Autism results from abnormal cell communication. Testing a new theory, researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have used a newly discovered function of an old drug to restore cell communications in a mouse model of autism, reversing symptoms of the devastating disorder.
The American Academy of Neurology (AAN), the world’s largest professional association of neurologists, is releasing a position paper on how the practice of prescribing drugs to boost cognitive function, or memory and thinking abilities, in healthy children and teens is misguided. The statement is published in the March 13, 2013, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Research at UNT Health Science Center suggests that depression and diabetes may be of particular importance in this population and even that the blood profile of Alzheimer’s is different among Mexican Americans as compared to non-Hispanic whites.
Millions of Americans take drugs to reduce their risk of heart attacks caused by blood clots. A new study suggests that a fear of brain bleeding if these patients receive stroke therapy may be unfounded, at least for most patients taking common clot-preventing therapies.
Brain imaging soon after mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) or mild concussion can detect tiny lesions that may eventually provide a target for treating people with mTBI, according to a study released today and that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 65th Annual Meeting in San Diego, March 16 to 23, 2013.
In a perspective article published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, biomedical engineering professor Garrett Stanley detailed research progress toward “reading and writing the neural code.” The neural code details how the brain’s roughly 100 billion neurons turn raw sensory inputs into information we can use to see, hear and feel things in our environment.
For patients with "drug-resistant" epilepsy requiring surgery, an updated stereoelectroencephalography (SEEG) technique provides a more efficient process for obtaining critical data for surgical planning, according to a study in the March issue of Neurosurgery, official journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.
Ten years after stroke caused by a ruptured aneurysm of the brain, surviving patients have persistent difficulties in several areas affecting quality of life, reports a study in the March issue of Neurosurgery, official journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.
Pseudotumor cerebri condition marked by excessive pressure in skull, most common in obese, premenopausal women between the ages of 18 and 40.
A team of sleep researchers led by UC Riverside psychologist Sara C. Mednick has confirmed the mechanism that enables the brain to consolidate memory and found that a commonly prescribed sleep aid enhances the process.
A new drug may improve memory problems in people with moderate Alzheimer’s disease, according to a phase IIa study released today that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 65th Annual Meeting in San Diego, March 16 to 23, 2013. The drug is called ORM-12741.
A small study of 20 people with Parkinson’s disease suggests that “virtual house calls” using Web-based video conferencing provide clinical benefits comparable to in-person physician office visits, while saving patients and their caregivers time and travel.
Sleep is disrupted in people who likely have early Alzheimer’s disease but do not yet have the memory loss or other problems characteristic of full-blown disease, researchers report March 11 in JAMA Neurology.
An anti-atherosclerosis drug greatly reduced blood-brain barrier (BBB) leaks in animal models with diabetes and hypercholesterolemia and linked BBB permeability with amyloid peptide deposits at the site of early Alzheimer's pathology.
Drugs taken together do not reduce risk of relapse but appear to prevent development of new lesions.
Families with a child completing elementary school this year are now preparing their registration for high school, a transition that is often stressful for children. A new program has demonstrated that it is possible to significantly reduce stress in some of these children thanks to a new educational tool designed.
A new study suggests that treatment with adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) may be helpful for people whose multiple sclerosis (MS) is not well-controlled through their regular treatment. The study was released today and will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 65th Annual Meeting in San Diego, March 16 to 23, 2013.
Researchers at the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (IMBA) in Vienna have identified a completely new mechanism in the onset of motor neuron diseases. Their findings could be the basis for future treatments for these presently incurable diseases.
Sniffing has been observed to also serve as a method for rats to communicate—a fundamental discovery that may help scientists identify brain regions critical for interpreting communications cues and what brain malfunctions may cause some complex social disorders.
A research team at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, has identified one of the molecular players in this process has been identified – at least in nematode round worms. David Raizen, MD, PhD, assistant professor of Neurology, and his colleagues report in Current Biology that even in Caenorhabditis elegans, a tiny nematode worm that feeds on bacteria, loss of sleep is “stressful.”
In a world first, a team of researchers at the Krembil Neuroscience Centre and the University Health Network have shown that Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) in patients with chronic, severe and treatment-resistant Anorexia Nervosa (anorexia) helps some patients achieve and maintain improvements in body weight, mood, and anxiety.
Although peripheral neuropathies afflict some 20 million Americans, their underlying causes are not completely understood. Now, scientists have shown that damage to energy factories in Schwann cells, which grow alongside neurons and enable nerve signals to travel from the spinal cord to the tips of the fingers and toes, may play a central role.
People with multiple sclerosis (MS) who have cognitive problems, or problems with memory, attention, and concentration, have more damage to areas of the brain involved in cognitive processes than people with MS who do not have cognitive problems, according to a study published in the March 6, 2013, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
At the Keystone Symposium “New Frontiers in Neurodegenerative Disease Research,” held 4-7 February in Santa Fe, New Mexico, researchers explored the processes that lead to a variety of diseases, including Alzheimer’s and Lou Gehrig’s disease (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, ALS). Several presenters described damage that genes undergo as people age, pointing to DNA breaks as a potential step on the way to disease. Others discussed a new component of the protein tangles that characterize Alzheimer's disease. Researchers also reported progress in understanding how two proteins, TDP-43 and FUS, cause ALS. See Alzforum’s four-part series
A team of investigators from nine institutions discovered how ATP – the body’s main fuel source– is released as the neurotransmitter from sweet, bitter, and umami, or savory, taste bud cells.
Columbia University Medical Center researchers have found the first evidence that selective activation of the dentate gyrus, a portion of the hippocampus, can reduce anxiety without affecting learning. The findings suggest that therapies that target this brain region could be used to treat certain anxiety disorders, such as panic disorder and PTSD, with minimal cognitive side effects.
A region of the brain known to play a key role in visual and spatial processing has a parallel function: sorting visual information into categories. Different types of information can be simultaneously encoded within the posterior parietal cortex.
UCLA scientists have discovered a new genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's disease by screening people's DNA and then using an advanced type of scan to visualize their brains' connections.
A pair of studies tells the tale of how a neuroscientist at Mayo Clinic in Florida helped to discover the first African-American family to have inherited the rare movement disorder dystonia, which causes repetitive muscle contractions and twisting, resulting in abnormal posture.
A bedside electronic device that measures eye movements can successfully determine whether the cause of severe, continuous, disabling dizziness is a stroke or something benign, according to results of a small study led by Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers.
Research published in the March 2013 journal GENETICS explains a novel interaction between aging and how neurons dispose of unwanted proteins and why this impacts the rising prevalence of dementia with advancing age.
The Human Connectome Project, a five-year endeavor to link brain connectivity to human behavior, has released a set of high-quality imaging and behavioral data to the scientific community.
Researchers at the University of Michigan have found a new potential benefit of a molecule in green tea: preventing the misfolding of specific proteins in the brain.
With every sunrise and sunset, our eyes make note of the light as it waxes and wanes, a process that is critical to aligning our circadian rhythms to match the solar day so we are alert during the day and restful at night. Watching the sun come and go sounds like a peaceful process, but Johns Hopkins scientists have discovered that behind the scenes, millions of specialized cells in our eyes are fighting for their lives to help the retina set the stage to keep our internal clocks ticking.
Researchers have discovered how the most common genetic mutations in familial Parkinson’s disease damage brain cells. The mutations block an intracellular system that normally prevents a protein called alpha-synuclein from reaching toxic levels in dopamine-producing neurons. The findings suggest that interventions aimed at enhancing this digestive system, or preventing its disruption, may prove valuable in the prevention or treatment of Parkinson’s. The study was published March 3 in the online edition of the journal Nature Neuroscience.
Concussions can occur in sports and in combat, but health experts do not know precisely which jolts, collisions and awkward head movements during these activities pose the greatest risks to the brain. To find out, Johns Hopkins engineers have developed a powerful new computer-based process that helps identify the dangerous conditions that lead to concussion-related brain injuries. This approach could lead to new medical treatment options and some sports rule changes to reduce brain trauma among players.
A team of scientists and clinicians at UC San Francisco has discovered how to detect abnormal brain rhythms associated with Parkinson’s by implanting electrodes within the brains of people with the disease.
Study by Kennedy Krieger’s International Center for Spinal Cord Injury suggests activity-based restorative therapy programs may provide substantial benefits for persons with chronic SCI
Mutations in prion-like segments of two RNA-binding proteins are associated with a rare inherited degeneration disorder (called multisystem proteinopathy) and one case of the familial form of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
Patients undergoing cerebral angiography and neurointerventional procedures on the brain are at very low risk of infection—even without preventive antibiotics, reports a study in the March issue of Neurosurgery, official journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.
Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine have discovered how the most common genetic mutations in familial Parkinson’s disease damage brain cells.
A study led by St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital has discovered mutations in two genes that lead to the death of nerve cells in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, and related degenerative diseases.
Combining hospital MRIs with the mathematical tool known as network analysis, a group of researchers at UC San Francisco and UC Berkeley have mapped the three-dimensional global connections within the brains of seven adults who have genetic malformations that leave them without the corpus callosum, which connects the left and right sides of the brain.
For the first time, scientists have shown that transplanted eyes located far outside the head in a vertebrate animal model can confer vision without a direct neural connection to the brain. Tufts University biologists used a frog model to shed new light – literally – on one of the major questions in regenerative medicine and sensory augmentation research.
Researchers have identified a possible treatment window of several years for plaques in the brain that are thought to cause memory loss in diseases such as Alzheimer’s. The Mayo Clinic study is published in the Feb. 27 online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Neuroscientists should help to develop compelling digital games that boost brain function and improve well-being, say two professors specializing in the field in a commentary article published in the science journal Nature.
For chronic pain sufferers, such as people who develop back pain after a car accident, avoiding the harmful effects of stress may be key to managing their condition. This is particularly important for people with a smaller-than-average hippocampus, as these individuals seem to be particularly vulnerable to stress.
A novel way to image the brain’s glymphatic pathway may provide the basis for a new strategy to evaluate Alzheimer's disease susceptibility, according to a research paper published in The Journal of Clinical Investigation.
The American Academy of Neurology (AAN) is releasing a list of five tests, procedures, and treatments that doctors and their patients should question as part of today’s announcement regarding the “Choosing Wisely” campaign by the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) Foundation. The list is published in the February 21, 2013, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Sixteen other medical societies are also releasing their lists.
In the weeks, months and years after a severe head injury, patients often experience epileptic seizures that are difficult to control. A new study in rats suggests that gently cooling the brain after injury may prevent these seizures.
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