Feature Channels: Neuro

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Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) scientists have profiled key features of the genetic material inside three types of brain cells and found vast differences in the patterns of chemical modifications that affect how the genes in each type of neuron are regulated. The analysis was made possible by a new method of collecting and purifying the nuclei of specific kinds of cells. Doing this type of study on cells in brain tissue has been challenging because the cells are densely packed and intimately intertwined.

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Sixty-seven patients from the Hermelin Brain Tumor Center at Henry Ford Hospital and their families made important contributions to a national cancer study that proposes a change in how some brain tumors are classified – and ultimately treated. Published in the July 25 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, the study reveals that a tumor’s DNA is key to determining if a lower-grade malignant brain tumor (glioma) may rapidly progress to glioblastoma.

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Other topics include: breast cancer, blood thinners and surgery, cognitive impairment, and new ultra-dark galaxies discovered.

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By identifying in spinal fluid how the characteristic mutant proteins of Huntington’s disease spread from cell to cell, UC Irvine scientists and colleagues have created a new method to quickly and accurately track the presence and proliferation of these neuron-damaging compounds – a discovery that may accelerate the development of new drugs to treat this incurable disease.

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Our brains track moving objects by applying one of the algorithms your phone’s GPS uses, according to researchers at the University of Rochester. This same algorithm also explains why we are fooled by several motion-related optical illusions, including the sudden “break” of baseball’s well known “curveball illusion.”

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Topics include: women's health, cancer care, research at the Large Hadron Collider, dementia drug treatment, dermatology, skin cancer, breast cancer, smoking risks, and genetics.

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Diabetes is a known risk factor for cognitive decline and dementia, age-related conditions that affect memory and thinking skills. However, little is known about how the diabetes-cognitive decline link compares across cultures.

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In 1999 Danish scientist Per Bak made the startling proposal that the brain remained stable for much the same reason a sand pile does; many small avalanches hold it at a balance point, where --in the brain's case -- information processing is optimized. Now scientists have showed for the first time that a brain receiving and processing sensory input follows these dynamics.

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CGRP monoclonal antibodies appear to significantly reduce the frequency of migraine in human clinical trials, potentially changing the landscape for migraine treatment. Headache specialist Sid Kapoor, MD, discusses the enormous potential -- and pitfalls-- facing the drug class' road to FDA approval.

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An amino acid whose role in the body has been all but a mystery appears to act as a potent seizure inhibitor in mice, according to a study by researchers at Johns Hopkins.

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Topics include: treating advanced skin cancer, big data and bioenergy, cancer research, 10 reasons to eat quinoa, sleep issues in the nursing field, advances in cancer surgery, genes for sleep, brain receptor for cocaine addiction, and nano imaging on insect adaptations.

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Long-term administration of a drug that mimics the hunger-signaling hormone ghrelin protected Alzheimer’s disease-model mice from memory deterioration, despite a high-glycemic-index diet.

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A new experiment shows that auditory melodies can enhance a musician's visual awareness of written music, particularly when the two match.

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Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have teamed up with several other institutions and pharmaceutical companies, to publish the first 3D structures of a receptor implicated in many diseases of the brain and in normal physiology throughout the body.

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By manipulating the activity of Activin receptors in the brain, researchers were able to increase or decrease cocaine-taking and relapse behavior in animal models. The study focused on receptors in regions of the brain involved in pleasure and reward.

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A protein long believed to only guard the nucleus also regulates gene expression and stem cell development

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A genetic disorder called neurofibromatosis (NF) causes benign tumors to grow on the brain, spinal cord, and other parts of the nervous system. There are no effective drugs to prevent or reverse NF.

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Brain surgery is famously difficult for good reason: When removing a tumor, for example, neurosurgeons walk a tightrope as they try to take out as much of the cancer as possible while keeping crucial brain tissue intact — and visually distinguishing the two is often impossible. Now Johns Hopkins researchers report they have developed an imaging technology that could provide surgeons with a color-coded map of a patient’s brain showing which areas are and are not cancer.

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An international team of researchers from Indiana University and Switzerland is using data mapping methods created to track the spread of information on social networks to trace its dissemination across a surprisingly different system: the human brain.

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Migraine researchers and clinicians are excited about a new class of drugs called Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide (CGRP) monoclonal antibodies, which are showing promise in preventing attacks in high-frequency episodic migraine and chronic migraine. Numerous studies on these medications are being presented at this week's American Headache Society scientific meeting.

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Studying mice, scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified a neural circuit in the retina that carries signals enabling the eye to detect movement. The finding could help in efforts to build artificial retinas for people who have suffered vision loss.

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Trending news releases with the most views in a single day. Topics include: An anonymous donor for cancer research, solar storms and incidences of rheumatoid arthritis, vulnerabilities in genome’s ‘Dimmer Switches’, new treatments for Alzheimer's, How people make decisions for or against flu vaccinations.

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Changes in the vaginal microbiome are associated with effects on offspring gut microbiota and on the developing brain, according to a new study published in Endocrinology, a journal of the Endocrine Society.

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Researchers investigated mannitol use before and during transportation of patients with intracranial emergencies from peripheral hospitals to tertiary facilities that house neurosurgery departments. The authors found a 22% dosing error rate, with slightly more patients receiving a dose smaller, rather than larger, than the dose range recommended by the Brain Trauma Foundation.

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Trending news releases with the most views in a single day. Topics include: new drug for heart disease, astronomy, sleep, stroke, diabetes, materials science, MERS, and U.S. Politics.

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Scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute have established conclusively that an activating protein, called “Rhes,” plays a pivotal role in focusing the toxicity of Huntington’s disease.

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Chemists at The Scripps Research Institute have invented the first practical, scalable method for synthesizing jiadifenolide, a plant-derived molecule that may have powerful brain-protecting properties.

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Every 67 seconds someone is the United States develops Alzheimer’s disease or some form of dementia. James E. Galvin, M.D., M.P.H., one of the most prominent neuroscientists in the country, is at the helm of cutting-edge research, screening methods and clinical care for all forms of dementia and cognitive impairments as well as neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease.

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New, ultra-high-field magnetic resonance images (MRI) of the brain by researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago provide the most detailed images to date to show that while the brain shrinks with age, brain cell density remains constant.

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A new study from The Scripps Research Institute, Florida campus, integrates neuroscience and psychological research to reveal how sleep suppresses certain nerve cell activity that promotes forgetting, insuring that at least some memories will last.

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A series of immersive virtual reality experiments has confirmed that the human brain’s internal navigation system works in the same fashion as the grid cell system recently found in other mammals.

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Graduate students invent a headband-shaped device to deliver noninvasive brain stimulation that tamps down the symptoms of Parkinson's disease.

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Sonia Rocha-Sanchez, Ph.D., an associate professor of oral biology in the Creighton University School of Dentistry, and an expert in the biology and physiology of the inner ear, has developed a method to temporally modify the expression of the retinoblastoma-1 gene in mice. Modulation of the RB1 gene can allow for the regrowth of cells in the inner ear and potentially restore hearing and balance caused by the loss of sensory hair cells.

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ROCHESTER, Minn. — The molecular makeup of brain tumors can be used to sort patients with gliomas into five categories, each with different clinical features and outcomes, researchers at Mayo Clinic and the University of California San Francisco have shown.. The finding could change the methods that physicians rely on to determine prognosis and treatment options. Previously, they relied on how patients’ tumors look under the microscope. The study is published online in the New England Journal of Medicine.

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Not all brain cancers are the same but together they represent a deadly disease that has been difficult to identify and treat.

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While participating in physical activities such as bike riding, dancing, walking and gardening and mentally stimulating activities such as crosswords and reading may reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease, they may not do so by affecting the underlying markers for the disease, according to a study published in the June 10, 2015, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

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Specialized brain proteins that are involved in the removal of damaged nerve cell materials may be detected in the blood of people who were diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment or dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease. In a select group of people who later developed dementia, the levels of the lysosomal proteins were abnormal while the people still had no problems with memory or thinking skills, according to a study published in the June 10, 2015, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

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Fragile X syndrome is the most common inherited intellectual disability and the greatest single genetic contributor to autism. Unlocking the mechanisms behind fragile X could make important revelations about the brain. In a new study published June 4 in the journal Cell Reports, researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Waisman Center and Department of Neuroscience show that two proteins implicated in fragile X play a crucial role in the proper development of neurons in mice.

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Speech, emitted or received, produces an electrical activity in neurons that neuroscientists measure in the form of «cortical oscillations». To understand speech, as for other cognitive or sensory processes, the brain breaks down the information it receives to integrate it and give it a coherent meaning. But researchers could not confirm whether oscillations were signs of neuronal activity, or whether these oscillations played an active role in speech processing. Professor Anne-Lise Giraud and her team at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Geneva (UNIGE) reached such conclusions after having created a computerized model of neuronal microcircuits, which highlights the crucial role of neuronal oscillations to decode spoken language, independently of speakers’ pace or accent.

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A study at the Vancouver Island Health Authority (government health plan) supports findings that costs of spinal cord stimulation implants are recouped due to decreased demands for medical treatment in chronic pain patients.

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A previously unknown link between the immune system and the death of motor neurons in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, has been discovered by scientists at the CHUM Research Centre and the University of Montreal.

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Brain inflammation caused by chronic nerve pain alters activity in regions that regulate mood and motivation, suggesting for the first time that a direct biophysical link exists between long-term pain and the depression, anxiety and substance abuse seen in more than half of these patients, UC Irvine and UCLA researchers report.

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Brain lesions in children can be especially challenging to diagnose, according to a report in the journal Frontiers in Neurology by a multidisciplinary team of Loyola University Medical Center physicians.

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Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, a team of UCLA researchers has shown for the first time that children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who are overly sensitive to sensory stimuli have brains that react differently than those with the disorder who don’t respond so severely to noises, visual stimulation and physical contact.

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Researchers funded by the National Institute for Health Research to conduct a multi-center pilot study of spinal cord stimulation (SCS) in refractory chronic angina pectoris will advise NICE that a fully powered nationwide study is feasible, with SCS therapy and trial outcome measures shown to be acceptable and appropriate for future randomized controlled trials.

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Children and adolescents who received deep brain stimulation for generalized dystonia maintained significant symptom relief for up to eight years, according to a study presented today at the 12th World Congress of the International Neuromodulation Society.

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Winning research abstracts present: a custom neural prosthesis to combat paralysis; cellular evidence of stroke recovery; tuning treatment of Parkinson's disease; validation of a pain model; and comparing drug-free stimulation modes of pain treatment.

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The witness on the stand says he saw the accused at the scene of the crime. Is he sure? How sure? The jury’s verdict could hinge on that level of certainty. Many decisions we make every day are influenced by our memories and the confidence we have in them. But very little is known about how we decide whether we can trust a memory or not. Cedars-Sinai researchers have identified a unique set of neurons in the medial temporal lobe, an area of the brain where memories and memory-based decisions are processed. They show that the activity of these neurons is indicative of the confidence by which a memory will be retrieved.

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Trending news releases with the most views in a single day. Topics include: marijuana exposure in children, female viagra, botox for nerve pain, genetics, cancer and bone marrow transplants, stroke, dengue fever, and memory loss in epilepsy.

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Weekly sessions of non-invasive repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation provided sufficient long-term pain relief in 61 percent of patients with central post-stroke pain, and delivered long-term relief for patients who continued for one year.