The first field study on the impact of light on teenagers’ sleeping habits finds that insufficient daily morning light exposure contributes to teenagers not getting enough sleep.
A simple test of reaction time may help determine whether athletes have sustained a concussion (also known as mild traumatic brain injury) and when they are ready to play again, according to a study released today that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 62nd Annual Meeting in Toronto April 10 to April 17, 2010.
New research finds that one out of 12 people who have a stroke will likely soon have another stroke, and one out of four will likely die within one year. Researchers say the findings highlight the vital need for better secondary stroke prevention. The study is published in the February 16, 2010, issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Watching TV medical shows might not be the best way to learn what to do when someone has a seizure. Researchers screened the most popular medical dramas and found that doctors and nurses on the shows responded inappropriately to seizures almost half the time, according to a study released today that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 62nd Annual Meeting in Toronto April 10 to April 17, 2010.
The McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT announced today that Lily Jan and Yuh-Nung Jan of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the University of California San Francisco will be the joint winners of the 2010 Edward M. Scolnick Prize in Neuroscience.
A study conducted by scientists at Brunel University and at the University of Hong Kong has found that expert sportsmen are quicker to observe and react to their opponents’ moves than novice players, exhibiting enhanced activation of the cortical regions of the brain. The results of the study, which appear in the most recent issue of NeuroReport (www.neuroreport.com), show that more experienced sports players are better able to detect early anticipatory clues from opposing players’ body movements, giving them a split second advantage in preparing an appropriate response.
Eating chocolate may lower your risk of having a stroke, according to an analysis of available research that will be released today and presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 62nd Annual Meeting in Toronto April 10 to April 17, 2010. Another study found that eating chocolate may lower the risk of death after suffering a stroke.
Workers and residents exposed to dust and fumes caused by the collapse of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 frequently reported headache years later, according to research released today that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 62nd Annual Meeting in Toronto April 10 to April 17, 2010.
People with migraine may be at an increased risk of heart attack and other risk factors for heart disease, according to a study published in the February 10, 2010, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Migraine sufferers are twice as likely to have heart attacks as people without migraine, according to a new study by researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University.
A study of the effects of sleep deprivation on executive functioning challenges an existing theory stating that sleep deprivation affects executive functions more than non-executive cognitive processes. WSU researchers found that working memory was unaffected by as much as 51 hours of sleep deprivation. The sleep deprived brain appears to be able of processing information, but this information may be distorted before it can be processed.
Drinking milk during pregnancy may help reduce your baby’s chances of developing multiple sclerosis (MS) as an adult, according to a preliminary study released today that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 62nd Annual Meeting in Toronto April 10 to April 17, 2010.
A Mediterranean diet may help people avoid the small areas of brain damage that can lead to problems with thinking and memory, according to a study released today that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 62nd Annual Meeting in Toronto April 10 to April 17, 2010.
High blood pressure appears to predict the progression to dementia in older adults with impaired executive functions (ability to organize thoughts and make decisions) but not in those with memory dysfunction, according to a report in the February issue of Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
A medication previously studied in patients with Alzheimer’s disease (latrepirdine) appears well tolerated and may improve thinking, learning and memory skills among individuals with Huntington’s disease, according to a report in the February issue of Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Deep Brain Stimulation, a new treatment being offered at Geisinger Medical Center and Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center, can dramatically reduce symptoms of movement disorders.
Workers exposed to tricholorethylene (TCE), a chemical widely used to clean metal such as auto parts, may be at a significantly higher risk of developing Parkinson’s disease, according to a study released today that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 62nd Annual Meeting in Toronto April 10 to April 17, 2010.
New immigrants to North America may be less likely to have a stroke at a young age than long-time residents, according to a study published in the February 3, 2010, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Researchers have found that three different degenerative brain disorders are linked by a toxic form of the same protein. Elk-1 was found in clumps of misshaped proteins that are the hallmarks of Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and Huntington’s disease. This suggests a molecular link between the presence of inclusions and neuronal loss that is shared across a spectrum of neurodegenerative disease. Identifying these links could open up novel avenues for therapeutic intervention.
Registration is now open to journalists planning to attend the 62nd Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) in Toronto, April 10–17, 2010. The AAN Annual Meeting is the world’s largest gathering of neurologists who come together to share the latest advances in neurologic research.
People with Parkinson’s disease suffer social difficulties simply because of the way they talk, a McGill University researcher has discovered. Marc Pell, at McGill’s School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, has learned that many people develop negative impressions about individuals with Parkinson’s disease, based solely on how they communicate. These perceptions limit opportunities for social interaction and full participation in society for those with the disease, reducing their quality of life.
People who experience memory loss or a decline in their thinking abilities may be at higher risk of stroke, regardless of whether they have been diagnosed with dementia, according to a new study published in the February 2, 2010, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Investigators at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute, the Karolinska Institutet, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School and Université Libre de Bruxelles have demonstrated in mouse models that transplanted stems cells, when in direct contact with diseased neurons, send signals through specialized channels that rescue the neurons from death.
The brain’s innate interest in the new and different may help trump the power of addictive drugs, according to research published by the American Psychological Association. In controlled experiments, novelty drew cocaine-treated rats away from the place they got cocaine.
New research shows our brains are a lot more chaotic than previously thought, and that this might be a good thing. Neurobiologists at the University of Maryland have discovered information about how the brain processes sound that challenges previous understandings of the auditory cortex, which had suggested an organization based on precise neuronal maps. In the first study of the auditory cortex conducted using advanced imaging techniques, Patrick Kanold, assistant professor of biology, Shihab Shamma, professor of electrical and computer engineering, and Sharba Bandyopadhyay, post-doctoral associate, describe a much more complex picture of neuronal activity.
Researchers at UCLA were able to predict a brain’s progression to Alzheimer’s long before the symptoms of AD can be seen, hopefully allowing for early intervention.
A study by researchers with UCLA's Pediatric Epilepsy Surgery Program has found that an alternative, non-invasive approach to pre-surgical testing, along with earlier consideration for surgery, is associated with the best seizure-free surgical outcome in patients with tuberous sclerosis complex.
A study published January 28 in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Health Perspectives suggests that women with higher exposure to phthalates during their pregnancy report more disruptive and problem behaviors in their children, using standardized measures. The study included 188 children whose mothers enrolled in Mount Sinai School of Medicine’s New York Children’s Environmental Health Study during their third trimester of pregnancy.
The largest epidemiological study of Parkinson's disease in the United States has found that the disease is more common in the Midwest and the Northeast and is twice as likely to strike whites and Hispanics as blacks and Asians. The study is based on data from 36 million Medicare recipients.
The brains of people under anesthesia respond to stimuli as they do in the deepest part of sleep – lending credence to a developing theory of consciousness and suggesting a new method to assess loss of consciousness in conditions such as coma.
Keith L. Black, M.D., has been named the recipient of the 2010 BET Honors Award in Public Service. In addition, he has been nominated for an NAACP Image Award in the Outstanding Literary Work/Non-fiction category for his book, “BRAIN SURGEON: A Doctor’s Inspiring Encounters with Mortality and Miracles.”
Only a few anti-spasticity medications used for children with cerebral palsy are backed by sufficient research to justify their use, according to a new review of scientific literature headed by a UT Southwestern Medical Center neurologist and conducted by a national panel of interdisciplinary experts nationwide.
Columbia University and Ascent Scientific announced that they have entered into a license agreement for FFN511, a novel fluorescent probe for optical imaging and measurement of synaptic activity in the brain.
Brain circuits involved in prosody seem to operate on a mirror neuron system, according to USC neuroscientists. PLoS ONE study also finds correlation between empathy and prosodic ability, meaning the ability to produce and perceive the music of speech.
A new guideline from the American Academy of Neurology and the Child Neurology Society finds botulinum toxin type A to be an effective treatment for spasticity, muscle tightness that interferes with movement, in children and adolescents with cerebral palsy, but poses some risk. The guideline is published in the January 26, 2010, issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
People's preferences for current versus later rewards may be influenced by fluctuating blood glucose levels: Volunteers who drank a regular soda containing sugar were more likely to select receiving more money at a later date while the volunteers who drank a diet soda were likelier to opt for receiving smaller sums of money immediately.
Preventing deadly ruptures of the blood vessels in the brain is the aim of a new Mayo Clinic project to help radiologists detect aneurysms with far greater speed and accuracy.
To test three theories that might explain an outfielder’s ability to catch a fly ball, researcher Philip Fink, PhD, from Massey University in New Zealand and Patrick Foo, PhD, from the University of North Carolina at Ashville programmed Brown University’s virtual reality lab, the VENLab, to produce realistic balls and simulate catches. The team then lobbed virtual fly balls to a dozen experienced ball players.
Older people who have “mental lapses,” or times when their thinking seems disorganized or illogical or when they stare into space, may be more likely to have Alzheimer’s disease than people who do not have these lapses, according to a study published in the January 19, 2010, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Clinical and basic science papers do not have to be published in large, high-impact publications to garner attention, and in fact when it comes to specialized areas of medicine such as neurosurgery, publications devoted to the subspecialty produce many citation classics. “Citation classic” is a term given to articles that have been cited more than 400 times.
A 68-year-old woman became the first patient in Houston to have her brain aneurysm treated with a recently FDA-approved liquid material instead of traditional open skull surgery or platinum coils.
How do the visual images we experience, which have no tangible existence, arise out of physical processes in the brain? New research at the Weizmann Institute of Science provides evidence, for the first time, that an “ignition” of intense neural activity underlies the experience of seeing.
New research shows that migraine and depression may share a strong genetic component. The research is published in the January 13, 2010, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
We all have at one time or another experienced the typical signs of an infection: the fever, the listlessness, the lack of appetite. They are orchestrated by the brain in response to circulating cytokines, the signaling molecules of the immune system. But just how cytokines' reach extends beyond the almost impenetrable blood-brain barrier has been the topic of much dispute.
An excess of one type of serotonin receptor in the center of the brain may explain why antidepressants fail to relieve symptoms of depression for 50 percent of patients, a new study from researchers at Columbia University Medical Center shows.
A study published in the January 13, 2010 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience links a loss of smell function in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) model animals with amyloid beta (protein) accumulation in the brain, a distinguishing hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease. Research conducted by NYU Langone Medical Center suggests that olfactory dysfunction, a common symptom of AD, may serve as an early diagnostic tool for the disease.
Sleeping is known to help humans stabilize information and tasks learned during the preceding day. Now, researchers have found that sleep has similar effects upon learning in starlings, a discovery that will open up future research into how the brain learns and preserves information.