Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have discovered a molecule that can make brain cells resistant to programmed cell death or apoptosis.
Parkinson’s disease symptoms begin subtly and worsen as damage to certain brain cells continues. But an electrical stimulation device implanted deep in the brain, along with medications, may provide some control of symptoms such as shaking, stiffness, and loss of muscle control. But what happens if the drugs are stopped and the device is switched off after five years? Are the symptoms far worse than they were to start, as might be expected ? Surprisingly, no, says neurologist Michele Tagliati, M.D..
A new guideline from the American Academy of Neurology recommends using plasma exchange to treat people with severe relapses in multiple sclerosis (MS) and related diseases, as well as those with certain kinds of nerve disorders known as neuropathies. The guideline is published in the January 18, 2011, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Researchers are using inexpensive LCD projectors to control the brain and muscles of tiny organisms, including freely moving worms. This technology advances the field of optogenetics, which has given researchers unparalleled control over brain circuits in laboratory animals.
Though the cause of Alzheimer’s disease still is unknown, recent studies have implicated three proteins strongly in its onset., amyloid beta, tau, and Fyn. New research from UAB and others indicates that interactions between those three proteins might lead to brain dysfunction and AD in a mouse model of the disease.
UCLA researchers have develop a non-invasive, ultra high-speed microscope that can record the firing of thousands of individual brain cells—neurons—as they communicate or mis-communicate with each other, in real time and in 3D.
The American Academy of Neurology has neurotrauma experts available for interviews to discuss critical care and recovery.
Keith L. Black, M.D., Chairman and Professor of Neurosurgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, is available to discuss gunshot and other traumatic brain injuries. He is an outstanding interview with extensive national interview experience -- both live on-air and via telephone. To arrange interviews, please contact Sandy Van at 808-526-1708 or 1-800-880-2397.
UTHealth Trauma Experts are available for interviews to discuss trauma surgery and recovery in the wake of the near-fatal shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) at an event in Tucson.
A new study compared the neural correlates of long-term married and in love individuals with individuals who had recently fallen in love. Researchers discovered highly similar brain activity.
The first drug to treat the underlying disorder instead of the symptoms of Fragile X, the most common cause of inherited intellectual disability, shows some promise according to a new study published in the January issue of Science Translational Medicine.
Combining the cutting-edge technologies of MRI and MEG, scientists at the University of California, San Diego show that babies just over a year old process words they hear with the same brain structures as adults, and in the same amount of time. Moreover, the researchers found that babies were not merely processing the words as sounds, but were capable of grasping their meaning.
Animal experiments suggest that taking the omega-3 fatty acid docosahexanoic acid (DHA) might offer a new way of protecting against traumatic brain injury (TBI), reports the February issue of Neurosurgery, official journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons.
For patients with extremely severe obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), a procedure called radiosurgery may bring improvement when other treatments have failed, according to a study in the January issue of Neurosurgery, official journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons.
For years, the majority of research on reactive oxygen species (ROS) – ions or very small molecules that include free radicals – has focused on how they damage cell structure and their potential link to stroke, cardiovascular disease and other illnesses. However, researchers at the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA have shown for the first time that neural stem cells, the cells that give rise to neurons, maintain high levels of ROS to help regulate normal self-renewal and differentiation.
Women who have multiple sclerosis (MS) are more likely to have a gene associated with multiple sclerosis than men with the disease and it is this gene region where environment interacts with the genetics, according to a study published in the January 5, 2011, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
A team of researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine has developed the first web-based screening tool for Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). It is estimated that about seven percent of people in the United States have diagnosed or undiagnosed TBI.
Study is first to pinpoint the precise anatomical location where vision loss appears to occur in glaucoma.
Epilepsy, a common and serious neurologic disorder that affects millions of people, is not getting the public attention and funding for research it deserves, according to an editorial on a study published in the January 4, 2011, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Neuroscientists had assumed that a mutation in the progranulin gene, which makes the progranulin protein and supports brain neurons, was sufficient to produce a kind of dementia known as frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD). But now an international team of scientists led by researchers at Mayo Clinic’s campus in Florida have found another genetic factor they say appears to protect against the disorder in progranulin mutation carriers.
Eating a Southern staple, fried fish, could be one reason people in Alabama and across the “stroke belt” states are more likely than other Americans to die of a stroke, according to a study published in the December 22, 2010, online issue of Neurology.
UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have pinpointed a tiny site in the brain where the hormone leptin may help trigger the onset of puberty.
For many with MS, the disease wreaks havoc with emotional well-being, and minorities might especially be at risk for developing depressive symptoms.
University at Buffalo neuroscience researchers conducting basic research on ion channels have demonstrated a process that could have a profound therapeutic impact on pain.
It is well known that music arouses emotions. But why do some musical performances move us, while others leave us flat? Why do musicians spend years perfecting the subtle nuances that bring us to tears? Scientists at Florida Atlantic University have now identified key aspects of musical performance that cause emotion-related brain activity, and they have shown for the first time how these performance nuances work in the brain, in real-time.
A UCLA-led has study found that after leaving the hospital, nearly two-thirds of Medicare beneficiaries hospitalized for acute ischemic stroke either died or were rehospitalized within a year. The findings point to an opportunity for more quality-of-care initiatives to improve stroke care, especially in transitioning to home, stroke rehabilitation and outpatient care.
People with a known, high risk for Alzheimer’s disease develop abnormal brain function even before the appearance of telltale, amyloid plaques that are characteristic of Alzheimer’s disease, according to a new study from researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The findings suggest that a gene variant affects brain function long before the brain begins accumulating the amyloid that will eventually lead to dementia.
Requiring a second exam on a person who is considered brain dead may be unnecessary, according to a study on the impact of a second brain death exam on organ donation rates. The research is published in the December 15, 2010, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
A synthetic derivative of the curry spice turmeric, made by scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, dramatically improves the behavioral and molecular deficits seen in animal models of ischemic stroke and traumatic brain injury (TBI). Two new studies suggest that the novel compound may have clinical promise for these conditions, which currently lack good therapies.
The performance of a brain-machine interface designed to help paralyzed subjects move objects with their thoughts is improved with the addition of a robotic arm providing sensory feedback, a new study from the University of Chicago finds.
African American patients and those with lower socioeconomic status have more advanced disease and greater disability when they seek treatment from Parkinson’s specialists, according to a University of Maryland study.
Expression of a toxic RNA that leads to Fragile X Tremor Ataxia Syndrome is modifiable by genetic or pharmacologic means, according to new research from U-M Medical School scientists.
Using a new gene sequencing method, a team of researchers led by scientists from Johns Hopkins and the National Institutes of Health has discovered a gene that appears to cause some instances of familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The finding could lead to novel ways to treat the more common form of this fatal neurodegenerative disease, which kills the vast majority of the nearly 6,000 Americans diagnosed with ALS every year.
Neurologists have answered one of the most important questions about Alzheimer's: Do rising brain levels of a plaque-forming substance mean patients are making more of it or that they can no longer clear it as effectively? Researchers found clearance rates decline in Alzheimer's patients.
Scholars are establishing a new professional organization, the Society for Social Neuroscience, to advance an emerging interdisciplinary field. Research in social neuroscience is based on the use of new technologies, advanced understanding of genetics and other research, including studies on animal behavior.
Mayo Clinic researchers found that the part of the brain generating seizures in individuals with epilepsy is functionally isolated from surrounding brain regions. The researchers hope this finding could be a clinical biomarker to help identify individuals with abnormal brain function. This study was presented at the American Epilepsy Society’s annual meeting in San Antonio on Dec. 4.
Many people believe that the popular herb ginseng can improve thinking ability and prevent or even treat dementia. However, a comprehensive review of research failed to find convincing evidence of these benefits.
Pankaj Karande, a Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute assistant professor of chemical and biological engineering, is among a new generation of scientists and engineers developing exciting and novel new techniques to treat some of the most complex brain illnesses, including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, traumatic brain injury, and brain cancer. His research has already attracted the interest of the Goldhirsh Foundation and now has garnered the support of the Alzheimer’s Association with an additional $80,000 in research funding.
Status epilepticus, prolonged seizures, can lead to significant neurological deficits and, rarely, even death. The anticonvulsant diazepam, a first line therapy for the condition, is neuroprotective when administered in high doses within two hours from seizure onset. Researchers at the 64th AES Annual Meeting now report that the combination of low-dose diazepam and NS-398, a COX-2 inhibitor, has twice the neuroprotective effect of NS-398 alone.
Epilepsy research is reaching beyond improving the means for quelling symptoms to the exploration of potential modalities for correcting or reversing alterations in neural function that underlay some forms of the disorder. In research reported at the 64th American Epilepsy Society (AES) Annual Meeting, investigators at the University of Florida have demonstrated that adult human neuronal progenitor cells (AHNPs) generate functional neurons that integrate into host neuronal networks in the cerebral cortex.
The largest clinical trial of therapeutic brain cooling (hypothermia) after stroke has launched, led by researchers at the University of California, San Diego, the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, and at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. This study looks at whether hypothermia can safely be used in elderly stroke patients.
A new technique that jumpstarts the growth of nerve fibers could reverse much of the damage caused by strokes, researchers report in the journal Stroke.
Women with transient restless legs syndrome (RLS) during pregnancy appear to be at a higher risk of developing a chronic form of RLS later in life or have the same symptoms during future pregnancies, according to new research published in the December 7, 2010, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. RLS is a sleep-related motor disorder that causes an unpleasant feeling in the legs. The condition generally worsens during rest at night and improves with movement. Symptoms tend to progress with age.
A higher rate of mortality is known to be associated with epilepsy, but the precise contribution of the underlying health factors is unknown. The results from the study of a large cohort of people born in Denmark in 1977 through 2006 were reported today at the American Epilepsy Society meeting here.
The mortality rate among people with epilepsy is slightly higher than the mortality rate in the general population. Sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP) is estimated to account for 8 – 17% of deaths in people with the disorder, with an overall higher incidence of SUDEP in males Less is understood about the gender difference in SUDEP susceptibility associated with specific medications used in treating the condition.
Sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP) is the most common condition-related cause of death in chronic epilepsy. Case-control studies using living people with epilepsy as controls have aimed at identifying factors that distinguish the epilepsy patient at risk of SUDEP, but there are disagreements between studies and a lack of precision in the risk estimates attributed, in part, to the small number of cases in each study. To counterbalance these study limitations, the Epidemiology Task Force of the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) pooled data from four published studies of SUDEP from the U.S., Sweden, Scotland and England.
In retrospective research reported today at the 64th American Epilepsy Society annual meeting, all newborns in a study who received IV levetiracetam for their seizures had achieved acute seizure freedom within 72 hours of being treated. Improvement both in brain wave activity and in clinically observable behavior was seen in 86 percent of newborns in the study within an hour after the initial dosing.
Many children with certain forms of epilepsy achieve seizure control through a stringent medically supervised diet, either the ketogenic diet (KD) or a Modified Atkins Diet (MAD). When to use these diets and the mechanisms underlying their anticonvulsant effect are not well defined. Research presented here at the 64th American Epilepsy Society annual meeting provides new insight into when and how these diets work.
External trigeminal nerve stimulation (TNS), a novel form of neurostimulation, is an emerging therapy for drug resistant epilepsy. The results of a pilot feasibility study on the safety and tolerability of external TNS and its effect on the heart and blood pressure were reported here today at the 64th American Epilepsy Society Annual Meeting.
A study reported today at the 64th American Epilepsy Society Annual Meeting has found that, of patients with a cerebral hemorrhage or hematoma, one in four had a diagnosis of sub-clinical seizures while in the ICU: sub-clinical seizures can only be detected with continuous electroencephalographic (EEG) recording.
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