Neuroscience News and Research

RSS

Researchers find link between stroke-related brain blood vessel abnormality and gut bacteria

In a nationwide study, NIH funded researchers found that the presence of abnormal bundles of brittle blood vessels in the brain or spinal cord, called cavernous angiomas (CA), are linked to the composition of a person's gut bacteria.

4 Jun 2020

COVID-19 can increase stroke risk in young healthy people

Young patients with no risk factors for stroke may have an increased risk if they have contracted COVID-19, whether or not they are showing symptoms of the disease.

4 Jun 2020

Effects of chronic stress associated with increased inflammatory signaling within brain circuits

Anxiety and depression are significantly heightened during times of great stress such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

4 Jun 2020

Health care providers urged to stop hydroxycholoroquine use for COVID-19

The sacred oath taken by physicians during graduation from medical school to "First do no harm," the first words of the Hippocratic Oath, provides a strong impetus for a commentary just published in The American Journal of Medicine.

4 Jun 2020

Brain activity studies are not as useful as previously thought

Hundreds of published studies over the last decade have claimed it's possible to predict an individual's patterns of thoughts and feelings by scanning their brain in an MRI machine as they perform some mental tasks.

3 Jun 2020

Exploring how air pollution affects the brain

Air pollution has become a fact of modern life, with a majority of the global population facing chronic exposure.

3 Jun 2020

Mindfulness program can improve attention and decision making skills in children with autism

School-based mindfulness programs can improve decision-making skills and teach children with autism to focus attention and react less impulsively through breathing exercises that will allow them to reduce anxiety, according to Rutgers researchers.

3 Jun 2020

New test identifies CAD-affected children who may benefit from uridine

Scientists at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute and the Centro de Biología Molecular Severo Ochoa in Spain have created a test that determines which children with CAD deficiency - a rare metabolic disease - are likely to benefit from receiving uridine, a nutritional supplement that has dramatically improved the lives of other children with the condition.

3 Jun 2020

Findings on emotional eating may help treat eating disorders

Turning to a tub of ice cream after a break-up may be a cliché, but there's some truth to eating in response to negative emotions.

3 Jun 2020

Experts encourage a paradigm shift in the design of animal experiments

Animal experiments are typically conducted under highly standardized laboratory conditions. While standardization is meant to improve reproducibility of scientific results, in reality reproducibility is surprisingly low.

2 Jun 2020

Researchers recommend ways to reduce the number of experiments

For some scientific disciplines, such as medical or drug research, experiments with live animals are still indispensable.

2 Jun 2020

Non-stop learning presents an optimal decision-making strategy

Unlike machines, the behaviour of animals and humans almost always has an element of unpredictability. Countless experiments have shown that our responses to the exact same challenge are sometimes faster, sometimes slower, sometimes correct and sometimes wrong.

2 Jun 2020

Study: High estrogen levels may influence alcohol use disorder

A new study from researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago shows that high estrogen levels may make alcohol more rewarding to female mice.

2 Jun 2020

Stem cell model sheds new light on the devastating process of neurodegeneration

A new study published today in Neuron led by The New York Stem Cell Foundation Research Institute's Valentina Fossati, Ph.D., creates astrocytes - an integral support cell in the brain - from stem cells and shows that in disease-like environments, these normally helpful cells can turn into neuron-killers.

1 Jun 2020

Reducing inflammation improves stroke recovery, may extend window for therapy

Reperfusion therapy, the gold standard for stroke treatment, helps restore blood flow after a stroke caused by a clot, preventing loss of brain tissue. However, only about 10% of stroke patients qualify, in part because of reperfusion therapy's narrow treatment window.

1 Jun 2020

A remote optical control for neural cells

A team led by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University has created a new technology that enhances scientists' ability to communicate with neural cells using light.

1 Jun 2020

Research suggests new approach to therapeutic intervention for ALS

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is one of the most devastating adult-onset neurodegenerative diseases. Patients, including the late actor/playwright Sam Shepard, become progressively weaker and eventually paralyzed as their motor neurons degenerate and die.

1 Jun 2020