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.

Electrical stimulation may help bring back the voice of stroke patients

A Virginia Tech College of Engineering researcher is seeking a new way to help those who are unable to speak to find their voice. But this isn't "The King's Speech," the Academy Award-winning film about a British royal undergoing speech therapy to battle a stammer. Instead, Alexander Leonessa wants to help bring back the voice of stroke patients and others who have suffered paralysis of the vocal folds, through electrical stimulation.

4 Mar 2011

New study finds liver instead of the brain as source of Alzheimer’s plaques

Unexpected results from a Scripps Research Institute and ModGene, LLC study could completely alter scientists' ideas about Alzheimer's disease—pointing to the liver instead of the brain as the source of the "amyloid" that deposits as brain plaques associated with this devastating condition. The findings could offer a relatively simple approach for Alzheimer's prevention and treatment.

4 Mar 2011

New brain training app can help prevent cognitive decline and dementia

Researchers at Queen's University Belfast are taking the first step towards discovering the true effectiveness of brain training exercises with the release of their own app aimed at those over 50.

4 Mar 2011

Researchers demonstrate potential neurochemical mechanism of weight loss

An interdisciplinary group of researchers at the University of Pennsylvania has, for the first time, identified the neurological and cellular signaling mechanisms that contribute to satiety - the sensation of feeling full - and the subsequent body-weight loss produced by drugs used to treat type 2 diabetes. More comprehensive knowledge of these mechanisms could form the basis for anti-obesity medications.

4 Mar 2011

Lactate plays critical role in formation of long-term memory

Researchers from Mount Sinai School of Medicine have found that lactate, a type of energy fuel in the brain, plays a critical role in the formation of long-term memory. These findings have important implications for common illnesses like Alzheimer's disease, other neurodegenerative disorders, aging-related memory impairment and diabetes. The research is published in the March 4th issue of the journal Cell.

4 Mar 2011

Special issue highlights need for specialist evaluation, conservative treatment of infants with DP

In the two decades since the start of "Back to Sleep" campaign, doctors and surgeons have seen a surge in the number of infants with position-related head deformities called deformational plagiocephaly.

4 Mar 2011

Exercise can reduce cannabis use in persons who don't want to stop

Vanderbilt researchers are studying heavy users of marijuana to help understand what exercise does for the brain, contributing to a field of research that uses exercise as a modality for prevention and treatment.

4 Mar 2011

Efficiency of brain function depends on family's genetic makeup

How well our brain functions is largely based on our family's genetic makeup, according to a University of Melbourne led study.

4 Mar 2011

Neuropathologist receives AAN Potamkin Prize for Alzheimer's disease research

The American Academy of Neurology has awarded the 2011 Potamkin Prize to Dennis Dickson, M.D., a neuropathologist at Mayo Clinic in Florida and the Robert E. Jacoby Professor for Alzheimer's Disease Research.

3 Mar 2011

Baby frozen to correct brain damage at birth makes full recovery

Baby Ella was born starved of oxygen but doctors cooled her body for three days to reduce brain damage. She made a complete recovery. After birth Ella was wrapped in a special blanket filled with fluid which cooled her whole body down from the normal 37°c to 33.5°c by doctors at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge.

3 Mar 2011

New study provides fascinating insight into genetic basis of bipolar disorder

A new study provides fascinating insight into the genetic basis of bipolar disorder, a highly heritable mood disorder characterized by recurrent episodes of mania and depression.

3 Mar 2011

Eisai receives FDA approval for BANZEL Oral Suspension to treat seizures linked with LGS

Eisai Inc. today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved BANZEL Oral Suspension, 40 mg/mL, for the adjunctive treatment of seizures associated with Lennox-Gastaut syndrome in children 4 years and older and adults.

3 Mar 2011

Genetics and cancer research

The 20th century was dominated by breakthroughs in physics and chemistry, but the 21st century will belong to genetics and biotechnology. Cancer research is just one area among many that is being transformed by the sequencing of the human genome. This was one of the topics discussed in our recent panel with leading cancer researchers, part of our Breakthroughs: Cancer series.

3 Mar 2011

Drugs Council says alcohol fundraisers at schools must stop

The Australian National Council on Drugs called for an end to “wine drives” and alcohol fundraisers at schools. The Federal Government peak advisory body on drug use has warned schools in an open letter by chairman Dr John Herron that selling wine to parents to raise funds may be sending the wrong message to students.

3 Mar 2011

New discovery in glioma-associated metabolic changes

Metabolon, Inc., the leader in metabolomics, biomarker discovery and analysis, announces the publication of "Profiling the effects of isocitrate dehydrogenase 1 and 2 mutations on the cellular metabolome", in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

3 Mar 2011

iCAD to showcase its cancer diagnostic imaging products at ECR annual meeting

iCAD, Inc., an industry-leading provider of advanced image analysis, workflow solutions and radiation therapies for the early identification and treatment of cancer, announces its featured products at the European Society of Radiology's annual meeting being held in Vienna, Austria from March 3 - 7, 2011.

3 Mar 2011

New study examines boxing injuries among children and adolescents from 1990 to 2008

The risk and nature of injury in the sport of boxing has generated a great deal of controversy in the medical community, especially in relation to youth boxing. A new study, conducted by researchers in the Center for Injury Research and Policy of The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital, examined boxing injuries among participants 6 years of age and older from 1990 to 2008.

3 Mar 2011

Rates of cerebral palsy decline among children born prematurely

Cerebral palsy is a neurodevelopmental condition that affects motor function, more often in children born prematurely. Because cerebral palsy is a result of brain injury received shortly before, during, or soon after birth, the number of infants being diagnosed with the condition is a good indicator of the quality of perinatal and neonatal care. An article soon to be published in The Journal of Pediatrics indicates that the rates of cerebral palsy have declined dramatically in the past 15 years.

3 Mar 2011

Study demonstrates neuronal loss during initial stages of HIV infection in mouse model

A new mouse model closely resembles how the human body reacts to early HIV infection and is shedding light on nerve cell damage related to the disease, according to researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health.

3 Mar 2011

ITI, Takeda collaborate to develop and commercialize PDE1 inhibitors for schizophrenia

Intra-Cellular Therapies, Inc. ("ITI") and Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited, today announced that they have entered into an exclusive collaboration to develop and commercialize selective phosphodiesterase type 1 (PDE1) inhibitors, discovered by ITI, for the treatment of cognitive impairment associated with schizophrenia. This agreement is targeted worldwide, but ITI has retained the option to co-promote with Takeda in the United States.

3 Mar 2011