Feature Channels: Neuro

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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.

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Currently, there is no treatment to halt the progression of Huntington’s disease (HD), a fatal genetic disorder that slowly robs sufferers of their physical and mental abilities. Now, researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have discovered that an existing compound, previously tested for diabetes, offers hope for slowing HD and its symptoms.

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Scientists have made several kinds of mice in the hope of mimicking ALS and frontotemporal dementia, diseases caused by mutations in the C9ORF72 gene. Early results indicate that the mutated genes generate unusual RNAs and proteins, but that losing the normal C9ORF72 gene does not kill neurons.

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The vitamin D receptor (VDR) promotes the differentiation of oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPCs) and boosts myelin sheath regeneration, according to a study in The Journal of Cell Biology. The research suggests potential new ways to treat multiple sclerosis patients.

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Parkinson’s disease researchers at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo have developed a way to ramp up the conversion of skin cells into dopamine neurons. They have identified – and found a way to overcome –a key obstacle to such cellular conversions.

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A new, open-source software that can help track the embryonic development and movement of neuronal cells throughout the body of the worm, is now available to scientists.

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UT Southwestern Medical Center’s Texas Institute for Brain Injury and Repair (TIBIR) has initiated one of the nation’s first concussion registries for student athletes and others aimed at improving treatment for this all-too-common sports injury.

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Northwestern University neuroscientists now can read the mind of a fly. In a study focused on three of the fruit fly’s sensory systems, the researchers developed a new tool that uses fluorescent molecules of different colors to tag neurons in the brain to see which connections, or synapses, were active during a sensory experience that happened hours earlier. Mapping the pattern of individual neural connections could provide insights into the computational processes that underlie the workings of the human brain.

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A new study published in PLOS ONE found that the Transcendental Meditation technique and lifestyle changes both appear to stimulate genes that produce telomerase, an enzyme that's associated with reduced blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, and mortality.

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Several studies have demonstrated that the primary active constituent of cannabis, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (∆9-THC), induces transient psychosis-like effects in healthy subjects similar to those observed in schizophrenia. However, the mechanisms underlying these effects are not clear.

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In the first study of its kind, researchers have shown that inadequate maternal iron intake during pregnancy exerts subtle effects on infant brain development. Their findings have been published online by the journal Pediatric Research.

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Parkinson’s disease isn’t the kind of affliction that will kill most people. Instead, it creeps up slowly and progressively destroys the quality of life of those who develop it.

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Scientists at Seattle Children’s Research Institute have found a way to rapidly suppress epilepsy in mouse models by manipulating a known genetic pathway using a cancer drug currently in human clinical trials for the treatment of brain and breast cancer.

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How fast elderly people walk may be related to the amount of amyloid they have built up in their brains, even if they don’t yet have symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease, according to a study published in the December 2, 2015, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

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A new drug developed by scientists at Saint Louis University increases the expression of key genes linked to autism.

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Researchers help the brain make GM1 ganglioside, a protective substance that is diminished in the brains of Parkinson's patients

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New research from the University of Alberta’s Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry is trailblazing a potential new pathway for the treatment of multiple sclerosis (MS). The research, published in the Journal of Neuroinflammation, examines a novel therapeutic strategy to reduce inflammation in the brain.

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Scientists have recently found evidence that professional football players are susceptible to a progressive degenerative disease, chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), which is caused by repetitive brain trauma. Now, researchers on Mayo Clinic’s Florida campus have discovered a significant and surprising amount of CTE in males who had participated in amateur contact sports in their youth.

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Most children and adolescents with herniated disks in the lower (lumbar) spine have some sort of malformation of the spinal vertebrae, reports a study in the December issue of Neurosurgery, official journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons, published by Wolters Kluwer.

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Biomedical Engineering Professor Elizabeth Hillman has won an NIH BRAIN Initiative grant, the first awarded to Columbia Engineering, for her work on SCAPE, a high-speed 3D microscope she has developed for imaging the living brain. Whereas most modern microscopes can only image a single plane at up to 20 frames per second, Hillman’s technique can over 100 planes within a 3D volume in the same amount of time, enabling scientists to make exciting new discoveries.

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In addition to treating depression, a commonly used antidepressant medication also protects against compounds that can cause memory loss and dementia, a Loyola University Medical Center study has found.

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You may believe that you have forgotten the Chinese you spoke as a child, but your brain hasn’t. Moreover, that “forgotten” first language may well influence what goes on in your brain when you speak English or French today. In a paper published today in Nature Communications, researchers from McGill University and the Montreal Neurological Institute describe their discovery that even brief, early exposure to a language influences how the brain processes sounds from a second language later in life. Even when the first language learned is no longer spoken.

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According to a study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, brains can't really fit into the categories of "male" or "female" -- their distinguishing features actually vary across a spectrum. Researchers led by University of Tel-Aviv studied brain scans of some 1,400 individuals and could not find a single pattern that distinguishes between a male brain and a female brain.

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While stress, travel, and changes of schedule are not likely to trigger a relapse, they can make multiple sclerosis symptoms worse and that can put a damper on holiday festivities. Professor of neurology at Saint Louis University Florian Thomas, M.D., offers strategies to keep MS symptoms in check.

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Menkes disease arises from dysfunction in ATP7A, a protein that transports copper to cells, leading to brain development complications. Introducing working versions of ATP7A in the brain is considered the most direct therapeutic approach. However, a new study suggests that functioning ATP7A located elsewhere in the body, not necessarily the entire brain, can help treat the disorder.

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A University of California, Irvine research team is part of a $37 million national effort to identify biomarkers that will predict the onset of Alzheimer’s disease in people with Down syndrome. UCI pediatric neurologist Dr. Ira Lott and colleagues will receive $4.7 million of that funding from the National Institute on Aging to support his continuing work to uncover the mystery of progressive cognitive impairment seen in some people over 40 with Down syndrome.

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Latest Research Highlights from ACSM— November 2015

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Johns Hopkins researchers have developed a method to efficiently turn human stem cells into retinal ganglion cells, the type of nerve cells located within the retina that transmit visual signals from the eye to the brain.

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Many human gene variants have evolved specifically to protect older adults against neurodegenerative and cardiovascular diseases, thus preserving their contributions to society, report University of California, San Diego School of Medicine researchers in the November 30 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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Minutes count when treating stroke, but current diagnostics take as long as three hours, careful lab work and skilled technicians to arrive at a conclusive diagnosis. Scientists at Cornell University’s Baker Institute for Animal Health have developed a device that helps diagnose stroke in less than 10 minutes using a drop of blood barely big enough to moisten your fingertip.

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Taking the pregnancy hormone estriol along with their conventional medications helped patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) avoid relapses, according to results of a Phase II randomized, placebo-controlled study led by UCLA researchers.

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Pre-existing asthma may be a strong predictor of future chronic migraine attacks in individuals experiencing occasional migraine headaches, according to researchers from the University of Cincinnati (UC), Montefiore Headache Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and Vedanta Research.

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Detroit Medical Center Children’s Hospital of Michigan Pediatric Neurosurgeon Sandeep Sood, M.D., developed minimally-invasive endoscopic surgery, demonstrated efficacy in treating intractable epileptic seizures in children.

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The mosquito-borne virus chikungunya may lead to severe brain infection and even death in infants and people over 65, according to a new study that reviewed a chikungunya outbreak on Reunion Island off the coast of Madagascar in 2005-2006. The study is published in the November 25, 2015, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Many cases have occurred in the United States in people who acquired the virus while traveling, but the first locally transmitted case in the U.S. occurred in Florida in July.

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Scientists at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) show for the first time a direct link between neural activity across an animal‘s entire brain and behavior.

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Schizophrenia is notoriously difficult to diagnose and treat, in large part because it manifests differently in different people. A new study helps explain why. Researchers at UNC have created a map that shows how specific schizophrenia symptoms are linked to distinct brain circuits.

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Researcher Christian Duval, PhD, and his team have developed a new, simple and non-invasive approach to create a biomechanical and cognitive profile of football players and more quickly and accurately detect concussions in these individuals.

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People with bipolar disorder have lower levels of certain omega-3 fatty acids that cross the blood-brain barrier compared to those who do not, according to researchers from Penn State College of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health.

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Amyloid beta, the plaque that accumulates in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease, may also contribute to Alzheimer’s by interfering with normal blood flow in the brain, according to investigators UAB. In findings published Nov. 23 in the journal Brain, the team shows that when amyloid beta accumulates around blood vessels — where it is known as vascular amyloid — it appears to prevent the brain from properly regulating blood flow, which is essential to normal brain function.

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Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute scientists have uncovered a mechanism in the brain that could account for some of the neural degeneration and memory loss in people with Alzheimer’s disease. The researchers, together with scientists at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine, discovered that a common symptom of Alzheimer’s disease – the accumulation of amyloid plaques along blood vessels – could be disrupting blood flow in the brain.

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In the fleeting moments after a liquid is subjected to a sudden change in pressure, microscopic bubbles rapidly form and collapse in a process known as cavitation. In the human brain, this is believed to be a mechanistic cause of traumatic brain injury, or TBI, but the phenomenon has yet to be directly observed in brain tissue because the bubbles appear and disappear within microseconds. To address this, researchers are seeking to understand how cavitation might injure neurons by using a 3-D imaging system coupled with a diffraction grating to examine their post-exposure morphology. They will present their recent findings APS’s DFD 2015 Meeting.

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Six University of California, San Diego professors have been named Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest general scientific society. They are among 347 members selected this year by colleagues in their disciplines to be honored for “scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications.”