Why Many Cells Are Better than One
Johns Hopkins MedicineResearchers from Johns Hopkins have quantified the number of possible decisions that an individual cell can make after receiving a cue from its environment, and surprisingly, it’s only two.
Researchers from Johns Hopkins have quantified the number of possible decisions that an individual cell can make after receiving a cue from its environment, and surprisingly, it’s only two.
A tiny piece of a critical receptor that fuels the brain and without which sentient beings cannot live has been discovered by University at Buffalo scientists as a promising new drug target for Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases.
People who are able to cross their legs soon after having a severe stroke appear to be more likely to have a good recovery compared to people who can’t cross their legs. That’s according to new research published in the October 11, 2011, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Addressing the earliest stages of Alzheimer’s disease, before a patient shows outward signs of cognitive problems, has sometimes been a challenge for physicians and researchers, in part because they have not been using common and specific terms to describe the disease’s initial phases.
An ongoing lack of sleep during adolescence could lead to more than dragging, foggy teens, a University of Wisconsin-Madison study suggests.
People who rate their health as poor or fair appear to be significantly more likely to develop dementia later in life, according to a study published in the October 5, 2011, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Being born prematurely may increase your risk of developing epilepsy as an adult, according to a new study published in the October 4, 2011, issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
UCLA researchers have discovered there is an optimal brain frequency for changing synaptic strength for learning. And further, like stations on a radio dial, each synapse is tuned to a different optimal frequency.
Johns Hopkins scientists investigating chemical modifications across the genomes of adult mice have discovered that DNA modifications in non-dividing brain cells, thought to be inherently stable, instead underwent large-scale dynamic changes as a result of stimulated brain activity. Their report, in the October issue of Nature Neuroscience, has major implications for treating psychiatric diseases, neurodegenerative disorders, and for better understanding learning, memory and mood regulation.
Put up your dukes. A North Carolina State University study of aggression in fruit flies aims to provide a framework for how complex gene interactions affect behavior. And these clues in flies could translate to a better understanding of human genes and behavior.
Even people with blood pressure that is slightly above normal may be at an increased risk of stroke, according to a review of studies published in the September 28, 2011, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
People with prehypertension have a 55 percent higher risk of experiencing a future stroke than people without prehypertension, report researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine in a new meta-analysis of scientific literature published in the September 28 online issue of the journal Neurology.
Brain tumor specimens taken from neurosurgery cases at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Medical Center has given scientists a new window on the transformation that occurs as healthy brain cells begin to form tumors.
Oxaliplatin, a platinum-based anticancer drug that’s made enormous headway in recent years against colorectal cancer, appears to cause nerve damage that may be permanent and worsens even months after treatment ends. The chemotherapy side effect, described by Johns Hopkins researchers in the September issue of Neurology, was discovered in what is believed to be the first effort to track oxaliplatin-based nerve damage through relatively cheap and easy punch skin biopsies
Older people with low blood levels of vitamin B12 markers may be more likely to have lower brain volumes and have problems with their thinking skills, according to researchers at Rush University Medical Center. The results of the study are published in the Sept. 27 issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Older people with low levels of vitamin B12 in their blood may be more likely to lose brain cells and develop problems with their thinking skills, according to a study published in the September 27, 2011, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Foods that come from animals, including fish, meat, especially liver, milk, eggs and poultry, are usually sources of vitamin B12.
The eye and ear have patterns of organization that reflect visual and auditory input. But what about the nose? Now, Prof. Noam Sobel at the Weizmann Institute has found there is also organization to our smell receptors, and it relates to how we perceive an odor.
Researchers working with adult mice have discovered that learning and memory were profoundly affected when they altered the amounts of a certain protein in specific parts of the mammals’ brains.
America's top neurosurgeons have developed a presentation program to help educate the public on concussion prevention and treatment.
Scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School have found that a common cancer protein leads a second, totally different life in normal adult brain cells: It helps regulates memory formation and may be implicated in Alzheimer's disease.
UCLA researchers and colleages have found that certain types of subtle advertisements reduce activity in the decision-making areas of the brain, suggesting that some ads seduce, rather than persuade, consumers to buy their products.
Frontotemporal dementia and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease -- two fatal neurodegenerative disease with distinct but sometimes overlapping symptoms -- are triggered by a common mutation in many cases, according to researchers who say they have identified the mutated gene.
North American investigators led by neuroscientists at Mayo Clinic in Florida have found a genetic abnormality they say is the most common cause of two different but related familial forms of neurodegenerative disease — frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.
UCLA scientists discovered that a key signaling pathway plays an important role in frontotemporal dementia and may offer a potential target for treatment of the devastating brain disorder, which accounts for one in four cases of early-onset dementia.
A team led by scientists from Johns Hopkins and the National Institutes of Health has discovered a new genetic mutation for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and a related disease called frontotemporal dementia (FTD) that appears to account for more than a third of all inherited cases of these diseases. The researchers show in a new study published online on September 21 in Neuron that this mutation, found within a gene called C9ORF72, is about twice as common as all the other mutations discovered thus far for the disease combined.
Drs. Savita Khanna and Cameron Rink, both Assistant Professors of Surgery in the College of Medicine at The Ohio State University Medical Center are part of a research team that has been working for more than a decade to identify ways to reduce brain injury during stroke. Two key pieces of their research have recently revealed that the future of stroke treatment may lie in the form of supplementation – either with prophylactic use of a form of vitamin E, or administration of oxygen during a stroke.
People with diabetes appear to be at a significantly increased risk of developing dementia, according to a study published in the September 20, 2011, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Study finds exercise doesn’t just boost cellular powerhouses, called mitochondria, in muscles—it also drives up their number in the brain. Knowing this could have implications for exercise performance as well as treating mental and neurological disorders.
Henry Ford Hospital became the third hospital in the United States to perform a Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) procedure inside an Intraoperative Magnetic Resonance Imaging scanner, or iMRI.
A small group of veterans with spinal cord injuries who underwent a four-day scuba- diving certification saw significant improvement in muscle movement, increased sensitivity to light touch and pinprick on the legs, and large reductions in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, according to Johns Hopkins researchers.
In a first of its kind study, researchers have found that using two way audio-video telemedicine to deliver stroke care, also known as telestroke, appears to be cost-effective for rural hospitals that don’t have an around-the-clock neurologist, or stroke expert, on staff.
Scientists at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have uncovered a previously unknown fail-safe (compensatory) pathway that potentially protects the brain and other organs from genetic and environmental threats. The discovery could provide new ways to diminish the negative consequences of genetic mutations and environmental toxins that cause neurological diseases and other maladies.
Researchers are beginning to decipher what exactly happens in our brains when we are making decisions. Three experts in in the field describe the genesis of this cutting-edge field and potential practical applications of this research.
In a first of its kind study, researchers have found that using two way audio-video telemedicine to deliver stroke care, also known as telestroke, appears to be cost-effective for rural hospitals that don’t have an around-the-clock neurologist, or stroke expert, on staff. The research is published in the September 14, 2011, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Medical imaging experts at Johns Hopkins have reviewed the patient records of 302 men and women who had a much-needed X-ray of the blood vessels near the spinal cord and found that the procedure, often feared for possible complications of stroke and kidney damage, is safe and effective.
Researchers report that they have found several chemical compounds, including an antidepressant, that have powerful effects against brain-destroying prion infections in mice, opening the door to potential treatments for human prion diseases.
Stroke is a leading cause of death and serious long-term disability in the U.S. and the recurrence rate after five years is approximately 33%. Increased utilization of statins for patients with stroke will produce statistically significant and clinically important reductions in their risks of future stroke, heart attack and death from cardiovascular disease.
Cornell University researchers may have solved a 100-year puzzle: How to safely open and close the blood-brain barrier.
People with high cholesterol may have a higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, according to a study published in the September 13, 2011, issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
An enzyme that appears to play a role in controlling the brain's response to nicotine and alcohol in mice might be a promising target for a drug that simultaneously would treat nicotine addiction and alcohol abuse in people, according to a study by researchers at the Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center, affiliated with the University of California, San Francisco.
A year after hospital discharge, the majority of stroke patients are listening to doctor’s orders when it comes to taking their prescribed secondary stroke prevention medications, new data out of Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center shows. However, there is room for improvement, according to investigators.
New research from the University of Alabama at Birmingham pinpoints the relationship between primary brain tumors and the onset of epileptic seizures and reveals that a drug used to treat Crohn’s disease inhibits those seizures and may be able to slow a tumor’s growth. The onset of seizures is a common symptom in gliomas and often is the first sign of a brain tumor. Sen. Ted Kennedy had a seizure in May 2008, and three days later doctors confirmed that he had a malignant glioma. Kennedy died the following year.
A drug already on the market for Crohn’s disease might help slow the growth of gliomas, the brain cancer that killed Sen. Ted Kennedy in 2008.
Contrary to longstanding assumptions, new findings suggest the work intensity of physicians across several specialties is fairly equal. The study, funded by the American Academy of Neurology along with several other medical associations and published online ahead of print in the journal Medical Care, provides the groundwork for the development of a more reliable, scientific measurement of physician work intensity that may guide future national policy in patient safety, practice management and payment. The results represent the second phase of the two-phase project, and measured the work intensity associated with actual patient care of 108 neurologists, family physicians, general internists and surgeons in the southeast United States.
Animal studies indicate commonly used general anesthetics administered during critical stages of brain development can cause detrimental impairments in synapse formation and cognitive function. Insufficient evidence currently exists to support or refute whether similar effects could occur in young children. SmartTots is centralizing research efforts to determine and ensure the safe use of anesthetics and sedatives in children.
An idea with its origins in ballistic prey catching—the way toads and chameleons snatch food with their tongues—may change fundamental views of muscle movement while powering a new approach to prosthetics. After a decade of work, lead author Kiisa Nishikawa, Regents’ professor of biology at Northern Arizona University, and an international team of collaborators have published their hypothesis about spring-loaded muscles.
Specialists in Stony Brook University School of Medicine took part in a NIH-sponsored clinical trial that reveals high-risk patients without stents implanted had fewer second strokes.
A large team of international researchers have identified a new genetic cause of inherited Parkinson’s disease that they say may be related to the inability of brain cells to handle biological stress.
The discovery that low-intensity, pulsed ultrasound can be used to noninvasively stimulate intact brain circuits holds promise for engineering rapid-response medical devices.
Patients with narrowed arteries in the brain who received intensive medical treatment had fewer strokes and deaths than patients who received a brain stent in addition to medical treatment, according to the initial results from the first, nationwide stroke prevention trial to compare the two treatment options. The results of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) study called Stenting versus Aggressive Medical Management for Preventing Recurrent Stroke in Intracranial Stenosis (SAMMPRIS) are published in the online first edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.