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.

Special input pathway may hold the key to coding sensory information in the cerebellum

As we go about our daily lives, we are constantly bombarded by a steady stream of sensory information. Take a typical morning routine for example- roused from sleep by a shrill alarm, the strong aroma of freshly brewed coffee, and the brake lights and traffic horns of rush hour. In the course of a single day, we experience thousands of different cues across all senses.

28 Mar 2019

Portable mini microscope could improve scientists' ability to study brain disease in living mice

Working with mice, a team of Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers has developed a relatively inexpensive, portable mini microscope that could improve scientists' ability to image the effects of cancer, stroke, Alzheimer's disease and other conditions in the brains of living and active mice over time.

28 Mar 2019

Purdue engineers develop tiny glutamate sensors for spinal cord injuries

Your chances of getting a nasty migraine increase following a spinal cord injury, thanks to a chemical messenger in the brain that spikes to toxic levels, past studies have suggested.

28 Mar 2019

Marijuana use during pregnancy may increase psychosis risk in offspring

Pregnant women who use cannabis may slightly increase the risk their unborn child will develop psychosis later in life, suggests new research from Washington University in St. Louis.

28 Mar 2019

Researchers develop new technology to mass produce cerebral cortex neurons

Korea Brain Research Institute (KBRI, President Pann Ghill Suh) announced on Mar. 4 that its research team led by principal researcher Yoichi Kosodo developed a technology to mass produce cerebral cortex neurons utilizing Induced pluripotent Stem Cells.

28 Mar 2019

Study: Lack of physician guidance and fear of side effects are reasons for refusing statins

Despite national guidelines indicating that statins can lower risk of heart attack and stroke, many patients who could benefit do not take them.

28 Mar 2019

Study sheds light on why some people hear 'hear' silent flashes or movement

A synaesthesia-like effect in which people 'hear' silent flashes or movement, such as in popular 'noisy GIFs' and memes, could be due to a reduction of inhibition of signals that travel between visual and auditory areas of the brain, according to a new study led by researchers at City, University of London.

28 Mar 2019

Scientists untangle the brain's life-support network

The portion of the brain known as the hypothalamus is small but mighty -- it controls fundamental behaviors and physiology that are essential for survival.

27 Mar 2019

Researchers discover underlying cause of hereditary muscle disease

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have discovered the underlying cause of a hereditary muscle disease first characterised in a Swedish family in 1980. It proves to be the first identified disease caused by defective myoglobin, the protein that transports oxygen in muscle cells.

27 Mar 2019

Synthetic alcohol substitute could make hangovers a thing of the past

Professor David Nutt is aiming to make hangovers a thing of the past by introducing a synthetic alcohol alternative named "alcosynth".

27 Mar 2019

Scientific breakthrough could lead to safer bioelectronics

Not only does melanin color our skin, hair, and protect us from sun damage, it could also be used to build electronic, bionic implants.

27 Mar 2019

Study explores how a hallucinogenic drug impacts the brains of mice

While there is increasing interest in using hallucinogenic drugs to treat conditions like depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, scientists are just beginning to understand what these drugs actually do in the brain—and how they cause hallucinations.

27 Mar 2019

Health risks linked with cocktail of man-made chemicals are overlooked

The cocktail of man-made chemicals that we are exposed to daily is a health risk which current regulations and risk assessment overlook. This is the conclusion of the EU Horizon 2020 EDC-MixRisk project that is now being presented.

27 Mar 2019

Using connectomics to gain insight into epilepsy

Abnormalities in structural brain networks and how brain regions communicate may underlie a variety of disorders, including epilepsy, which is one focus of a two-part Special Issue on the Brain Connectome in Brain Connectivity, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers.

27 Mar 2019

Researchers study how the auditory system achieves accurate speech recognition

For humans to achieve accurate speech recognition and communicate with one another, the auditory system must recognize distinct categories of sounds - such as words - from a continuous incoming stream of sounds.

27 Mar 2019

Study uncovers large-scale brain patterns and networks that control sleep

An international study headed by researchers from Aarhus University has for the first time uncovered the large-scale brain patterns and networks which control sleep, providing knowledge which in the future may help the large proportion of people who experience problems sleeping.

27 Mar 2019

Researchers identify brain region that helps execute cooperative tasks

Researchers identify a part of the brain that helps execute cooperative tasks.

27 Mar 2019

FDA approves new drug to treat adults with relapsing forms of MS

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved Mayzent (siponimod) tablets to treat adults with relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis (MS), to include clinically isolated syndrome, relapsing-remitting disease, and active secondary progressive disease.

27 Mar 2019

New rules will ease patients’ access to electronic medical records, Senate panel says

The chairman of the Senate health committee on Tuesday backed new federal regulations to remove roadblocks patients can face in obtaining copies of their electronic medical records.

27 Mar 2019

Discovery could lead to new drugs for pain conditions

If a particular protein is missing during the fetal stage, no neurons develop that convey pain, temperature and itch, a study from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden published in the journal Cell Reports shows. The discovery can eventually lead to new drugs for pain conditions.

27 Mar 2019