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.

Jump in cancer-related clots

Blood clots are increasingly common in cancer patients, but University of Rochester Medical Center researchers have created a novel risk model that can predict, with 98 percent certainty, which patients will not get a blood clot.

3 Aug 2007

Aging adults have choices when confronting perceived mental declines

Aging adults may joke about memory lapses and early Alzheimer's. They may worry when they can't understand a drug plan or lose track of the characters in a novel.

3 Aug 2007

First confirmed human case of West Nile virus in Pennsylvania

State Health Secretary Dr. Calvin B. Johnson has reported this year's first confirmed human case of West Nile virus in Pennsylvania. The individual, a 56-year-old Clearfield County man, is recovering and has been discharged from the hospital.

3 Aug 2007

Gene variation makes people with depression more likely to respond to the medication citalopram

A variation in a gene called GRIK4 appears to make people with depression more likely to respond to the medication citalopram (Celexa) than are people without the variation, a study by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), part of the National Institutes of Health, has found.

3 Aug 2007

Stem cell therapy rescues motor neurons in ALS model

In a study that demonstrates the promise of cell-based therapies for diseases that have proved intractable to modern medicine, a team of scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison has shown it is possible to rescue the dying neurons characteristic of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a fatal neuromuscular disorder also known as Lou Gehrig's disease.

3 Aug 2007

Autonomous glial mechanism may drive circadian rhythms

Glial cells of the nervous system, once thought to function strictly as support cells for neurons, are now thought to actively modulate them.

2 Aug 2007

Music moves brain to pay attention

Using brain images of people listening to short symphonies by an obscure 18th-century composer, a research team from the Stanford University School of Medicine has gained valuable insight into how the brain sorts out the chaotic world around it.

2 Aug 2007

Medications frequently used to treat children with sleep difficulties

WESTCHESTER, Ill. -- Physicians frequently prescribe medications for sleep difficulties in children in U.S. outpatient settings, according to a study published in the August 1st issue of the journal SLEEP.

2 Aug 2007

Ibuprofen improves cognitive function in rats induced with chronic liver failure

Cognitive impairment is one of the neurological effects in patients with hepatic encephalopathy (abnormal brain function due to severe liver disease).

2 Aug 2007

Hostility, anger and depression could increase risk for heart disease in men

Men who are hostile and prone to frequent intense feelings of anger and depression could be harming their immune systems and putting themselves at risk for coronary heart disease as well as related disorders like type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure, a new study finds.

2 Aug 2007

Fear protein found

A University of Iowa study shows that loss or chemical inhibition of a protein, known as acid sensing ion channel protein (ASIC1a), reduces innate fear behavior in lab animals, making normally timid mice relatively fearless.

2 Aug 2007

Region of brain for processing visual 3D shapes indentified

In studies with monkeys, researchers have identified in detail the brain regions responsible for the unique ability of primates, including humans, to process visual 3D shapes to guide their sophisticated manipulation of objects.

2 Aug 2007

Schizophrenia improved by mental and physical exercise

Scientists at Melbourne's Howard Florey Institute have shown that mental and physical exercise can improve behavioural deficits in schizophrenia and repair damaged chemical transmitter pathways in the brain.

1 Aug 2007

Deep brain stimulation a miracle for man with severe brain injury

In what must seem to his family to be a miracle, a man who had been in a near-vegetative state for six years has regained the ability to use words and gestures, chew and swallow and drink from a cup.

1 Aug 2007

Suicides go up as the temperature rises

According to psychiatrists in Britain hot weather increases the risk of suicide.

1 Aug 2007

Scientists discover brain cell development process implicated in mental retardation

New Brunswick, N.J. , Scientists at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, have discovered a biological process in brain cell development that may help explain some causes of mental retardation.

1 Aug 2007

Report reveals pregnancies exposed to accutane despite iPledge

Despite a mandatory program designed to prevent pregnant women from being exposed to the anti-acne medication Accutane and similar medications containing isotretinoin (a known teratogen or birth defect-causing agent), 122 pregnancies were exposed during the first year of the program, known as iPledge, a report revealed.

1 Aug 2007

Imaging technique accurate in aneurysm detection and therapy planning

Multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) angiography is highly accurate in depicting intracranial aneurysms, according to a study published in the August issue of Radiology.

1 Aug 2007

Huntington's disease study shows animal models on target

An international team of researchers has published a benchmark study showing that gene expression in several animal models of Huntington's Disease (HD) closely resembles that of human HD patients.

1 Aug 2007

Hallucinations in schizophrenia linked to brain area that regulates emotion and processes human voices

For the first time, researchers using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have found both structural and functional abnormalities in specific brain regions of schizophrenic patients who experience chronic auditory hallucinations, according to a study published in the August issue of Radiology.

1 Aug 2007