Feature Channels: Neuro

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A drug that boosts activity in the brain’s “garbage disposal” system can decrease levels of toxic proteins associated with Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders and improve cognition in mice, a new study by neuroscientists at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) has found.

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In a discovery that could offer valuable new insights into understanding, diagnosing and even treating autism, Harvard scientists for the first time have linked a specific neurotransmitter in the brain with autistic behavior.

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A network of interacting brain regions known as the default mode network (DMN) was found to have stronger connections in adults and children with a high risk of depression compared to those with a low risk. These findings suggest that increased DMN connectivity is a potential precursor, or biomarker, indicating a risk of developing major depressive disorder (MDD).

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Researchers at UAB look for a relationship between eye movement and the brain to find biomarkers to help diagnose and treat concussions.

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UCLA researchers have found that space-mapping neurons – the GPS system in the brain - have a strong dependence on what is being looked at when triangulating location, a finding that resolves a neurological mystery that has vexed scientists for more than four decades.

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UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have found that halting production of new neurons in the brain following traumatic brain injury can help reduce resulting epileptic seizures, cognitive decline, and impaired memory.

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A novel drug candidate can prevent nerve cell damage in a mouse model with Parkinson's disease. The drug protects nerve cells that produce dopamine, the chemical responsible for agility and movement that is lost in Parkinson's.

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Mathematical computing techniques developed by Dr Emili Balaguer-Ballester at Bournemouth University, and a team of neuroscientists at Indiana Purdue University in US, the University of Heidelberg in Germany and British Columbia in Canada have been used to map the effects of neurotransmitters, such as dopamine, on neural activities and behaviour. This has enabled the team to prove a long-held assumption in computational neuroscience: that cognitive decisions seem to be represented by temporarily stable states of neural dynamics which are modulated by dopamine. Until the publication of a new study, based on the application of their method, this theory remained insufficiently evidenced.

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An MRI contrast agent that can pass through the blood-brain barrier will allow doctors to detect deadly brain tumors called gliomas earlier, say Penn State College of Medicine researchers. This ability opens the door to make this fatal cancer treatable.

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Epilepsy is not a public health priority, yet it takes more lives than sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) or fires, according to an article reviewing the topic. Doctors say epilepsy deaths should be a focus of research and education to understand and prevent those deaths, according to the “Views and Reviews” article published in the December 16, 2015, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

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Recent studies conclude that people with epilepsy have a 27-fold greater risk of sudden death than people without the disorder. However, many of these deaths could be prevented through greater identification of epilepsy as a cause of death, and in educating the public more effectively about the disease’s life-threatening dangers, according to a new opinion article from epilepsy researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center

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A scientist from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute has been awarded approximately $2 million from the National Institutes of Health to study the impact of aging and age-related disease on the inner workings of a single type of nerve cell.

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In an event that showed the growing breadth and depth of research at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, more than 500 attendees participated in the Third Annual Festival of Science on December 11.

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In a report published in the journal Neuron, an international team of researchers defined the makeup of the cellular structures through which nerve cells communicate with each other, revealing new and elegant features of the sites that wire the brain.

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The brains of children who suffer clinical depression as preschoolers develop abnormally, compared with the brains of preschoolers unaffected by the disorder, according to new research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Their gray matter is lower in volume and thinner in the cortex, a part of the brain important in the processing of emotions.

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Evidence of autism may be found in the composition and malfunction of the brain’s blood vessels, a team of scientists has found. Their research sheds new light on the causes of autism, which previously had pointed to neurological make-up rather than to the vascular system, and identifies a new target for potential therapeutic intervention.

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A study of rats released today shows that blocking a type of RNA produced by what used to be called "junk DNA" can prevent a significant portion of the neural destruction that follows a stroke.

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Su-Chun Zhang, a pioneer in developing neurons from stem cells at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has created a specialized nerve cell that makes serotonin, a signaling chemical with a broad role in the brain.

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Diseases such as lupus that cause rashes and other skin problems also can trigger migraine headaches, strokes and other serious neurological conditions, according to an article by Loyola University Medical Center physicians.

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Researchers have discovered how immune cells triggered by recurrent Strep A infections enter the brain, causing inflammation that may lead to autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorders in children. The study, performed in mice, found that immune cells reach the brain by traveling along odor-sensing neurons that emerge from the nasal cavity, not by breaching the blood-brain barrier directly. The findings could lead to improved methods for diagnosing, monitoring, and treating these disorders.

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Early research indicates that the use of tumor-treating fields, a type of electromagnetic field therapy, along with chemotherapy in patients with a brain tumor who had completed standard chemoradiation resulted in prolonged progression-free and overall survival, according to a study in the December 15 issue of JAMA.

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A new study by University of Guelph researchers that narrows down where and how estrogens affect the brain may help in understanding how the hormones affect cognition and memory in women. The team found that adding the hormone to female mouse brains helps boost short-term learning, likely through a “use-it-or-lose-it” process.

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Regions of the brain function differently among people with post-traumatic stress disorder, causing them to generalize non-threatening events as if they were the original trauma, according to new research from Duke Medicine and the Durham VA Medical Center.

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Using data on 30-day postoperative morbidity and mortality from the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program database, the authors examined whether there is a “July Effect” in neurosurgery. Overall the findings show “no clear evidence for an increase in rates of morbidity or mortality during this transition period.”

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Northwestern University's Nina Kraus has pioneered a way to measure how the brain makes sense of sound. Her findings have suggest that the brain’s ability to process sound is influenced by everything from playing music and learning a new language to aging, language disorders and hearing loss.

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Multiple sclerosis (MS) may be triggered by the death of brain cells that make myelin, the insulation around nerve fibers, according to research on a novel mouse model. This can be prevented through the application of specially developed nanoparticles, even after the loss of those brain cells.

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Multiple sclerosis (MS) may be triggered by the death of brain cells that make the insulation around nerve fibers, a surprising new view of the disease reported in a study. A specially developed nanoparticle prevented MS even after the death of those brain cells, an experiment in the study showed. The nanoparticles are being developed for clinical trials that could lead to new treatments -- without the side effects of current therapies.

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Further underscoring the prenatal origins of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine describe for the first time how abnormal gene activity in cell cycle networks that are known to control brain cell production may underlie abnormal early brain growth in the disorder.

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While most Down syndrome research has focused on the brain, a new report by Johns Hopkins University biologists uncovers how the disorder hampers a separate part of the nervous system that plays a key role in health and longevity.

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Feeling stressed out increases the likelihood that elderly people will develop mild cognitive impairment—often a prelude to full-blown Alzheimer’s disease. In a new study, scientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Health System found that highly stressed participants were more than twice as likely to become impaired than those who were not. Because stress is treatable, the results suggest that detecting and treating stress in older people might help delay or even prevent the onset of Alzheimer’s. The findings were published online today in Alzheimer Disease & Associated Disorders.

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According to newly published research, a specialized psychotherapy has been linked to changes in activation patterns in certain areas of the brain in patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD), suggesting its impact may go deeper than symptom change.

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When someone experiences a major stroke, almost two million nerve cells in the brain die each minute, emphasizing the need for rapid treatment. Stroke patients who receive life-saving interventions more quickly have a higher chance of recovery. A recent data analysis showed the Comprehensive Stroke Center at UC San Diego Medical Center exceeded national average treatment times, and as a result, has received a “Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award” from The American Heart Association and American Stroke Association (AHA/ASA).

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The standard of care for acute concussion may undergo a dramatic change, depending on the results of a new exercise treatment that physicians at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo have developed and begun testing. It is the first randomized, controlled clinical trial of this exercise treatment for concussion.

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Many strokes that required immediate treatment in emergency rooms may have been preventable, according to a University of California, Irvine study. While therapy for acute stroke continues to advance and improve patient outcomes, the findings stress that stroke prevention – including the close monitoring of blood pressure, cholesterol levels and cardiac conditions – needs to keep pace.

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A pesticide used prior to the early 1980s and found in milk at that time may be associated with signs of Parkinson’s disease in the brain, according to a study published in the December 9, 2015, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

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UAB researchers have found that, contrary to current thinking, astrocytes are repelled by the amyloid plaques that are linked to the disease. pplying mathematical models used for studying the galaxies or interactions between elementary particles, researchers at the Institute of Neuroscience of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, in collaboration with Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, have analysed the spatial distribution of astrocytes: brain cells that are essential for the correct functioning of neurons.

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In a quest to stay healthy, many people are seeking natural ways to prevent neurodegenerative diseases. Recent studies show that pomegranate extract, which is a rich source of disease-fighting polyphenols, can help protect against the development of Alzheimer's disease. But researchers weren't sure which molecules to thank. A team reports in ACS Chemical Neuroscience that the responsible compounds may be urolithins, which are made when gut bacteria break down the polyphenols in the extract.

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Playing three-dimensional video games – besides being lots of fun – can boost the formation of memories, according to University of California, Irvine neurobiologists. Along with adding to the trove of research that shows these games can improve eye-hand coordination and reaction time, this finding shows the potential for novel virtual approaches to helping people who lose memory as they age or suffer from dementia.

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A new study involving UT Dallas researchers shows that vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) technology could help improve the lives of hundreds of thousands of people who suffer weakness and paralysis caused by strokes. The study, published in the journal Stroke, marks the first time that VNS has been tested in individuals recovering from stroke.

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Three biomarker-based categories, called biotypes, outperformed traditional diagnoses, such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder with psychosis, in sorting psychosis cases into distinct subgroups on the basis of brain biology, report researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health. A hallmark of severe mental illness, psychosis is marked by hallucinations and delusions, or false, irrational beliefs.

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UCLA Health Sciences has received a $10 million gift, most of which will support multidisciplinary research on migraine, a debilitating neurological disorder that affects 36 million in the U.S.

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Parkinson’s disease is difficult to diagnose, particularly in its early stages. Now, researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine – aided by a $375,000 grant from The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF) – hope to improve the prospects of early diagnosis by identifying a biological signpost in the blood.

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Mayo Clinic researchers have discovered a series of proteins that could be diagnostic markers to identify bipolar I disorder. If this discovery sample can be validated through replication these markers may help as a diagnostic tool for psychiatrists treating mood disorders.

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Opting for smaller rewards immediately instead of waiting for bigger payoffs later is associated with problems such as impulsive behavior and addiction to food, drugs and alcohol. Washington University School of Medicine researchers are reporting that such decision-making tendencies have a genetic link to brain pathways that underlie those disorders.

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Scientists have long known that when sounds are faint or objects are seen through fog in the distance, repetition of these weak or ambiguous sensory “inputs” can result in different perceptions inside the same brain. Now the results of new research, described in Nature Neuroscience, have identified brain processes in mice that may help explain how those differences happen.

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A team of neuroscientists has found new support for MIT linguist Noam Chomsky’s decades-old theory that we possess an “internal grammar” that allows us to comprehend even nonsensical phrases.