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Article ID: 705504

UT Southwestern researchers have succeeded in neutralizing what they believe is a primary factor in late-onset Alzheimer’s disease, opening the door to development of a drug that could be administered before age 40, and taken for life, to potentially prevent the disease in 50 to 80 percent of at-risk adults.

Article ID: 705431

Thanks to the efforts of a pediatric medical team at CHU Sainte-Justine in Montreal, a 2-year-old girl suffering from an extreme form of hydrocephalus may someday lead a more normal life.

Article ID: 705437

Luis Populin and UW–Madison collaborators published a study this week in the Journal of Neuroscience describing increased connections between key parts of the brains of monkeys who have taken methylphenidate (Ritalin).

Article ID: 705455

When infants are playing with objects, their early attempts to pay attention to things are accompanied by bursts of high-frequency activity in their brain. But what happens when parents play together with them? New research, publishing December 13 in the open-access journal PLOS Biology, by Dr Sam Wass of the University of East London in collaboration with Dr Victoria Leong (Cambridge University and Nanyang Technological University, Singapore) and colleagues, shows for the first time that when adults are engaged in joint play together with their infant, their own brains show similar bursts of high-frequency activity. Intriguingly, these bursts of activity are linked to their baby’s attention patterns and not their own.

Article ID: 705447

Pediatric oncologist and researcher Yael Mossé, MD, Director of the Neuroblastoma Development Therapeutics Program at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, has been named the inaugural holder of the Patricia Brophy Endowed Chair in Neuroblastoma Research.

Article ID: 705380

Two studies have linked DNA changes to their molecular effects in the brain, revealing new mechanisms for psychiatric diseases. The findings provide a roadmap for developing a new generation of therapies for conditions like autism, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

Article ID: 705363

Using a mouse model of necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) — a potentially fatal condition that causes a premature infant’s gut to suddenly die — researchers at Johns Hopkins say they have uncovered the molecular causes of the condition and its associated brain injury. The discovery enabled the team to combine efforts with colleagues studying brain inflammation and to identify potential drugs that reverse the brain injury in mice.

Article ID: 705406

Children with elevated levels of callous traits—such as a lack of remorse and disregard for other people’s feelings—show widespread differences in brain structure compared with children with lower levels of the traits, according to a new study published in Biological Psychiatry. The differences, which included large- and small-scale structural alterations, support the idea of callous traits as a neurodevelopmental condition.