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.

Groundbreaking tool helps visualize neuronal activity with near-infrared light

A new, groundbreaking tool for visualizing neural activity has implications for understanding brain functions and disorders, according to new research by University of Alberta scientists and a team of international collaborators.

22 Jan 2019

New approach to reduce toxic protein production in ALS

Patients with ALS frequently have a string of repeated DNA code in the cells of their brain, carrying hundreds to thousands of copies within the gene C9orf72.

22 Jan 2019

Study links concussions to development of epilepsy

Researchers at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC have identified a cellular response in mice to mild traumatic brain injuries that may lead to seizures.

22 Jan 2019

Parents’ mental health problems associated with reactive attachment disorder in children

Children's risk of being diagnosed with reactive attachment disorder (RAD) increases if parents are diagnosed with any type of mental health disorder, discovered researchers from the Research Centre for Child Psychiatry of the University of Turku, Finland.

22 Jan 2019

Scientists have reversed memory loss in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s Disease

Using a new epigenetics-based approach, scientists have managed to reduce memory loss and improve cognitive function in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease.

22 Jan 2019

Erasing memories could reduce relapse rates among drug addicts

Erasing memories that link environmental cues to drug use could represent a potential new treatment for drug addiction and prevent relapse.

22 Jan 2019

Experimental drug can positively modify key characteristic behavior in FXS patients

Researchers at MIND Institute at UC Davis and Rush University Medical Center have found that mavoglurant, an experimental drug known as a mGluR5 negative modulator, can positively modify a key characteristic behavior in individuals with fragile X syndrome.

22 Jan 2019

Early adult general cognitive ability is a stronger predictor of mental capacity later in life

Early adult general cognitive ability (GCA) -- the diverse set of skills involved in thinking, such as reasoning, memory and perception -- is a stronger predictor of cognitive function and reserve later in life than other factors, such as higher education, occupational complexity or engaging in late-life intellectual activities, report researchers in a new study publishing January 21 in PNAS.

22 Jan 2019

Study increases understanding of how the brain distinguishes between self-touch and touch by others

Our brains seem to reduce sensory perception from an area of our skin when we touch it ourselves, according to a new study from Linköping University published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, PNAS.

22 Jan 2019

Mice transmit brain benefits of enriched upbringing to non-enriched offspring

Mice growing up in a basic cage maintain lifelong visual cortex plasticity if their parents were raised in an environment that promoted social interaction and physical and mental stimulation, according to a multigenerational study published in eNeuro.

From Society for Neuroscience 22 Jan 2019

Protein-secreting device implanted in epileptic rats reduces seizures, improves cognition

A protein-secreting device implanted into the hippocampus of epileptic rats reduces seizures by 93 percent in three months, finds preclinical research published in JNeurosci.

From Society for Neuroscience 22 Jan 2019

Researchers identify how concussions may contribute to seizures

Researchers have identified a cellular response to repeated concussions that may contribute to seizures in mice like those observed following traumatic brain injury in humans.

From Society for Neuroscience 21 Jan 2019

Blood marker could aid in early prediction of Alzheimer's progression

Years before symptoms of Alzheimer's disease manifest, the brain starts changing and neurons are slowly degraded. Scientists at the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, the Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research and the University Hospital Tuebingen now show that a protein found in the blood can be used to precisely monitor disease progression long before first clinical signs appear.

21 Jan 2019

Mouse studies challenge 'inhibition' theory of autism

A detailed study of four mouse models of autism challenges the most common assumption about what goes wrong in brain circuits to cause disease symptoms.

21 Jan 2019

Simple blood test reliably detects signs of Alzheimer’s damage before symptoms

A simple blood test reliably detects signs of brain damage in people on the path to developing Alzheimer's disease - even before they show signs of confusion and memory loss, according to a new study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases in Germany.

21 Jan 2019

Unexpected connection found between feeding and memory centers of the brain

The search for a mechanism that could explain how the protein complex NCOR1/2 regulates memory has revealed an unexpected connection between the lateral hypothalamus and the hippocampus, the feeding and the memory centers of the brain, respectively.

21 Jan 2019

Blood test detects brain damage linked to Alzheimer’s years before symptoms develop

Researchers have developed a blood test that can detect signs of brain damage among people who will develop Alzheimer’s years before the onset of memory loss.

21 Jan 2019

Scientists propose quick and pain-free method for diagnosing kidney cancer

Sechenov University together with their German colleagues suggest a new highly sensitive, quick, and pain-free method for diagnosing kidney cancer.

21 Jan 2019

Early studies and recent clinical trials on nerve growth factor

Nerve growth factor has been playing an important role in development of adult neurobiology. This is because of the regulatory functions that it possesses on survival, growth and differentiation of nerve cells in both of the central and peripheral nervous systems.

21 Jan 2019