Cortex News and Research

RSS

Johns Hopkins engineers successfully use mind-controlled prosthetic arm to control movements of fingers

Physicians and biomedical engineers from Johns Hopkins report what they believe is the first successful effort to wiggle fingers individually and independently of each other using a mind-controlled artificial "arm" to control the movement.

16 Feb 2016

Scientists discover role of nucleocytoplasmic transport in specific forms of ALS and FTD

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD) are two devastating adult-onset neurodegenerative disorders.

15 Feb 2016

Starting marijuana at younger age may hinder brain development

The age at which an adolescent begins using marijuana may affect typical brain development, according to researchers at the Center for BrainHealth at The University of Texas at Dallas. In a paper recently published in Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, scientists describe how marijuana use, and the age at which use is initiated, may adversely alter brain structures that underlie higher order thinking.

11 Feb 2016

Researchers devise lipid-based diets to relieve symptoms of Alzheimer's disease

Alzheimer´s disease (AD) is the most common disease underlying memory problems and dementia in the elderly. One of the invariable pathologies in AD is degeneration of cholinergic synapses in brain cortex and hippocampus.

11 Feb 2016

Patients with COPD show decreased gray matter volume in certain areas of the brain

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), a condition impacting nearly 24 million Americans, is often associated with disease-specific fears and avoidance of physical activity. Little is known of the structural brain processes that occur in COPD patients. A study published in the February issue of the journal CHEST found that patients with COPD demonstrated gray matter decreases in areas of the brain that process breathlessness, fear and sensitivity to pain.

9 Feb 2016

Vienna researchers investigate new light therapy treatment for people with migraines

Migraines often involve heightened sensitivity to light. In a project funded by the Austrian Science Fund FWF, a team of researchers from the Medical University of Vienna is investigating new therapies to treat light sensitivity, which greatly disturbs those affected.

9 Feb 2016

Bone loss linked with ALL therapy occurs during first month of treatment

Investigators at Children's Hospital Los Angeles have found that significant bone loss - a side effect of chemotherapy for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) - occurs during the first month of treatment, far earlier than previously assumed. Results of the study will be available online February 4, in advance of publication in the journal Bone.

5 Feb 2016

Novel non-invasive method of vagus nerve stimulation reduces depressive symptoms

Researchers of a new study published in the current issue of Biological Psychiatry report successful reduction of depressive symptoms in patients using a novel non-invasive method of vagus nerve stimulation, or VNS.

5 Feb 2016

Study provides window into the brain changes that link mindfulness meditation with health-related benefits

Over the past decade, mindfulness meditation has been shown to improve a broad range of health and disease outcomes, such as slowing HIV progression and improving healthy aging. Yet, little is known about the brain changes that produce these beneficial health effects.

5 Feb 2016

People with traumatic brain injuries may have buildup of plaques related to Alzheimer's disease

A new study suggests that people with brain injuries following head trauma may have buildup of the plaques related to Alzheimer's disease in their brains. The research is published in the February 3, 2016, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

4 Feb 2016

CMU joins $12 million research project to reverse-engineer the brain's secret algorithms

Carnegie Mellon University is embarking on a five-year, $12 million research effort to reverse-engineer the brain, seeking to unlock the secrets of neural circuitry and the brain's learning methods. Researchers will use these insights to make computers think more like humans.

4 Feb 2016

New study lays foundation for future gene replacement therapies to treat ALS patients

Scientists have demonstrated for the first time that it is possible to specifically modify gene expression in diseased upper motor neurons, brain cells that break down in ALS.

1 Feb 2016

Research offers novel insights into root causes of schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a mysterious and devastating disorder that afflicts one percent of the adult population worldwide. Its symptoms — hallucinations, emotional withdrawal, and cognitive impairment — are chronic and typically emerge just as individuals are entering adulthood. Today's medications treat just one of these symptoms (psychosis); treatments for the underlying disease and its many other symptoms have been hard to develop, because no one really understands what causes the disorder.

31 Jan 2016

Human brain uses several frequency channels for communication

In the brain, the visual cortex processes visual information and passes it from lower to higher areas of the brain. However, information also flows in the opposite direction, e.g. to direct attention to particular stimuli. But how does the brain know which path the information should take? Researchers at the Ernst Strüngmann Institute for Neuroscience in Frankfurt in Cooperation with Max Planck Society have now demonstrated that the visual cortex of human subjects uses different frequency channels depending on the direction in which information is being transported.

31 Jan 2016

Unobtrusive patch on the forehead provides relief from PTSD

An average of 30 years had passed since the traumatic events that had left them depressed, anxious, irritable, hypervigilant, unable to sleep well and prone to nightmares.

30 Jan 2016

Certain viral infections during pregnancy could cause behavioral changes in offspring

A study published in the journal Science found that activation in pregnant mice of a particular immune response, similar to what may occur with certain viral infections during pregnancy, alters the brain structure of the mouse offspring and causes behavioral changes, reminiscent of those observed in humans with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

30 Jan 2016

Brain's natural plasticity could compensate for inner ear damage

Researchers from Massachusetts Eye and Ear/Harvard Medical School have described, for the first time, the adult brain's ability to compensate for a near-complete loss of auditory nerve fibers that link the ear to the brain. The findings, published in the current issue of Neuron, suggest that the brain's natural plasticity can compensate for inner ear damage to bring sound detection abilities back within normal limits; however, it does not recover speech intelligibility.

29 Jan 2016

Immune signaling molecule in infected mothers linked to behavioral abnormalities in offspring

In 2010, a large study in Denmark found that women who suffered an infection severe enough to require hospitalization while pregnant were much more likely to have a child with autism (even though the overall risk of delivering a child with autism remained low).

29 Jan 2016

Higher-order thalamus enhances and temporarily stores sensory signals

Every day, we constantly absorb information through our sensory organs, which the brain then needs to process correctly. The information initially reaches the main relay center, the thalamus, and then travels to the cerebral cortex.

22 Jan 2016

New brain imaging technique may help identify children at risk of developing depression

A new brain imaging study from MIT and Harvard Medical School may lead to a screen that could identify children at high risk of developing depression later in life.

22 Jan 2016

Cortex News and Research

Johns Hopkins engineers successfully use mind-controlled prosthetic arm to control movements of fingers

Scientists discover role of nucleocytoplasmic transport in specific forms of ALS and FTD

Starting marijuana at younger age may hinder brain development

Researchers devise lipid-based diets to relieve symptoms of Alzheimer's disease

Patients with COPD show decreased gray matter volume in certain areas of the brain

Vienna researchers investigate new light therapy treatment for people with migraines

Bone loss linked with ALL therapy occurs during first month of treatment

Novel non-invasive method of vagus nerve stimulation reduces depressive symptoms

Study provides window into the brain changes that link mindfulness meditation with health-related benefits

People with traumatic brain injuries may have buildup of plaques related to Alzheimer's disease

CMU joins $12 million research project to reverse-engineer the brain's secret algorithms

New study lays foundation for future gene replacement therapies to treat ALS patients

Research offers novel insights into root causes of schizophrenia

Human brain uses several frequency channels for communication

Unobtrusive patch on the forehead provides relief from PTSD

Certain viral infections during pregnancy could cause behavioral changes in offspring

Brain's natural plasticity could compensate for inner ear damage

Immune signaling molecule in infected mothers linked to behavioral abnormalities in offspring

Higher-order thalamus enhances and temporarily stores sensory signals

New brain imaging technique may help identify children at risk of developing depression

Improving healthcare sustainability through carbon data

Managing vibration in IVF laboratories

A New Approach to Preventing Bladder Cancer Recurrence

Latest News