St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital scientists have rewritten the job description of the protein TopBP1 after demonstrating that it guards early brain cells from DNA damage. Such damage might foreshadow later problems, including cancer.
Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill describe how exploiting the molecular mechanism behind acupuncture resulted in six-day pain relief in animal models. They call this new therapeutic approach PAPupuncture.
New research from Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York reveals that repeated exposure to cocaine decreases the activity of a protein necessary for normal functioning of the brain’s reward system, thus enhancing the reward for cocaine use, which leads to addiction. Investigators were also able to block the ability of repeated cocaine exposure, to induce addiction. The findings, published online April 22 in the journal Nature Neuroscience, provide the first evidence of how cocaine changes the shape and size of neuron rewards in a mouse model.
Forced body cooling known as therapeutic hypothermia has reduced in-hospital deaths among sudden cardiac arrest patients nearly 12 percent between 2001 and 2009, according to a Mayo Clinic study being presented at the upcoming American Academy of Neurology 2012 Annual Meeting in New Orleans. The research is among several Mayo abstracts that will be discussed at the conference.
People who received injections of the multiple sclerosis (MS) drug interferon beta-1a soon after their first signs of possible MS were less likely to progress to clinically definite MS than people who switched to interferon beta-1a from placebo, according to new phase three results of the three-year REFLEXION clinical trial that will be presented as part of the Emerging Science program (formerly known as Late-Breaking Science) at the American Academy of Neurology’s 64th Annual Meeting in New Orleans, April 21 to April 28, 2012.
Daily physical activity may reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and cognitive decline, even in people over the age of 80, according to a new study by neurological researchers from Rush University Medical Center.
Daily physical exercise may reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease, even in people over the age of 80, according to a study published in the April 18, 2012, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
A new study suggests there may be a starting point at which blows to the head or other head trauma suffered in combat sports start to affect memory and thinking abilities and can lead to chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, in the brain. The research was released today and will be presented as part of the Emerging Science (formerly known as Late-Breaking Science) program at the American Academy of Neurology’s 64th Annual Meeting in New Orleans April 21 to April 28, 2012.
Daily physical activity may reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and cognitive decline, even in people over the age of 80, according to a new study by neurological researchers from Rush University Medical Center.
A new type of anti-epilepsy medication that selectively targets proteins in the brain that control excitability may significantly reduce seizure frequency in people whose recurrent seizures have been resistant to even the latest medications, new Johns Hopkins-led research suggests.
The longstanding mystery of how selective hearing works – how people can tune in to a single speaker while tuning out their crowded, noisy environs – is solved this week in the journal Nature by two scientists from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).
A pair of neuroscientists from Vanderbilt and Harvard Universities has proposed the first neurobiological model for third-party punishment. It outlines a collection of potential cognitive and brain processes that evolutionary pressures could have re-purposed to make this behavior possible.
Researchers find that early detection of blunt cerebrovascular injury after trauma, and the use of screening protocol to detect these injuries, may prevent potentially life-threatening stroke.
It was a figurative whack on the head that started Sandia National Laboratories distinguished technical staff member Juan Elizondo-Decanini thinking outside the box — which in his case was a cylinder.
He developed a new configuration for neutron generators by turning from conventional cylindrical tubes to the flat geometry of computer chips.
Practices like physical exercise, certain forms of psychological counseling and meditation can all change brains for the better, and these changes can be measured with the tools of modern neuroscience, according to a review article now online at Nature Neuroscience.
Research shows that in the U.S., lumbar spondylosis is associated with the lowest quality-adjusted life year health state compared to other common chronic disease states.
Nationwide survey suggest neurosurgeons not only perceive the medicolegal environments they operate in, but that these perceptions may impact practitioners and their patients.
A levodopa-carbidopa intestinal gel (LCIG) works better than standard oral levodopa-carbidopa in reducing “off” time in patients with advanced Parkinson’s disease. That’s according to results of the phase three randomized, double-blind clinical trial of LCIG, to be presented as part of the Emerging Science program (formerly known as Late-Breaking Science) at the American Academy of Neurology’s 64th Annual Meeting in New Orleans April 21 to April 28, 2012. “Off” time occurs when Parkinson’s symptoms like tremor, slowness, stiffness and walking difficulty return as the beneficial effects of oral treatments wear off.
Researchers develop model that suggest regulation of cerebral blood flow by adenosine and adenosine kinase may be of critical importance in understanding neocortical epilepsy.
Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research researchers showed that brain tissue from a Parkinson's disease mouse model , as well as synthetically produced disease protein fibrils, injected into young, symptom-free mice led to spreading of a-syn pathology.
A new brain cancer vaccine tailored to individual patients by using material from their own tumors has proven effective in a multicenter phase 2 clinical trial at extending their lives by several months or longer. The patients suffered from recurrent glioblastoma multiforme—which kills thousands of Americans every year.
Researchers have found, as it relates to neurotrama, an association of increased complications (and no change in mortality) with the implementation of ACGME resident duty-hours restrictions within teaching hospitals; as well as no change in complications and an improvement in mortality in non-teaching hospitals.
An investigational oral drug called ONO-4641 reduced the number of lesions in people with multiple sclerosis (MS), according to the results of a phase two clinical trial to be presented as Emerging Science (formerly known as Late-Breaking Science) at the American Academy of Neurology’s 64th Annual Meeting in New Orleans April 21 to April 28, 2012.
Researchers have discovered evidence that the basolateral amygdala may play a critical role in helping to adjust the ability of conditioned hints or triggers that enhance a recovering addict’s craving or drug seeking.
Researchers find that those suffering from degenerative grade I spondylolisthesis may benefit from surgery that includes laminectomy with lumbar spinal fusion.
A landmark study from the Institute of Medicine (IOM) reports that your chance of developing epilepsy at some point in your life is one in 26. Onset is highest in children and older adults. But epilepsy knows no boundaries—it can strike at any age and across all socio-economic levels and ethnicities. There is no known cure and one-third of people with epilepsy have treatment-resistant or refractory epilepsy.
Research findings show nucleus accumbens neurons not only encode the difference between expectation and outcome, but in situations with an uncertain outcome, these neurons also predicted the subject’s action.
Men are twice as likely as women to experience complications after brain or spinal 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.
Nanomedicine researchers at the Methodist Neurological Institute and Rice University have developed a way to selectively kill brain cancer cells by using a tiny syringe to deliver a combination of chemotherapy drugs directly into the cells. These findings will be published in the April 24 issue of the American Chemical Society journal ACS Nano.
Injection of a small amount of clumped protein triggers a cascade of events leading to a Parkinson’s-like disease in mice, according to an article in the Journal of Experimental Medicine.
The American Association of Neurological Surgeons is commemorating National Neurosurgery Awareness Week (NNAW) April 15-21, 2012, in conjunction with its 80th Annual Scientific Meeting in Miami. NNAW efforts focus on the prevalence and prevention of concussions, urging athletes, coaches and the public to make concussion awareness part of their playbooks.
Use of a new drug to detect the beta-amyloid plaques in the brain that are hallmark signs of Alzheimer’s disease may help doctors diagnose the disease earlier, according to research that will be presented as part of the Emerging Science program (formerly known as Late-Breaking Science) at the American Academy of Neurology’s 64th Annual Meeting in New Orleans April 21 to April 28, 2012.
A global team has mapped the human genes that boost or sabotage the brain’s resistance to a variety of mental illnesses and Alzheimer’s disease. The UCLA-launched study also uncovered new genes that explain individual differences in brain size and intelligence
Worrying may have evolved along with intelligence as a beneficial trait, according to a recent study by scientists at SUNY Downstate Medical Center and other institutions.
Certain antidepressants appear to decrease depression in people with Parkinson’s disease without worsening motor problems, according to a study published in the April 11, 2012, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
A traumatic brain injury can negatively affect a patient’s medical decision-making ability at a time when patients or their families must make myriad complex decisions, say researchers from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
The severity of the injury directly corresponds to the amount of impairment, according to findings. Patients with mild TBI showed little impairment one month after injury, while those with more severe injury were significantly impaired.
A brain-mapping study has found that people's ability to make decisions in novel situations decreases with age and is associated with a reduction in the integrity of two specific white-matter pathways.
An abnormally low level of a protein in certain nerve cells is linked to movement problems that characterize the deadly childhood disorder spinal muscular atrophy, new research in animals suggests.
A new technique for analyzing brain images offers the possibility of using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to predict the rate of progression and physical path of many degenerative brain diseases, report scientists at the San Francisco VA Medical Center and the University of California, San Francisco.
Based on their clinical experience and observations, a team of Johns Hopkins physicians and psychologists say that more than one-third of the patients admitted to The Johns Hopkins Hospital’s inpatient epilepsy monitoring unit for treatment of intractable seizures have been discovered to have stress-triggered symptoms rather than a true seizure disorder.
Former NASA astronaut Michael “Rich” Clifford is calling on fellow patients with Parkinson’s disease not to let the disease drive what they do. Clifford’s inspiring story and advice for patients is featured as the cover story in the latest issue of Neurology Now®, the American Academy of Neurology’s award-winning magazine for patients and caregivers.
New research finds that a person’s memory declines at a faster rate in the two- and-a-half years before death than at any other time after memory problems first begin. A second study shows that keeping mentally fit through board games or reading may be the best way to preserve memory during late life. Both studies are published in the April 4, 2012, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Two new studies published in the April 4 online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology, suggest that a person’s memory declines at a faster rate in the last two-and-a-half years of life than at any other time after memory problems first begin. The second study shows that keeping mentally fit through board games or reading may be the best way to preserve memory during late life. Both studies were conducted by researchers at Rush University Medical Center.
The American Academy of Neurology (AAN), the world’s largest organization of neurologists, is pledging to work with the entire epilepsy community to improve the quality of life for epilepsy patients in response to recent recommendations made by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) in its report Epilepsy Across the Spectrum – Promoting Health and Understanding.