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.

Muhammad Ali Parkinson Center receives $3M donation from Celebrity Fight Night

The Muhammad Ali Parkinson Center at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix has received a $3 million donation from Celebrity Fight Night that will be used to help dramatically expand the renowned facility and its programs.

3 Jul 2012

Scientists assemble string of genetic letters that could control parrots' vocal learning

Scientists say they have assembled more completely the string of genetic letters that could control how well parrots learn to imitate their owners and other sounds.

3 Jul 2012

Deleting a single gene results in autism-like behavior

Deleting a single gene in the cerebellum of mice can cause key autistic-like symptoms, researchers have found. They also discovered that rapamycin, a commonly used immunosuppressant drug, prevented these symptoms.

2 Jul 2012

USPTO issues notice of allowance to Avanir for NUEDEXTA

Avanir Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced today that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has allowed a new patent that covers Avanir's product NUEDEXTA, further expanding the intellectual property portfolio for the company's lead commercial asset.

2 Jul 2012

ImmunoCellular to expand ICT-107 Phase IIb trial on GBM

ImmunoCellular Therapeutics, Ltd., a clinical stage biotechnology company that is focused on developing new immune-based products to treat cancer, announced today that it will expand its current Phase IIb trial of ICT-107 from 102 to up to 123 patients with glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) and who are HLA-A1/A2 positive.

2 Jul 2012

Potential link between mutant huntingtin, cell loss and cell death in Huntington's disease

Using an in vitro cell model of Huntington's disease (HD), researchers at Florida Atlantic University's Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine have discovered a novel mechanism and potential link between mutant huntingtin, cell loss and cell death or apoptosis in the brain, which is responsible for the devastating effects of this disease. Apoptosis has been proposed as one of the mechanisms leading to neuronal death in HD.

2 Jul 2012

Transcranial direct current stimulation can enhance outcome of swallowing therapy for post-stroke dysphagia

After stroke, patients often suffer from dysphagia, a swallowing disorder that results in greater healthcare costs and higher rates of complications such as dehydration, malnutrition, and pneumonia.

2 Jul 2012

Chronic inflammation can predispose the brain to develop Alzheimer's disease

Research published today in Biomed Central's open access journal Journal of Neuroinflammation suggests that chronic inflammation can predispose the brain to develop Alzheimer's disease.

2 Jul 2012

Early brain changes predict chances of developing chronic pain

When people have similar injuries, why do some end up with chronic pain while others recover and are pain free? The first longitudinal brain imaging study to track participants with a new back injury has found the chronic pain is all in their heads -- quite literally.

2 Jul 2012

Textile cooling pads to prevent neurological damage after successful resuscitation

Textile cooling pads are to be used in future to prevent neurological damage after successful resuscitation. The system developed by scientists from the Hohenstein Institute in Bönnigheim requires no electric power, making it ideal especially for first aid in case of cardiac arrest.

30 Jun 2012

Rapamycin enhances learning and memory in young mice

Cognitive skills such as learning and memory diminish with age in everyone, and the drop-off is steepest in Alzheimer's disease. Texas scientists seeking a way to prevent this decline reported exciting results this week with a drug that has Polynesian roots.

30 Jun 2012

Bees help understand connection between taste perception and metabolic syndromes

Scientists at Arizona State University have discovered that honey bees may teach us about basic connections between taste perception and metabolic disorders in humans. By experimenting with honey bee genetics, researchers have identified connections between sugar sensitivity, diabetic physiology and carbohydrate metabolism. Bees and humans may partially share these connections.

30 Jun 2012

Health system changes move forward

Press reports detail the steps that might happen next in terms of the health law's implementation as well as what the decision might mean for consumers.

30 Jun 2012

Researchers discover new gene mutations associated with megalencephaly

A research team led by Seattle Children's Research Institute has discovered new gene mutations associated with markedly enlarged brain size, or megalencephaly.

30 Jun 2012

Brain activity patterns may aid mental illness diagnosis

The identification of neural activity patterns in response to facial expressions of emotion may help in the diagnoses of mental illness, say researchers.

29 Jun 2012

FOXO1 gene may play an important role in pathological mechanisms of Parkinson's

A recent study led by researchers at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) revealed that the FOXO1 gene may play an important role in the pathological mechanisms of Parkinson's disease.

29 Jun 2012

More than 40,000 student athletes in Arizona receive Mayo Clinic baseline concussion testing

More than 40,000 student athletes in Arizona have taken advantage of computerized baseline concussion evaluations offered by Mayo Clinic in the program's first year. That amounts to nearly 40 percent of the state's roughly 100,000 high school athletes. Baseline concussion evaluations measure how the brain is working before injury, and are mandatory tests for professional and college athletes.

29 Jun 2012

Scientists successfully tag serotonin transporter to track movements of single molecules

In a process akin to belling an infinitesimal cat, scientists have managed to tag a protein that regulates the neurotransmitter serotonin with tiny fluorescent beads, allowing them to track the movements of single molecules for the first time.

29 Jun 2012

Researchers develop first real-time, brain-scanning speller

Researchers have come up with a device that may enable people who are completely unable to speak or move at all to nevertheless manage unscripted back-and-forth conversation. The key to such silent and still communication is the first real-time, brain-scanning speller, according to the report published online on June 28 in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication.

29 Jun 2012

Blindsight in monkeys is available in everyday environments

The visual information from eyes is sent into the brain unconsciously even if you are not aware. One of examples of unconscious seeing is a phenomenon of "blindsight" [Subjects have no awareness, but their brains can see] in subjects with visual impairment, caused by the damage of a part of the brain called the visual cortex.

29 Jun 2012