Brain News and Research

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The human brain is the center of the human nervous system and is a highly complex organ. Enclosed in the cranium, it has the same general structure as the brains of other mammals, but is over three times as large as the brain of a typical mammal with an equivalent body size.

Article describes Brain Activity Mapping could bring new understanding of how brain works

The scientific tools are not yet available to build a comprehensive map of the activity in the most complicated 3 pounds of material in the world - the human brain, scientists say in a newly published article.

4 Apr 2013

Study shows relationship between cocaine-induced brain deficits in prefrontal cortex and cocaine-seeking

Could drug addiction treatment of the future be as simple as an on/off switch in the brain? A study in rats has found that stimulating a key part of the brain reduces compulsive cocaine-seeking and suggests the possibility of changing addictive behavior generally.

4 Apr 2013

Epileptic seizures can propagate via anatomically connected networks in brain

The seizures that affect people with temporal-lobe epilepsy usually start in a region of the brain called the hippocampus.

4 Apr 2013

Non-musicians who speak tonal languages may have a better ear for learning musical notes

Non-musicians who speak tonal languages may have a better ear for learning musical notes, according to Canadian researchers.

4 Apr 2013

Life-changing ChromaGen lenses for people with dyslexia, other reading disorders

Words that move from left to right or up and down, words that are blurry or come in and out of focus or words that appear to float on the page, seeing double words or double sentences, re-reading the same lines - these are some of the reading difficulties that students everywhere are struggling with.

3 Apr 2013

First Edition: April 3, 2013

Today's headlines include reports about how the latest round of payment rates for private Medicare plans led to stock market gains for insurers.

3 Apr 2013

New report addresses presence of cerebral abnormalities in eating disorders

A report from the University of Freiburg that is published in one of the last issue of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics address the presence of cerebral abnormalities in eating disorders.

3 Apr 2013

UAB School of Nursing raising bar on service for veterans

Partnering with Birmingham's VA Medical Center and with colleagues across a wide range of health care professions, the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Nursing is raising the bar on service for veterans and their families.

3 Apr 2013

Report shows identical genetic mutations are shared among neurodevelopmental disorders

A paper published this month in the prestigious medical journal The Lancet Neurology suggests that a broad spectrum of developmental and psychiatric disorders, ranging from autism and intellectual disability to schizophrenia, should be conceptualized as different manifestations of a common underlying denominator, "developmental brain dysfunction," rather than completely independent conditions with distinct causes.

3 Apr 2013

Salk neuroscientist applauds launch of BRAIN Initiative

Salk neuroscientist Terrence J. Sejnowski joined President Barack Obama in Washington, D.C., on April 2, 2013, at the launch of the Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies Initiative-a major Administration neuroscience effort that advances and builds upon collaborative scientific work by leading brain researchers such as Salk's own Sejnowski.

3 Apr 2013

RUB biologists report that vitamin P ensures survival of motor neurons in culture

Biologists from the Ruhr-Universit-t Bochum have explored how to protect neurons that control movements from dying off.

3 Apr 2013

Biogen acquires TYSABRI stake from Elan

Biogen Idec today announced it has completed its purchase of Elan Corporation's interest in TYSABRI (natalizumab) and has gained full strategic, commercial and decision-making rights to TYSABRI.

3 Apr 2013

Obama to announce initiative to map human brain

The New York Times reports that President Barack Obama will unveil a broad new research initiative Tuesday, starting with $100 million next year, to find ways to record and map human brain circuits.

3 Apr 2013

Kavli Foundation applauds launch of new brain research initiative

The Kavli Foundation applauds today's launch by President Obama of his Administration's ambitious research effort to understand the brain by deciphering the brain's activity that gives rise to our perceptions, our experiences and our consciousness.

3 Apr 2013

Researchers to test cyclodextrin for treating Niemann-Pick Type C disease

Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis is playing a leading role in one of the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) first clinical trials to improve treatments for rare and neglected diseases.

3 Apr 2013

Research facilitates development of treatments, cures to Alzheimer's disease

A team of researchers at The New York Stem Cell Foundation Research Institute led by Scott Noggle, PhD, Director of the NYSCF Laboratory and the NYSCF - Charles Evans Senior Research Fellow for Alzheimer's Disease, and Michael W. Nestor, PhD, a NYSCF Postdoctoral Research Fellow, has developed a technique to produce three-dimensional cultures of induced pluripotent stem cells called embryoid bodies, amenable to live cell imaging and to electrical activity measurement.

3 Apr 2013

Image sharing aims to reduce need for repeat scans

Several state and regional health-information exchanges have begun sharing images electronically, and a number of companies sell image-sharing technology directly to hospitals and radiology clinics in a development that could slow health care spending.

3 Apr 2013