UCLA scientists have discovered a way to measure the amount of amyloid beta that is being absorbed by immune cells in the blood. Amyloid beta forms the plaques considered the hallmark of Alzheimer's disease, and if the immune system isn't adequately clearing amyloid beta, it may indicate Alzheimer's risk, according to the researchers.
Researchers from Keele University's School of Psychology have determined that swearing can have a "˜pain-lessening effect,' according to new study published in NeuroReport. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health, a leading provider of information and business intelligence for students, professionals, and institutions in medicine, nursing, allied health, pharmacy and the pharmaceutical industry.
A new Mayo Clinic study may help physicians differentially diagnose three common neurodegenerative disorders in the future. The study will be presented at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease on July 11 in Vienna.
Although the fact that we generate new brain cells throughout life is no longer disputed, their purpose has been the topic of much debate. Now, an international collaboration of researchers made a big leap forward in understanding what all these newborn neurons might actually do. Their study, published in the July 10, 2009, issue of the journal Science, illustrates how these young cells improve our ability to navigate our environment.
People who have superior language skills early in life may be less likely to develop Alzheimer's disease decades later, despite having the hallmark signs of the disease, according to research published in the July 9, 2009, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Most of the cognitive tests that have been used to decide whether someone has Alzheimer's disease or vascular dementia have not been very helpful when used alone. A new report published by the American Psychological Association concluded that when older people are confused and forgetful, doctors should base their diagnoses on many different types of information, including medical history and brain imaging.
NYU Langone Medical Center announced today a $100 million gift from the Druckenmiller Foundation to establish a state-of-the-art neuroscience institute at the Medical Center.
A new study carried out at the University of Haifa sheds light on how first and second languages are represented in the brain of a bilingual person. A unique single case study that was tested by Dr. Raphiq Ibrahim of the Department of Learning Disabilities and published in the Behavioral and Brain Functions journal, showed that first and second languages are represented in different places in the brain.
Learning complex skills like playing an instrument requires a sequence of movements that can take years to master. Last year, MIT neuroscientists reported that by studying the chirps of tiny songbirds, they were able to identify how two distinct brain circuits contribute to this type of trial-and-error learning in different stages of life.
By the year 2050, about 30 million Americans are expected to suffer from Alzheimer's disease. Experts in the field are trying to determine if sophisticated imaging equipment can help predict the development of the disease.
Scientists from Brown University and the University of Cincinnati found that a portion of the brain that handles decision-making also helps decipher different sounds. Details are in the July issue of the journal Psychological Science.
Pioneering therapeutic trials to investigate the effectiveness of deep brain stimulation (DBS) in hard-to-treat depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and Tourette's syndrome are underway at multiple medical centers around the world, according to a review in the June 2009 issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings.
Experimental devices that read brain signals have helped paralyzed people use computers and may let amputees control bionic limbs. But existing devices use tiny electrodes that poke into the brain. Now, a University of Utah study shows that brain signals controlling arm movements can be detected accurately using new microelectrodes that sit on the brain but don't penetrate it.
Alcohol's inebriating effects are familiar to everyone. But the molecular details of alcohol's impact on brain activity remain a mystery. A new study by researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies brings us closer to understanding how alcohol alters the way brain cells work.
An enzyme that naturally occurs in the brain helps destroy the mutated protein that is the most common cause of inherited Parkinson's disease, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found.
A UCLA study has discovered that chronic exposure during pregnancy to miniscule levels of carbon monoxide damages the cells of the fetal brain, resulting in permanent impairment. The journal BMC (BioMed Central) Neuroscience published the findings June 22 in its online edition.
Women who have migraines with aura may be more likely to have a stroke or heart attack than women who don't have the condition, and the association varies by migraine frequency, according to research published in the June 24, 2009, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. An aura is a visual or other sensory disturbance that occurs before the migraine starts, such as seeing bright lights.
Women who suffer from migraine headaches in middle age"”particularly those accompanied by neurological aura"”are more likely to have damage to brain tissue in the cerebellum later in life.
Researchers here used a novel form of brain imaging to discover that white matter in the brains of adolescents at risk of developing schizophrenia does not develop at the same rate as healthy people. Further, the extent of these alterations can predict how badly patients will or will not deteriorate functionally over time.
UCLA and McGill University researchers have, for the first time, "photographed" a memory in the making.
Among older adults, less frequent participation in social activity is associated with a more rapid rate of motor function decline, according to a report in the June 22 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Two new studies published by neurologists at Columbia University Medical Center and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital demonstrate a need for more vigilant monitoring for seizure activity among intensive care patients who may be experiencing subtle seizures that are typically unrecognized. These subtle seizures may be affecting patients' prognoses and causing long-term brain damage, death and severe disability.
Scientists at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have shown that a fully automated procedure called Volumetric MRI "“ which measures the "memory centers" of the brain and compares them to expected size "“ is effective in predicting the progression from mild cognitive impairment (MCI) to Alzheimer's disease. The procedure can be readily used in clinics to measure brain atrophy, and may help physicians to predict decline in MCI patients.
People with memory problems who are depressed are more likely to develop Alzheimer's disease compared to people who are not depressed, according to a study published in the June 16, 2009, print issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. However, the research also shows that the popular Alzheimer's drug donepezil may delay the progression to Alzheimer's disease for depressed people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or memory problems.
A person whose hand function has been affected by a stroke can release an object more quickly when the affected arm is supported on a platform. Muscle-stretching exercises improved how quickly the stroke survivor could grip an object. The findings show how a stroke affects hand function, and provide a roadmap for rehabilitation.
Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine have discovered how the mutated huntington gene acts on the nervous system to create the devastation of Huntington's disease.
In her new book, Fixing My Gaze: A Scientist's Journey into Seeing in Three Dimensions, Mount Holyoke neurobiologist Susan R. Barry's recounts how she defied conventional medical wisdom to train herself to see in three dimensions for the first time at age 48.
Alzheimer's disease patients show a relentless decline in memory over the course of the disease, which is accompanied by both brain atrophy and by characteristic deposits in the brain tissue called amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles.
Music that gives people "chills" drives the brain's pleasure centers.
Seeing others in pain can automatically engage the brain's empathy systems even if we are not paying attention, according to new research from Mount Sinai School of Medicine presented at the Annual Meeting of the Organization for Human Brain Mapping.
A new treatment for stroke recovery.
Researchers us a technique called Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation to treat hallucinations.
Brain-computer interfaces "˜translate' what a person is thinking in words or actions.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health has awarded a three-year, $3-million grant to Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University to establish a research center to study the neurological complications that afflict people infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
Researchers at Oxford University studied people who were learning to juggle and mastering a three-ball juggle.
Decisions in the social brain: When I know that you don't know.
Depression is a major public health problem, and one of the most important challenges for psychiatrists is to determine whether an individual with depression should receive cognitive-behavioral therapy or treatment with antidepressant medication.
Our ability to form long-term memories depends on cells in the brain making strong connections with each other. Yet while it's not well understood how those connections are made, lost or changed, the process is known to involve the movement of the AMPA receptor protein to and from those neuronal connections.
A team of scientists from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, or USU, have characterized the expression of Toll-like receptors (TLRs) and associated signaling in response to Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus (VEEV) infection.
Not everyone declines in cognitive function with age. Elderly people who exercise at least once a week, have at least a high school education and a ninth grade literacy level, are not smokers and are more socially active are more likely to maintain their cognitive skills through their 70s and 80s, according to research published in the June 9, 2009, print issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Alzheimer's disease and its precursor, mild cognitive impairment, appear to be associated with an increased risk of death among both white and African American older adults according to a new, long-term research study by neurological experts at the Alzheimer's Disease Center at Rush University Medical Center. The study findings are published in the June issue of Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Johns Hopkins brain scientists have figured out why a faulty protein accumulates in cells everywhere in the bodies of people with Huntington's disease (HD), but only kills cells in the part of the brain that controls movement, causing negligible damage to tissues elsewhere. The answer, reported this week in Science, lies in one tiny protein called "Rhes" that's found only in the part of the brain that controls movement.
The Brain Injury Research Center (BIRC) in the UCLA Department of Neurosurgery has been awarded a $4.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to research new ways to heal the brain after a traumatic brain injury, or TBI. Specifically, researchers will be looking at how to best feed the brain the nutrients it needs to optimize recovery.
Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have created a line of fruit flies that may someday help shed light on the mechanisms that cause insomnia in humans. The flies, which get a small fraction of the sleep of normal flies, resemble insomniac humans in several ways.
A drug with potential to prevent epilepsy caused by a genetic condition may also help prevent more common forms of epilepsy caused by brain injury, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
About half of all people who have a major stroke following a warning stroke (a transient ischemic attack or mild stroke) have it within 24 hours of the first event, according to research published in the June 2, 2009, print issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Researchers studying a difficult-to-treat form of childhood epilepsy called infantile spasms have developed a line of mice that experiences seizures with features closely resembling those occurring in human infants. These genetically engineered mice provide a new opportunity for scientists to test treatments that may benefit children.
Many cases of age-related neurodegenerative disease fall into the gray zone between big, defined diseases such as Alzheimer or Parkinson disease. They are often misdiagnosed, which is a problem because mixed disease is not only common, but also quite different in its course from pathologically 'pure' disease. But there's also excitement and opportunity.
Just as our world buzzes with distractions "” from phone calls to e-mails to tweets "” the neurons in our brain are bombarded with messages. Research has shown that when we pay attention, some of these neurons begin firing in unison, like a chorus rising above the noise. Now, a study in the May 29 issue of Science reveals the likely brain center that serves as the conductor of this neural chorus.
Researchers have identified the locking mechanism that allows some neurons to form synapses to pass along essential information. Mutations of genes that produce a critical cell-adhesion molecule involved in the work were previously linked to autism.
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