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.

PGC-1 alpha implicated in Huntington's disease neurodegeneration

A metabolic disorder underlies the brain effects found in those with Huntington's disease, researchers report in an advance article publishing online October 19, 2006. The article will appear in the November 2006 issue of the journal Cell Metabolism, published by Cell Press.

20 Oct 2006

Gene called Kibra plays an important role in memory

Researchers at the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) have announced the discovery of a gene that plays a significant role in memory performance in humans.

20 Oct 2006

Important first step towards designing new therapies for shingles

A team of scientists at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), one of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has identified a human protein that helps varicella-zoster virus, the cause of chickenpox and shingles, spread from cell to cell within the body.

20 Oct 2006

Comprehensive review backs health benefits of eating fish

There is ample research advocating the nutritional benefits of eating fish and shellfish because fish is high in protein and omega-3 fatty acids.

18 Oct 2006

Do the risks of eating fish outweigh the benefits? Yes or No

Fish is high in protein and omega-3 fatty acids. But concerns have been raised in recent years about chemicals found in fish from environmental pollution, including mercury, PCBs and dioxins. That has led to confusion among the public--do the risks of eating fish outweigh the benefits?

17 Oct 2006

Parkinson's disease affects more than just motor control

Although Parkinson's disease is most commonly viewed as a "movement disorder," scientists have found that the disease also causes widespread abnormalities in touch and vision - effects that have now been verified using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) of the brain.

17 Oct 2006

Researchers find areas in the brain that indicate bilingualism

The finding sheds new light on decades of debate about how the human brain's language centers may actually be enhanced when faced with two or more languages as opposed to only one.

17 Oct 2006

AACR announces major gift for breast cancer research

The American Association for Cancer Research today announces a $200,000 gift from the Breast Cancer Research Foundation which will create the BCRF-AACR Fund for Translational Breast Cancer Research.

17 Oct 2006

Scans reveal differences in autistic brains

Researchers at the University of Washington's Autism Center have found new evidence that some regions in the brains of people with the developmental disorder autism may not communicate with each other as efficiently as they do in other people.

17 Oct 2006

New techniques give hope to brain damaged victims

Scientists at the annual Society for Neuroscience meeting in Atlanta have been demonstrating just how clever new techniques have become and what they are able to achieve.

16 Oct 2006

Cocaine addicts have an altered perception of reward

People addicted to cocaine have an impaired ability to perceive rewards and exercise control due to disruptions in the brain's reward and control circuits, according to a series of brain-mapping studies and neuropsychological tests conducted at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory.

16 Oct 2006

Brits unable to access Alzheimer's drugs

It appears that people in Britain suffering from Alzheimer's disease will be unlikely to benefit from the use of four drugs designed to treat the the degenerative brain disease.

16 Oct 2006

Babies with big heads smarter by age eight

According to researchers in the UK, how much a child's head grows by the time he or she reaches age one may be an indication of a child's intelligence.

16 Oct 2006

Being obese lowers your intelligence!

If French scientists are to be believed being obese is linked to a decline in a person's cognitive function.

16 Oct 2006

Overweight in middle age could mean dementia later in life

To add further fuel to the debate over obesity, researchers in France are saying that being overweight in middle age may indicate a higher risk of dementia later in life.

10 Oct 2006

High rates of pertussis found in States with easy immunization exemptions

States that easily permit parents to opt out of vaccinating their children for nonmedical reasons are at increased risk of pertussis (whooping cough), according to a new study from researchers with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the University of Florida and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

10 Oct 2006