Feature Channels: Neuro

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Sudden cardiac arrest is the leading cause of death in the United States, and just 7 percent of victims survive that initial collapse. In addition, fewer than half of the small percentage of people whose hearts are restarted survive to leave the hospital, because they often suffer irreversible brain damage. A Mayo Clinic study published this month in the journal Neurology provides guidance to physicians using therapeutic cooling to treat sudden cardiac arrest patients.

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Kennedy Krieger researchers find that varying practice sessions may benefit people with motor disorders.

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A groundbreaking study in the journal Nature Medicine suggests what could become the first effective treatment for a debilitating and fatal disease of the central nervous system called SCA1.

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Virtual brains modeling epilepsy and schizophrenia display less complexity among functional connections, and other differences compared to healthy brain models, researchers at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine report. The scientists make their tools available free for others to further the research.

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Scientists have developed a way to evaluate new treatments for some forms of attention deficit disorder. Working in mice, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis used brain scans to quickly test whether drugs increase levels of a brain chemical known as dopamine.

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The prospect of doing human clinical trials with stem cells to treat diseases like multiple sclerosis may be growing closer, say scientists at UB and U of R who have developed a more precise way to isolate stem cells that will make myelin.

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New research suggests the growth rate of the brain’s cerebral cortex in babies born prematurely may predict how well they are able to think, speak, plan and pay attention later in childhood. The research is published in the October 12, 2011, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The cerebral cortex is the outer layer of the brain covering the cerebrum, and is responsible for cognitive functions, such as language, memory, attention and thought.

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Older patients who happened to have been taking cholesterol-lowering statin drugs when admitted to the hospital with serious head injuries were 76 percent more likely to survive than those not taking the drugs, according to results of a Johns Hopkins study.

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Using skin cells from patients with mental disorders, scientists are creating brain cells that are now providing extraordinary insights into afflictions like schizophrenia and Parkinson’s disease.

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Researchers from Johns Hopkins have quantified the number of possible decisions that an individual cell can make after receiving a cue from its environment, and surprisingly, it’s only two.

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A tiny piece of a critical receptor that fuels the brain and without which sentient beings cannot live has been discovered by University at Buffalo scientists as a promising new drug target for Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases.

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People who are able to cross their legs soon after having a severe stroke appear to be more likely to have a good recovery compared to people who can’t cross their legs. That’s according to new research published in the October 11, 2011, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

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Addressing the earliest stages of Alzheimer’s disease, before a patient shows outward signs of cognitive problems, has sometimes been a challenge for physicians and researchers, in part because they have not been using common and specific terms to describe the disease’s initial phases.

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An ongoing lack of sleep during adolescence could lead to more than dragging, foggy teens, a University of Wisconsin-Madison study suggests.

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People who rate their health as poor or fair appear to be significantly more likely to develop dementia later in life, according to a study published in the October 5, 2011, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

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Being born prematurely may increase your risk of developing epilepsy as an adult, according to a new study published in the October 4, 2011, issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

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UCLA researchers have discovered there is an optimal brain frequency for changing synaptic strength for learning. And further, like stations on a radio dial, each synapse is tuned to a different optimal frequency.

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Johns Hopkins scientists investigating chemical modifications across the genomes of adult mice have discovered that DNA modifications in non-dividing brain cells, thought to be inherently stable, instead underwent large-scale dynamic changes as a result of stimulated brain activity. Their report, in the October issue of Nature Neuroscience, has major implications for treating psychiatric diseases, neurodegenerative disorders, and for better understanding learning, memory and mood regulation.

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Put up your dukes. A North Carolina State University study of aggression in fruit flies aims to provide a framework for how complex gene interactions affect behavior. And these clues in flies could translate to a better understanding of human genes and behavior.

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Even people with blood pressure that is slightly above normal may be at an increased risk of stroke, according to a review of studies published in the September 28, 2011, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

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People with prehypertension have a 55 percent higher risk of experiencing a future stroke than people without prehypertension, report researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine in a new meta-analysis of scientific literature published in the September 28 online issue of the journal Neurology.

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Brain tumor specimens taken from neurosurgery cases at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Medical Center has given scientists a new window on the transformation that occurs as healthy brain cells begin to form tumors.

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Oxaliplatin, a platinum-based anticancer drug that’s made enormous headway in recent years against colorectal cancer, appears to cause nerve damage that may be permanent and worsens even months after treatment ends. The chemotherapy side effect, described by Johns Hopkins researchers in the September issue of Neurology, was discovered in what is believed to be the first effort to track oxaliplatin-based nerve damage through relatively cheap and easy punch skin biopsies

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Older people with low blood levels of vitamin B12 markers may be more likely to have lower brain volumes and have problems with their thinking skills, according to researchers at Rush University Medical Center. The results of the study are published in the Sept. 27 issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

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Older people with low levels of vitamin B12 in their blood may be more likely to lose brain cells and develop problems with their thinking skills, according to a study published in the September 27, 2011, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Foods that come from animals, including fish, meat, especially liver, milk, eggs and poultry, are usually sources of vitamin B12.

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The eye and ear have patterns of organization that reflect visual and auditory input. But what about the nose? Now, Prof. Noam Sobel at the Weizmann Institute has found there is also organization to our smell receptors, and it relates to how we perceive an odor.

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Researchers working with adult mice have discovered that learning and memory were profoundly affected when they altered the amounts of a certain protein in specific parts of the mammals’ brains.

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America's top neurosurgeons have developed a presentation program to help educate the public on concussion prevention and treatment.

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Scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School have found that a common cancer protein leads a second, totally different life in normal adult brain cells: It helps regulates memory formation and may be implicated in Alzheimer's disease.

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UCLA researchers and colleages have found that certain types of subtle advertisements reduce activity in the decision-making areas of the brain, suggesting that some ads seduce, rather than persuade, consumers to buy their products.

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Frontotemporal dementia and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease -- two fatal neurodegenerative disease with distinct but sometimes overlapping symptoms -- are triggered by a common mutation in many cases, according to researchers who say they have identified the mutated gene.

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North American investigators led by neuroscientists at Mayo Clinic in Florida have found a genetic abnormality they say is the most common cause of two different but related familial forms of neurodegenerative disease — frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

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UCLA scientists discovered that a key signaling pathway plays an important role in frontotemporal dementia and may offer a potential target for treatment of the devastating brain disorder, which accounts for one in four cases of early-onset dementia.

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A team led by scientists from Johns Hopkins and the National Institutes of Health has discovered a new genetic mutation for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and a related disease called frontotemporal dementia (FTD) that appears to account for more than a third of all inherited cases of these diseases. The researchers show in a new study published online on September 21 in Neuron that this mutation, found within a gene called C9ORF72, is about twice as common as all the other mutations discovered thus far for the disease combined.

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Drs. Savita Khanna and Cameron Rink, both Assistant Professors of Surgery in the College of Medicine at The Ohio State University Medical Center are part of a research team that has been working for more than a decade to identify ways to reduce brain injury during stroke. Two key pieces of their research have recently revealed that the future of stroke treatment may lie in the form of supplementation – either with prophylactic use of a form of vitamin E, or administration of oxygen during a stroke.

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People with diabetes appear to be at a significantly increased risk of developing dementia, according to a study published in the September 20, 2011, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

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Study finds exercise doesn’t just boost cellular powerhouses, called mitochondria, in muscles—it also drives up their number in the brain. Knowing this could have implications for exercise performance as well as treating mental and neurological disorders.

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Henry Ford Hospital became the third hospital in the United States to perform a Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) procedure inside an Intraoperative Magnetic Resonance Imaging scanner, or iMRI.

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A small group of veterans with spinal cord injuries who underwent a four-day scuba- diving certification saw significant improvement in muscle movement, increased sensitivity to light touch and pinprick on the legs, and large reductions in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, according to Johns Hopkins researchers.

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In a first of its kind study, researchers have found that using two way audio-video telemedicine to deliver stroke care, also known as telestroke, appears to be cost-effective for rural hospitals that don’t have an around-the-clock neurologist, or stroke expert, on staff.

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Scientists at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have uncovered a previously unknown fail-safe (compensatory) pathway that potentially protects the brain and other organs from genetic and environmental threats. The discovery could provide new ways to diminish the negative consequences of genetic mutations and environmental toxins that cause neurological diseases and other maladies.

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Researchers are beginning to decipher what exactly happens in our brains when we are making decisions. Three experts in in the field describe the genesis of this cutting-edge field and potential practical applications of this research.

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In a first of its kind study, researchers have found that using two way audio-video telemedicine to deliver stroke care, also known as telestroke, appears to be cost-effective for rural hospitals that don’t have an around-the-clock neurologist, or stroke expert, on staff. The research is published in the September 14, 2011, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

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Medical imaging experts at Johns Hopkins have reviewed the patient records of 302 men and women who had a much-needed X-ray of the blood vessels near the spinal cord and found that the procedure, often feared for possible complications of stroke and kidney damage, is safe and effective.

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Researchers report that they have found several chemical compounds, including an antidepressant, that have powerful effects against brain-destroying prion infections in mice, opening the door to potential treatments for human prion diseases.

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Stroke is a leading cause of death and serious long-term disability in the U.S. and the recurrence rate after five years is approximately 33%. Increased utilization of statins for patients with stroke will produce statistically significant and clinically important reductions in their risks of future stroke, heart attack and death from cardiovascular disease.

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Cornell University researchers may have solved a 100-year puzzle: How to safely open and close the blood-brain barrier.

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People with high cholesterol may have a higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, according to a study published in the September 13, 2011, issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

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An enzyme that appears to play a role in controlling the brain's response to nicotine and alcohol in mice might be a promising target for a drug that simultaneously would treat nicotine addiction and alcohol abuse in people, according to a study by researchers at the Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center, affiliated with the University of California, San Francisco.

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A year after hospital discharge, the majority of stroke patients are listening to doctor’s orders when it comes to taking their prescribed secondary stroke prevention medications, new data out of Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center shows. However, there is room for improvement, according to investigators.