dreaming and waking from sleep may hold the key to new, more effective anesthetics and stimulants, reported neuroscientists at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS). Researchers in the UAMS Center for Translational Neuroscience discovered that cells in the part of the brainstem that controls sleep, dreaming and waking exhibit the same type of electrical activity as when the cortex of the brain is alert or during learning.
Researchers from the University of Michigan have found neural tissue contains imbalanced levels of proteins, which may explain the brain’s susceptibility to a debilitating childhood movement disorder.
300 neurosurgeons from 22 of the nations’ top medical institutions will battle it out in NYC’s Central Park on Sat., June 5 – an annual event that provides an opportunity for neurosurgeons to trade in the operating room for the softball field for a day – to support Columbia University Medical Center’s Pediatric Brain Tumor Research Fund.
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