June 2012
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Bee research sheds light on human sweet...
June 29, 2012
Scientists at Arizona State University have discovered that honey bees may teach us about basic connections between taste perception and metabolic disorders in humans.
Honey bees may help scientists understand how food-related behaviors interact with internal metabolism and how to manipulate those behaviors to control metabolic disorders. Photo by: Christofer Bang
By...
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Study Finds New Gene Mutations that Lead to...
June 29th, 2012
Researchers shed light on molecular cause of childhood’s worst conditions as first step toward developing more effective treatments.
A research team led by Seattle Children’s Research Institute has discovered new gene mutations associated with markedly enlarged brain size, or megalencephaly. Mutations in three genes, AKT3, PIK3R2 and PIK3CA, were also found to be associated with...
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Easter Island Drug Raises Cognition Throughout...
ScienceDaily (June 29, 2012) — Cognitive skills such as learning and memory diminish with age in everyone, and the drop-off is steepest in Alzheimer’s disease. Texas scientists seeking a way to prevent this decline reported exciting results this week with a drug that has Polynesian roots.
Easter Island statues. (Credit: © Celsius / Fotolia)
The researchers, appointed in the School of...
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Turning Skin Cells Into Brain Cells: Huntington's...
ScienceDaily (June 28, 2012) — Johns Hopkins researchers, working with an international consortium, say they have generated stem cells from skin cells from a person with a severe, early-onset form of Huntington’s disease (HD), and turned them into neurons that degenerate just like those affected by the fatal inherited disorder.
By creating “HD in a dish,” the researchers say...
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Why Does a Diet High in DHA Improve Memory?
ScienceDaily (June 28, 2012) — We’ve all heard that eating fish is good for our brains and memory. But what is it about DHA, an omega-3 fatty acid found in fish, that makes our memory sharper?
Researchers with the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry discovered a possible explanation and just published their findings in the peer-reviewed journal Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and...
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With mind-reading speller, free-for-all...
June 28, 2012
Researchers have come up with a device that may enable people who are completely unable to speak or move at all to nevertheless manage unscripted back-and-forth conversation. The key to such silent and still communication is the first real-time, brain-scanning speller, according to the report published online on June 28 in Current Biology.
Researchers have come up with a device...
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New Approach to Reverse Multiple Sclerosis in Mice...
ScienceDaily (June 28, 2012) — Mayo Clinic researchers have successfully used smaller, folded DNA molecules to stimulate regeneration and repair of nerve coatings in mice that mimic multiple sclerosis (MS). They say the finding, published June 28 in the journal PLoS ONE, suggests new possible therapies for MS patients.
Laboratory mouse. (Credit: iStockphoto)
“The problem has been to find...
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Study finds genes associated with hippocampal...
June 28, 2012
In a genome-wide association (GWA) study, researchers from Boston University Schools of Medicine (BUSM) and Public Health (BUSPH) have identified several genes which influence degeneration of the hippocampus, the part of the brain most associated with Alzheimer disease (AD). The study, which currently appears online as a Rapid Communication in the Annals of Neurology, demonstrates...
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Probing the roots of depression by tracking...
June 28, 2012
In a process akin to belling an infinitesimal cat, scientists have managed to tag a protein that regulates the neurotransmitter serotonin with tiny fluorescent beads, allowing them to track the movements of single molecules for the first time.
This is a microphotograph of neurons with their serotonin transporter protein labeled with red quantum dots. Credit: Jerry Chang,...
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Epilepsy drugs increase risk of fractures and...
June 28, 2012
(Medical Xpress) — New research has shed light on the high risk of fractures, falls, and osteoporosis among epilepsy patients using antiepileptic drugs with most patients unaware of the risks associated with taking the drugs.
The study led by the University of Melbourne and published in the prestigious Neurology journal, found that people taking antiepileptic drugs are up to...
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Post-Anesthesia Dementia, Like Alzheimer's, Looks...
ScienceDaily (June 27, 2012) — Modern anesthesia is extremely safe. But as risks to heart, lungs and other organs have waned, another problem has emerged in the elderly: post-operative cognitive dysfunction. Mentally, some patients “just aren’t the same” for months or longer after surgery. Other factors play a role, but a small number of patients deteriorate mentally due to...
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Finding Brings Scientists One Step Closer to...
June 27th, 2012
Long-term aim is to develop new treatments to block the spread of damaged proteins in the brain.
Van Andel Institute announces that researchers at Lund University in Sweden have published a study detailing how Parkinson’s disease spreads through the brain. Experiments in rat models uncover a process previously used to explain mad cow disease, in which misfolded proteins travel...
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Parkinson’s Disease Gene Identified With Help of...
ScienceDaily (June 27, 2012) — An international team including scientists from the University of Saskatchewan-Saskatoon Health Region and University of British Columbia, with the help of Saskatchewan Mennonite families, has identified an abnormal gene which leads to Parkinson’s disease.
“This discovery paves the way for further research to determine the nature of brain abnormalities...
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New Compound Holds Promise for Treating Duchenne...
June 27th, 2012
RTC 13 effectively counteracts ‘nonsense’ mutation that causes disorder.
Scientists at UCLA have identified a new compound that could treat certain types of genetic disorders in muscles. It is a big first step in what they hope will lead to human clinical trials for Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
Duchenne muscular dystrophy, or DMD, is a degenerative muscle disease that affects...
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New Vaccine for Nicotine Addiction Successfully...
June 27th, 2012
Weill Cornell researchers develop novel antibody vaccine that blocks addictive nicotine chemicals from reaching the brain.
Researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College have developed and successfully tested in mice an innovative vaccine to treat nicotine addiction.
In the journal Science Translational Medicine, the scientists describe how a single dose of their novel vaccine...
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Smoking, head injury, pesticide use may be risk...
June 27, 2012
Smoking, head injury, pesticide exposure, farming and less education may be risk factors for a rare sleep disorder that causes people to kick or punch during sleep, according to a study published in the June 27, 2012, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
People with the disorder, called REM sleep behavior disorder, do not have the...
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Researchers find link between neuritin gene...
June 27, 2012 by Bob Yirka
(Medical Xpress) — Research teams from the US and Korea have together been studying depression and other mood disorders and have found that chronic stress can block a gene whose job it is to maintain healthy neuron connections in the brain, which in turn can lead to mental ailments. In lab experiments they have found that rats show lowered levels of neuritin gene...
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Nerve Pathway for Combating Axon Injury and Stress...
June 27th, 2012
Researchers from the Huck Institutes’ Center for Cellular Dynamics, led by Center director Melissa Rolls, have found that a neuroprotective pathway initiated in response to injured or stressed neural axons serves to stabilize and protect the nerve cell against further degeneration.
Neurons, or nerve cells, typically have a single axon that transmits signals to other neurons or to...
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Regulation of Telomerase in Stem Cells and Cancer...
ScienceDaily (June 27, 2012) — Scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics in Freiburg have gained important insights for stem cell research which are also applicable to human tumours and could lead to the development of new treatments. As Rolf Kemler’s research group discovered, a molecular link exists between the telomerase that determines the length of the...
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Brain Scans Detect Early Signs of Autism in...
ScienceDaily (June 27, 2012) — A new study shows significant differences in brain development in high-risk infants who develop autism starting as early as age 6 months. The findings published in the American Journal of Psychiatry reveal that this abnormal brain development may be detected before the appearance of autism symptoms in an infant’s first year of life. Autism is typically...
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Tablet computers may interfere with settings on...
June 26, 2012
Researchers at the University of Michigan have found that the Apple iPad 2 can interfere with settings of magnetically programmable shunt devices, which are often used to treat children with hydrocephalus. The iPad 2 contains magnets that can change valve settings in the shunt if the tablet computer is held too close to the valve (within 2 inches). Such a change may result in shunt...
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Transgenic Technique 'Eliminates' a Specific...
ScienceDaily (June 26, 2012) — In the brains of humans and non-human primates, over 100 billion nerve cells build up complicated neural circuits and produce higher brain functions. When an attempt is made to perform gene therapy for neurological diseases like Parkinson’s disease, it is necessary to specify a responsible neural circuit out of many complicated circuits. Until now, however, it...
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Tiny Magnetic Coils Modulate Neural Activity, May...
ScienceDaily (June 26, 2012) — Magnetic fields generated by microscopic devices implanted into the brain may be able to modulate brain-cell activity and reduce symptoms of several neurological disorders. Micromagnetic stimulation appears to generate the kind of neural activity currently elicited with electrical impulses for deep brain stimulation (DBS) — a therapy that can reduce symptoms of...
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Mechanism Prevents Alterations in Neuronal...
ScienceDaily (June 26, 2012) — Scientists from the University of Barcelona (UB) in collaboration with a multidisciplinary team from the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) has discovered a mechanism that prevents alterations in neurogenesis, the process of neuronal formation, during the development of the nervous system in vertebrates. The study, published in the journal Development, relates...
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Speech algorithm detects early Parkinson's...
26 June 12 | By Liat Clark
A UK mathematician has made a public appeal for people to phone a dedicated number so data can be gathered to hone a tool that can diagnose Parkinson’s disease by analysing voice patterns.
Image: Shutterstock
Max Little, a research fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, made the announcement during the opening of the TEDGlobal conference in...
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Curry Spice, Omega-3 Fatty Acid Preserve Walking...
ScienceDaily (June 26, 2012) — UCLA researchers discovered that a diet enriched with a popular omega-3 fatty acid and an ingredient in curry spice preserved walking ability in rats with spinal-cord injury. Published June 26 in the Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine, the findings suggest that these dietary supplements help repair nerve cells and maintain neurological function after degenerative damage...
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Mind Reading from Brain Recordings? 'Neural...
ScienceDaily (June 26, 2012) — Researchers have long been interested in discovering the ways that human brains represent thoughts through a complex interplay of electrical signals. Recent improvements in brain recording and statistical methods have given researchers unprecedented insight into the physical processes under-lying thoughts. For example, researchers have begun to show that it is...
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Link Between Brain Insulin Resistance, Neuronal...
ScienceDaily (June 26, 2012) — Rhode Island Hospital researcher Suzanne de la Monte, M.D., has found a link between brain insulin resistance (diabetes) and two other key mediators of neuronal injury that help Alzheimer’s disease (AD) to propagate. The research found that once AD is established, therapeutic efforts must also work to reduce toxin production in the brain.
The study,...
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Alzheimer's infects from neuron to neuron
June 26, 2012
The inexorable spread of Alzheimer’s disease through the brain leaves dead neurons and forgotten thoughts in its wake. Researchers at Linköping University in Sweden are the first to show how toxic proteins are transferred from neuron to neuron.
Two nerve cells, each about 10 micrometers large, are visible as shadows in this picture. From the beginning only the right one...
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New invasive imaging technique to monitor brain...
June 26, 2012
A new video article in JoVE, the Journal of Visualized Experiments, describes a novel procedure to monitor brain function and aid in functional mapping of patients with diseases such as epilepsy. This procedure illustrates the use of pre-placed electrodes for cortical mapping in the brains of patients who are undergoing surgery to minimize the frequency of seizures. This technique,...
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Drug addiction study offers new insight on...
June 25, 2012
The same neurological mechanism involved in the transition from habitual to compulsive drug use could underlie less severe, but still harmful, compulsive behaviours.
“We’re trying to understand individuality in addictive behaviour. Many people can be exposed to drugs with addictive potential, for instance, but not everyone will become addicted,” explains Eric...
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Timing of Menopause Symptoms Relates to Risk...
ScienceDaily (June 25, 2012) — The hot flashes and night sweats that most women experience early in menopause are not linked to increased levels of cardiovascular disease risk markers unless the symptoms persist or start many years after menopause begins. These new study results were presented June 23 at The Endocrine Society’s 94th Annual Meeting in Houston.
“Our study provides...
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Binge Eating Improves With Deep Brain Stimulation...
ScienceDaily (June 25, 2012) — Deep brain stimulation reduces binge eating in mice, suggesting that this surgery, which is approved for treatment of certain neurologic and psychiatric disorders, may also be an effective therapy for obesity. Presentation of the results took place June 25 at The Endocrine Society’s 94th Annual Meeting in Houston.
“Doing brain surgery for obesity...
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Rare Genetic Illness May Shed Light on Role of...
June 25, 2012 By Rick Nauert
A new study involving children with Williams syndrome (WS) suggests that improved regulation of oxytocin and vasopressin may someday improve care for autism, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and WS.
WS results when certain genes are absent because of a faulty recombination event during the development of sperm or egg cells. Virtually everyone with WS...
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Gut Hormone Receptor in Brain Is Key to Gastric...
ScienceDaily (June 25, 2012) — Researchers have discovered how a hormone in the gut slows the rate at which the stomach empties and thus suppresses hunger and food intake. Results of the animal study were presented June 25 at The Endocrine Society’s 94th Annual Meeting in Houston.
“The gut hormone glucagon-like peptide 2, or GLP-2, functions as a neurotransmitter and fine-tunes...
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Treating Vitamin D Deficiency May Improve...
ScienceDaily (June 25, 2012) — Women with moderate to severe depression had substantial improvement in their symptoms of depression after they received treatment for their vitamin D deficiency, a new study finds.
The case report series was presented June 23 at The Endocrine Society’s 94th Annual Meeting in Houston.
Because the women did not change their antidepressant medications or other...
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Computer Analysis of EEG Patterns Suggests a...
ScienceDaily (June 25, 2012) — Widely available EEG testing can distinguish children with autism from neurotypical children as early as age 2, finds a study from Boston Children’s Hospital. The study is the largest, most rigorous study to date to investigate EEGs as a potential diagnostic tool for autism, and offers hope for an earlier, more definitive test.
Widely available EEG testing...
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Tai Chi, Lively Talks Increase Brain Size in...
June 25, 2012 By Traci Pedersen
Scientists have found improvements on memory tests and an increase in brain volume in Chinese seniors who practice tai chi three times a week, according to an article published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.
The trial also showed increases in brain volume and smaller cognitive improvements in individuals that participated in lively discussions...
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Timing of ADHD Medication Affect Academic Progress
ScienceDaily (June 25, 2012) — A team of researchers led by an epidemiologist at Mount Sinai School of Medicine and University of Iceland has found a correlation between the age at which children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) begin taking medication, and how well they perform on standardized tests, particularly in math.
The study, titled, “A Population-Based Study of...
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First-ever Allen Brain Atlas Hackathon unleashes...
June 25, 2012
The Allen Institute for Brain Science convened the first ever Allen Brain Atlas Hackathon last week, opening its doors to a diverse group of programmers and informatics experts for a non-stop week of collaboration, learning and coding based on its public online platform of data, tools and source code. The event brought together more than 30 participants from top universities and...
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What was he thinking? Study turns to ape intellect
June 24, 2012 by SETH BORENSTEIN
(AP) — The more we study animals, the less special we seem.
In this Dec. 13, 2006 photo provided by the Primate Research Institute of Kyoto University, a 5 1/2-year-old chimpanzee named Ayumu performs a memory test with randomly-placed consecutive Arabic numerals, which are later masked, accurately duplicating the lineup on a touch screen computer in Kyoto,...
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Blood-Brain Barrier Building Blocks Forged from...
ScienceDaily (June 24, 2012) — The blood-brain barrier — the filter that governs what can and cannot come into contact with the mammalian brain — is a marvel of nature. It effectively separates circulating blood from the fluid that bathes the brain, and it keeps out bacteria, viruses and other agents that could damage it.
But the barrier can be disrupted by disease, stroke and...
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Brain Structure Helps Guide Behavior by...
ScienceDaily (June 24, 2012) — Every day the human brain is presented with tasks ranging from the trivial to the complex. How much mental effort and attention are devoted to each task is usually determined in a split second and without conscious awareness. Now a study from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers finds that a structure deep within the brain, believed to play an important...
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Gene Mutations Cause Massive Brain Asymmetry
ScienceDaily (June 24, 2012) — Hemimegalencephaly is a rare but dramatic condition in which the brain grows asymmetrically, with one hemisphere becoming massively enlarged. Though frequently diagnosed in children with severe epilepsy, the cause of hemimegalencephaly is unknown and current treatment is radical: surgical removal of some or all of the diseased half of the brain.
This image depicts...
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Neurons That Control Overeating Also Drive...
ScienceDaily (June 24, 2012) — Researchers at Yale School of Medicine have zeroed in on a set of neurons in the part of the brain that controls hunger, and found that these neurons are not only associated with overeating, but also linked to non-food associated behaviors, like novelty-seeking and drug addiction.
A lean animal and a control were both exposed to a novelty item (center). The lean...
