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Reading can boost brain function, finds neuroscience research

Many people can recall reading at least one cherished story that they say changed their life. Now researchers at Emory University have detected what may be biological traces related to this feeling: Actual changes in the brain that linger, at least for a few days, after reading a novel.

5 Jan 2014

Study explains how brain training improves performance on a given task

Search for "brain training" on the Web. You'll find online exercises, games, software, even apps, all designed to prepare your brain to do better on any number of tasks. Do they work? University of Oregon psychologists say, yes, but "there's a catch."

3 Jan 2014

Kinect-based virtual reality training boosts functional recovery of upper limbs after subacute stroke

The Kinect-based virtual reality system for the Xbox 360 enables users to control and interact with the game console without the need to touch a game controller, and provides rehabilitation training for stroke patients with lower limb dysfunctions.

27 Dec 2013

Schizophrenia brain marker matches genetic risk

Polygenic risk for schizophrenia correlates with neural inefficiency in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, say researchers.

24 Dec 2013

Humans with high motor excitability have better working memory

Humans with a high motor excitability have a better working memory than humans with a low excitability. This was shown in a study conducted by scientists from the Transfacultary Research Platform at the University of Basel. By measuring the motor excitability, conclusions can be drawn as to the general cortical excitability - as well as to cognitive performance.

23 Dec 2013

CUMC researchers clarify three fundamental issues about Alzheimer's disease

Using high-resolution functional MRI imaging in patients with Alzheimer's disease and in mouse models of the disease, Columbia University Medical Center researchers have clarified three fundamental issues about Alzheimer's: where it starts, why it starts there, and how it spreads. In addition to advancing understanding of Alzheimer's, the findings could improve early detection of the disease, when drugs may be most effective.

22 Dec 2013

Newly-discovered selective process may explain why brain function does not deteriorate

As we grow older, our brains undergo a major reorganisation reducing the connections in the brain. Studying people up to the age of 40, scientists led by Dr Marcus Kaiser and Ms Sol Lim at Newcastle University found that while overall connections in the brain get streamlined, long-distance connections that are crucial for integrating information are preserved.

20 Dec 2013

Coupling meditation-like practices with drug and behavior therapies more helpful in tackling addiction

Using a computational model of addiction, a literature review and an in silico experiment, theoretical computer scientist Yariv Levy and colleagues suggest in a new paper this week that rehabilitation strategies coupling meditation-like practices with drug and behavior therapies are more helpful than drug-plus-talk therapy alone when helping people overcome addiction.

20 Dec 2013

Parkinson's disease patients may find difficulties in recognizing emotions

Patients affected by Parkinson's disease may experience, in addition to the more obvious motor symptoms (such as tremors and stiffness), difficulties recognizing emotions in the facial expressions and speech prosody (intonation) of other people. A number of investigations have shown that even deep brain stimulation, a treatment that has become widely used in recent years, may cause similar disorders.

20 Dec 2013

Neurocognitive abnormalities ‘fundamental’ to schizophrenia

Rare copy-number variants that confer a high risk for schizophrenia or autism are associated with impaired cognition in carriers without psychiatric disorders, researchers report in Nature.

19 Dec 2013

Study investigates about emotions that affects patients with Parkinson's disease

Is it the disease itself or the treatment that impairs the perception of emotions? A study conducted with the collaboration of the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA) of Trieste investigates the origins of the difficulty recognizing certain emotions that affects patients with Parkinson's disease.

19 Dec 2013

Brain's primary cortex generates efficiently compressed sensory information

Ten million bits - that's the information volume transmitted every second with every quick eye movement from the eye to the cerebrum. Researchers from the Ruhr-Universit-t Bochum (RUB) and the University of Osnabr-ck describe the way those data are processed by the primary visual cortex, the entry point for the visual information into the brain, in the journal "Cerebral Cortex".

18 Dec 2013

DCC gene involved in adolescent brain development may play a role in mental health vulnerability

As many parents of mentally ill adults will confirm anecdotally, the first symptoms of "something not quite right" with their children begin to appear during the teen years. It is known that during this teenaged phase of brain development, adolescents are particularly vulnerable to psychiatric disorders, including schizophrenia, depression and drug addiction.

17 Dec 2013

Diabetes blamed for brain neurochemical abnormalities in bipolar disorder

Diabetes may underlie some of the neurochemical abnormalities observed in the brains of patients with bipolar disorder, say researchers.

17 Dec 2013

Drug abuse appears to foster brain changes that resemble schizophrenia

Teens who were heavy marijuana users -- smoking it daily for about three years -- had abnormal changes in their brain structures related to working memory and performed poorly on memory tasks, reports a new Northwestern Medicine- study.

16 Dec 2013

Neuroscientists use new technique to enhance a form of self-control through brain stimulation

If you have ever said or done the wrong thing at the wrong time, you should read this. Neuroscientists at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston and the University of California, San Diego, have successfully demonstrated a technique to enhance a form of self-control through a novel form of brain stimulation.

14 Dec 2013

Study: Brain blood vessel cells may be therapeutic targets for Alzheimer's disease

A study in mice shows how a breakdown of the brain's blood vessels may amplify or cause problems associated with Alzheimer's disease. The results published in Nature Communications suggest that blood vessel cells called pericytes may provide novel targets for treatments and diagnoses.

14 Dec 2013

Adolescent brain remodeling goes awry in schizophrenia

A crucial reorganization process that occurs in the adolescent brain may be disturbed in those who go on to develop schizophrenia, a study suggests.

12 Dec 2013

Researchers discover new mechanism in brain which controls tics in children with TS

A mechanism in the brain which controls tics in children with Tourette Syndrome (TS) has been discovered by scientists at The University of Nottingham.

12 Dec 2013

Elevated BACE1 activity in mild cognitive impairment could be early indicator of AD, says study

The critical enzyme beta-secretase1 (BACE1) is known to be elevated in brains with sporadic Alzheimer disease (AD). Scientists have now found increased levels of BACE1 in brains with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), suggesting that BACE1 activity is important for conversion of mild cognitive impairment to AD and may be an early indicator of AD.

12 Dec 2013

Cortex News and Research

Reading can boost brain function, finds neuroscience research

Study explains how brain training improves performance on a given task

Kinect-based virtual reality training boosts functional recovery of upper limbs after subacute stroke

Schizophrenia brain marker matches genetic risk

Humans with high motor excitability have better working memory

CUMC researchers clarify three fundamental issues about Alzheimer's disease

Newly-discovered selective process may explain why brain function does not deteriorate

Coupling meditation-like practices with drug and behavior therapies more helpful in tackling addiction

Parkinson's disease patients may find difficulties in recognizing emotions

Neurocognitive abnormalities ‘fundamental’ to schizophrenia

Study investigates about emotions that affects patients with Parkinson's disease

Brain's primary cortex generates efficiently compressed sensory information

DCC gene involved in adolescent brain development may play a role in mental health vulnerability

Diabetes blamed for brain neurochemical abnormalities in bipolar disorder

Drug abuse appears to foster brain changes that resemble schizophrenia

Neuroscientists use new technique to enhance a form of self-control through brain stimulation

Study: Brain blood vessel cells may be therapeutic targets for Alzheimer's disease

Adolescent brain remodeling goes awry in schizophrenia

Researchers discover new mechanism in brain which controls tics in children with TS

Elevated BACE1 activity in mild cognitive impairment could be early indicator of AD, says study

Improving healthcare sustainability through carbon data

Managing vibration in IVF laboratories

A New Approach to Preventing Bladder Cancer Recurrence

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