An enzyme that naturally occurs in the brain helps destroy the mutated protein that is the most common cause of inherited Parkinson's disease, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found.
A UCLA study has discovered that chronic exposure during pregnancy to miniscule levels of carbon monoxide damages the cells of the fetal brain, resulting in permanent impairment. The journal BMC (BioMed Central) Neuroscience published the findings June 22 in its online edition.
Women who have migraines with aura may be more likely to have a stroke or heart attack than women who don't have the condition, and the association varies by migraine frequency, according to research published in the June 24, 2009, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. An aura is a visual or other sensory disturbance that occurs before the migraine starts, such as seeing bright lights.
Women who suffer from migraine headaches in middle age"”particularly those accompanied by neurological aura"”are more likely to have damage to brain tissue in the cerebellum later in life.
Researchers here used a novel form of brain imaging to discover that white matter in the brains of adolescents at risk of developing schizophrenia does not develop at the same rate as healthy people. Further, the extent of these alterations can predict how badly patients will or will not deteriorate functionally over time.
UCLA and McGill University researchers have, for the first time, "photographed" a memory in the making.
Among older adults, less frequent participation in social activity is associated with a more rapid rate of motor function decline, according to a report in the June 22 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Two new studies published by neurologists at Columbia University Medical Center and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital demonstrate a need for more vigilant monitoring for seizure activity among intensive care patients who may be experiencing subtle seizures that are typically unrecognized. These subtle seizures may be affecting patients' prognoses and causing long-term brain damage, death and severe disability.
Scientists at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have shown that a fully automated procedure called Volumetric MRI "“ which measures the "memory centers" of the brain and compares them to expected size "“ is effective in predicting the progression from mild cognitive impairment (MCI) to Alzheimer's disease. The procedure can be readily used in clinics to measure brain atrophy, and may help physicians to predict decline in MCI patients.
People with memory problems who are depressed are more likely to develop Alzheimer's disease compared to people who are not depressed, according to a study published in the June 16, 2009, print issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. However, the research also shows that the popular Alzheimer's drug donepezil may delay the progression to Alzheimer's disease for depressed people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or memory problems.
A person whose hand function has been affected by a stroke can release an object more quickly when the affected arm is supported on a platform. Muscle-stretching exercises improved how quickly the stroke survivor could grip an object. The findings show how a stroke affects hand function, and provide a roadmap for rehabilitation.
Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine have discovered how the mutated huntington gene acts on the nervous system to create the devastation of Huntington's disease.
In her new book, Fixing My Gaze: A Scientist's Journey into Seeing in Three Dimensions, Mount Holyoke neurobiologist Susan R. Barry's recounts how she defied conventional medical wisdom to train herself to see in three dimensions for the first time at age 48.
Alzheimer's disease patients show a relentless decline in memory over the course of the disease, which is accompanied by both brain atrophy and by characteristic deposits in the brain tissue called amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles.
Music that gives people "chills" drives the brain's pleasure centers.
Seeing others in pain can automatically engage the brain's empathy systems even if we are not paying attention, according to new research from Mount Sinai School of Medicine presented at the Annual Meeting of the Organization for Human Brain Mapping.
A new treatment for stroke recovery.
Researchers us a technique called Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation to treat hallucinations.
Brain-computer interfaces "˜translate' what a person is thinking in words or actions.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health has awarded a three-year, $3-million grant to Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University to establish a research center to study the neurological complications that afflict people infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
Researchers at Oxford University studied people who were learning to juggle and mastering a three-ball juggle.
Decisions in the social brain: When I know that you don't know.
Depression is a major public health problem, and one of the most important challenges for psychiatrists is to determine whether an individual with depression should receive cognitive-behavioral therapy or treatment with antidepressant medication.
Our ability to form long-term memories depends on cells in the brain making strong connections with each other. Yet while it's not well understood how those connections are made, lost or changed, the process is known to involve the movement of the AMPA receptor protein to and from those neuronal connections.
A team of scientists from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, or USU, have characterized the expression of Toll-like receptors (TLRs) and associated signaling in response to Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus (VEEV) infection.
Not everyone declines in cognitive function with age. Elderly people who exercise at least once a week, have at least a high school education and a ninth grade literacy level, are not smokers and are more socially active are more likely to maintain their cognitive skills through their 70s and 80s, according to research published in the June 9, 2009, print issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Alzheimer's disease and its precursor, mild cognitive impairment, appear to be associated with an increased risk of death among both white and African American older adults according to a new, long-term research study by neurological experts at the Alzheimer's Disease Center at Rush University Medical Center. The study findings are published in the June issue of Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Johns Hopkins brain scientists have figured out why a faulty protein accumulates in cells everywhere in the bodies of people with Huntington's disease (HD), but only kills cells in the part of the brain that controls movement, causing negligible damage to tissues elsewhere. The answer, reported this week in Science, lies in one tiny protein called "Rhes" that's found only in the part of the brain that controls movement.
The Brain Injury Research Center (BIRC) in the UCLA Department of Neurosurgery has been awarded a $4.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to research new ways to heal the brain after a traumatic brain injury, or TBI. Specifically, researchers will be looking at how to best feed the brain the nutrients it needs to optimize recovery.
Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have created a line of fruit flies that may someday help shed light on the mechanisms that cause insomnia in humans. The flies, which get a small fraction of the sleep of normal flies, resemble insomniac humans in several ways.
A drug with potential to prevent epilepsy caused by a genetic condition may also help prevent more common forms of epilepsy caused by brain injury, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
About half of all people who have a major stroke following a warning stroke (a transient ischemic attack or mild stroke) have it within 24 hours of the first event, according to research published in the June 2, 2009, print issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Researchers studying a difficult-to-treat form of childhood epilepsy called infantile spasms have developed a line of mice that experiences seizures with features closely resembling those occurring in human infants. These genetically engineered mice provide a new opportunity for scientists to test treatments that may benefit children.
Many cases of age-related neurodegenerative disease fall into the gray zone between big, defined diseases such as Alzheimer or Parkinson disease. They are often misdiagnosed, which is a problem because mixed disease is not only common, but also quite different in its course from pathologically 'pure' disease. But there's also excitement and opportunity.
Just as our world buzzes with distractions "” from phone calls to e-mails to tweets "” the neurons in our brain are bombarded with messages. Research has shown that when we pay attention, some of these neurons begin firing in unison, like a chorus rising above the noise. Now, a study in the May 29 issue of Science reveals the likely brain center that serves as the conductor of this neural chorus.
Researchers have identified the locking mechanism that allows some neurons to form synapses to pass along essential information. Mutations of genes that produce a critical cell-adhesion molecule involved in the work were previously linked to autism.
A drug currently FDA-approved for use in diabetes shows some protective effects in the brains of patients with relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis, researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine report in a study online in the Journal of Neuroimmunology.
The largest study of its kind to date shows that women may not be able to learn as well shortly before menopause compared to other stages in life. The research is published in the May 26, 2009, print issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
People who take cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins after a stroke may be less likely to have another stroke later, according to research published in the May 26, 2009, print issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Researchers at Florida Atlantic University are investigating the molecular mechanisms of Huntington's disease (HD) to identify the pathways in the brain that are altered in response to mutant proteins, as well as to understand the cellular processes impacted by the disease in order to facilitate the development of effective pharmacological interventions. HD is a highly complex genetic, neurological disorder that causes certain nerve cells in the brain to waste away.
A Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center physician is among the first in the country to treat a patient using an FDA-approved liquid system for treating wide-necked brain aneurysms.
Chinese researchers have unlocked the mechanism of an emerging mind-body technique that produces measurable changes in attention and stress reduction in just five days of practice.
A new study shows that older people who are thinner or are losing weight quickly are at a higher risk of developing dementia, especially if they started out overweight or obese. The research is published in the May 19, 2009, print issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Any child confronting an outraged parent demanding to know "What were you thinking?" now has a new response: "Scientists have discovered that my brain is organized differently than yours."
A new tool can help predict whether people age 65 and older have a high risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. Research on the tool is published in the May 13, 2009, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
It takes less than a minute for a stroke to change a person's life forever, but taking the time to make a few simple lifestyle adjustments and finding out how to recognize an attack when it happens can save thousands of lives.
Traumatic Brain Injury is the single most common cause of death and disability in children and adolescents, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Now, according to a new study by UCLA researchers, the effects of a blow to the head, whether it's mild or a concussion, can linger for years.
Significant and widespread cognitive problems appear to exist in schizophrenia in its earliest phase, making it very hard for people with the disorder to work, study or be social, according to a new study published by the American Psychological Association.
The web's foremost website on Alzheimer disease reports on the highlights from the 3rd annual Human Amyloid Imaging (HAI) conference held recently in Seattle, WA. Amyloid beta, a peptide that builds up abnormally in the brains of Alzheimer patients, can be studied by brain imaging. This landmark advance promises to yield new insights into how brain changes with aging and Alzheimer disease.
Swinging their arms helped participants in a new study solve a problem whose solution involved swinging strings, researchers report, demonstrating that the brain can use bodily cues to help understand and solve complex problems.
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