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.

Study finds neuromelanin-sensitive MRI as potential biomarker for psychosis

Researchers have shown that a type of magnetic resonance imaging -- called neuromelanin-sensitive MRI is a potential biomarker for psychosis.

18 Feb 2019

New protocol could help physicians to rule out bacterial infections in infants

A new protocol could help emergency room physicians to rule out life-threatening bacterial infections among infants up to 2 months of age who have fevers, potentially eliminating the need for spinal taps, unnecessary antibiotic treatments or expensive hospital stays.

18 Feb 2019

Researchers report progress in the treatment of aggressive brain tumors

Cancer researchers at the University of Bonn have reported significant progress in the treatment of glioblastoma. About one third of all patients suffer from a particular variant of this most common and aggressive brain tumor.

18 Feb 2019

Hormone therapy during gender transition may increase risk for cardiovascular events

Patients receiving hormone therapy as part of their gender-transition treatment had an elevated risk for cardiovascular events, including strokes, heart attacks and blood clots, according to a study published in the American Heart Association's journal Circulation.

18 Feb 2019

Heavy smoking could lead to vision loss, study finds

Smoking more than 20 cigarettes a day can damage your vision, a study co-authored by a Rutgers researcher finds.

18 Feb 2019

Activating gene that helps excite neurons reverses depression in male mice

Directly activating a gene important to exciting our excitatory neurons and associated with major depression may help turn around classic symptoms like social isolation and loss of interest, at least for males, scientists report.

18 Feb 2019

KU professor discusses promise of brain-computer interface to aid, restore communication

Brain-computer interfaces promise to restore communication for individuals with severe speech and physical impairments. Current brain computer interfaces share many features of high-tech, conventional augmentative and alternative communication systems, but via direct brain link.

17 Feb 2019

Columbia researchers unravel why some glioblastomas respond to immunotherapy

Columbia researchers have learned why some glioblastomas--the most common type of brain cancer--respond to immunotherapy. The findings could help identify patients who are most likely to benefit from treatment with immunotherapy drugs and lead to the development of more broadly effective treatments.

17 Feb 2019

UVA scientists find potential explanation for mysterious cell death in Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s

Scientists at the University of Virginia School of Medicine have identified a potential explanation for the mysterious death of specific brain cells seen in Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and other neurodegenerative diseases.

15 Feb 2019

Scientists implicate hidden genes in the severity of autism symptoms

Scientists at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus have implicated a largely hidden part of the human genome in the severity of autism symptoms, a discovery that could lead to new insights into the disorder and eventually to clinical therapies for the condition.

15 Feb 2019

New method for improved visualization of single-cell RNA- sequencing data

Like going from a pinhole camera to a Polaroid, a significant mathematical update to the formula for a popular bioinformatics data visualization method will allow researchers to develop snapshots of single-cell gene expression not only several times faster but also at much higher-resolution.

15 Feb 2019

Newly developed stem cell technologies show promise for treating PD patients

Cell replacement may play an increasing role in alleviating the motor symptoms of Parkinson's disease (PD) in future. Writing in a special supplement to the Journal of Parkinson's Disease, experts describe how newly developed stem cell technologies could be used to treat the disease and discuss the great promise, as well as the significant challenges, of stem cell treatment.

15 Feb 2019

Brain synchronization depends on the language of communication

Experts from the Basque research center BCBL have shown for the first time that the way in which the activity of two brains is connected depends on whether the dialogue takes place in the native language or in a foreign language.

15 Feb 2019

New therapeutic molecules show promise in reversing memory loss related to depression, aging

New therapeutic molecules developed at Toronto's Centre for Addiction and Mental Health show promise in reversing the memory loss linked to depression and aging.

15 Feb 2019

Blood-brain barrier disruption could lead to age-related cognitive decline

As our brains age, we become more forgetful, more tired and less able to do the cognitive gymnastics of our youth.

15 Feb 2019

Study: General anesthesia in early infancy unlikely to have lasting effects on developing brains

A single hour of general anesthesia in early infancy—longer than is necessary to perform the most common types of minor surgeries in childhood—does not result in measurable neurodevelopmental or behavioral problems up to the age of 5 years, according to the first randomized trial of its kind involving 722 infants in seven countries, published in The Lancet.

15 Feb 2019

Lifetime adversity, increased neural processing during trauma combine to intensify core PTSD symptoms

Lifetime adversity and increased neural processing during a traumatic event combine to increase the frequency of intrusive traumatic memories and the distress they cause, according to a new study in Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging.

14 Feb 2019

Social threat learning has a strong effect on our decision-making

Learning what is dangerous by watching a video or being told (known as social learning) has just as strong an effect on our decision-making as first-hand experience of danger, researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden report.

14 Feb 2019

Researchers identify brain pathways of aversion

What happens in the brain when we feel discomfort? Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden are now one step closer to finding the answer. In a new study published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry they identify which pathways in the mouse brain control behavior associated with aversion.

14 Feb 2019

Cholesterol-lowering drugs could help prevent onset of motor neurone disease

High cholesterol has been found to be a possible risk factor for the development of motor neurone disease, according to a large study of genetic data led in the UK by Queen Mary University of London, in collaboration with the National Institutes of Health in the USA.

14 Feb 2019