Thalamus News and Research RSS Feed - Thalamus News and Research

The Thalamus is an area of the brain that helps process information from the senses and transmit it to other parts of the brain.
Restless legs syndrome and insomnia: a possible explanation

Restless legs syndrome and insomnia: a possible explanation

Johns Hopkins researchers believe they may have discovered an explanation for the sleepless nights associated with restless legs syndrome (RLS), a symptom that persists even when the disruptive, overwhelming nocturnal urge to move the legs is treated successfully with medication. [More]
NeuroSigma receives Class 2 medical device license for Monarch eTNS System from Health Canada

NeuroSigma receives Class 2 medical device license for Monarch eTNS System from Health Canada

NeuroSigma, Inc., a California-based medical device company, today announced that it has received a Class 2 medical device license for its Monarch eTNS (external trigeminal nerve stimulation) System from Health Canada. [More]
Study: Atrophy in an important area of brain predicts multiple sclerosis

Study: Atrophy in an important area of brain predicts multiple sclerosis

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) measurements of atrophy in an important area of the brain are an accurate predictor of multiple sclerosis (MS), according to a new study published online in the journal Radiology. [More]

Brains of different people respond in same way to music, Stanford study says

Do the brains of different people listening to the same piece of music actually respond in the same way? An imaging study by Stanford University School of Medicine scientists says the answer is yes, which may in part explain why music plays such a big role in our social existence. [More]
Atrophy of thalamus is important predictor of clinically definite MS, study shows

Atrophy of thalamus is important predictor of clinically definite MS, study shows

A growing body of research by multiple sclerosis investigators at the University at Buffalo and international partners is providing powerful new evidence that the brain's gray matter reflects important changes in the disease that could allow clinicians to diagnose earlier and to better monitor and predict how the disease will progress. [More]

Biomedical professor details research progress toward reading, writing neural code

Despite many remarkable discoveries in the field of neuroscience during the past several decades, researchers have not been able to fully crack the brain's "neural code." [More]
Study: Multiple sclerosis patients with cognitive problems have more brain damage

Study: Multiple sclerosis patients with cognitive problems have more brain damage

People with multiple sclerosis who have cognitive problems, or problems with memory, attention, and concentration, have more damage to areas of the brain involved in cognitive processes than people with MS who do not have cognitive problems, according to a study published in the March 6, 2013, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. [More]

Researchers identify distinctive brain patterns associated with general anesthesia drug

Since the mid-1800s, doctors have used drugs to induce general anesthesia in patients undergoing surgery. [More]
Mindfulness practitioners gain enhanced control over sensory cortical alpha rhythms

Mindfulness practitioners gain enhanced control over sensory cortical alpha rhythms

Why does training in mindfulness meditation help patients manage chronic pain and depression? In a newly published neurophysiological review, Brown University scientists propose that mindfulness practitioners gain enhanced control over sensory cortical alpha rhythms that help regulate how the brain processes and filters sensations, including pain, and memories such as depressive cognitions. [More]

Menopausal brain changes support estrogen’s protective role in schizophrenia

Researchers have found morphological differences between pre- and postmenopausal women with schizophrenia that support a protective role for estrogen in the psychiatric disorder. [More]

NeuroSigma receives third NIH grant to develop subcutaneous trigeminal nerve stimulation for DRE

NeuroSigma, Inc., a California-based medical device company, today announced it received a Notice of Award, for a Fast Track Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant, from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). [More]
Study investigates prolonged pathological outcomes of traumatic brain injury

Study investigates prolonged pathological outcomes of traumatic brain injury

Researchers from the University of South Florida and colleagues at the James A. Haley Veterans' Hospital studying the long-term consequences of traumatic brain injury using rat models, have found that, overtime, TBI results in progressive brain deterioration characterized by elevated inflammation and suppressed cell regeneration. [More]
New insights into devastating second impact syndrome

New insights into devastating second impact syndrome

Physicians at Indiana University School of Medicine and the Northwest Radiology Network (Indianapolis, Indiana) report the case of a 17-year-old high school football player with second impact syndrome (SIS). A rare and devastating traumatic brain injury, SIS occurs when a person, most often a teenager, sustains a second head injury before recovery from an earlier head injury is complete. [More]

Bipolar subtypes show neurobiologic differences

Results from a Taiwanese study show that there are significant neurobiologic differences between patients with bipolar I and II disorder. [More]

Brain structure linked to neuropsychopathology in psychosis patients

Results from an Italian study show that the structural development of key brain regions is associated with neuropsychopathology in patients with first-episode schizophrenia. [More]

Brain scans could help scientists uncover mechanisms underlying mental fatigue

We all perhaps know the feeling of mental exhaustion, but what does it mean physiologically to have mental fatigue? A new study carried out using brain scans could help scientists uncover the neurobiological mechanisms underlying mental fatigue. [More]

Long-term hippocampal DBS effectively reduces seizures in experimental models

The results of the first reported study of deep brain stimulation (DBS) in an animal model for temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) presented today at the American Epilepsy Society (AES) 66th Annual Meeting suggests that DBS may have potential as therapy for this common and often difficult to treat form of epilepsy. [More]

People with Parkinson's benefit from exercise programs on stationary bicycles

People with Parkinson's disease benefit from exercise programs on stationary bicycles, with the greatest effect for those who pedal faster, according to a study presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). [More]

Max Planck Institute develops neural event-triggered functional magnetic resonance imaging

While in deep dreamless sleep, our hippocampus sends messages to our cortex and changes its plasticity, possibly transferring recently acquired knowledge to long-term memory. But how exactly is this done? Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics have now developed a novel multimodal methodology called "neural event-triggered functional magnetic resonance imaging" (NET-fMRI) and presented the very first results obtained using it in experiments with both anesthetized and awake, behaving monkeys. [More]

Study sheds light on how neural ensembles form thoughts

One of the biggest puzzles in neuroscience is how our brains encode thoughts, such as perceptions and memories, at the cellular level. Some evidence suggests that ensembles of neurons represent each unique piece of information, but no one knows just what these ensembles look like, or how they form. [More]