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.

Research reveals that a greater volume of grey encephalic matter exists in the brain areas of the right parahippocampus

A study undertaken by researchers of the Universitat Jaume I of Castellon (UJI), the Universitat Autonoma of Barcelona (UAB) and the company Eresa reveals the existence of a different anatomy in small areas of the brain which could help explain why one same stimulus triggers anxiety in some people and not in others.

9 May 2007

Promising new target for brain tumor therapy

A drug that targets the body's immune cells may be effective in treating malignant brain tumors, according to a new study led by researchers from Duke's Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center.

9 May 2007

Study provides clues about inability to imitate and empathize in autistic children

New imaging research at UCLA shows that impairments in autistic children's ability to imitate and empathize can be linked to dysfunction in the brain's mirror-neuron system.

8 May 2007

Ultra-high-field MRI can detect multiple sclerosis lesions better than MRI

Ultra-high-field (7T) MRI can detect multiple sclerosis lesions better than MRI which can lead to possible earlier diagnosis and treatment, according to a new study by researchers from Ohio State University in Columbus, and Columbia University in New York.

8 May 2007

Adult stem cells play no role in insulin production

Diabetes researchers, investigating how the body supplies itself with insulin, discovered to their surprise that adult stem cells, which they expected to play a crucial role in the process, were nowhere to be found.

8 May 2007

Study provides new understanding of excessive gambling

People process information about financial loss through mechanisms in the brain similar to those used for processing physical pain, according to a new imaging study.

8 May 2007

CT angiography can replace digital subtraction angiography

CT angiography (CTA) alone is an effective, noninvasive means to detect peripheral vascular disease, according to a study conducted by researchers at Charite Campus Benjamin Franklin in Berlin, Germany.

8 May 2007

Social behavior differs in children with family history of autism

The baby brothers and sisters of autistic children do not seek emotional cues from adults, or respond to them, as often as other toddlers do, suggests new research from the University of California, San Diego.

8 May 2007

New compounds promising candidates for neurodegenerative disease drug development

Scientists have developed a novel strategy for tackling neurodegenerative diseases such as Huntington's disease: encouraging an individual's own cells to "eat" the malformed proteins that lead to the disease.

8 May 2007

Multitasking mental cells

In the mid-1990s, scientists at the University of Parma, in Italy, made a discovery so novel that it shifted the way psychologists discuss the brain. After researchers implanted electrodes into the heads of monkeys, they noticed a burst of activity in the premotor cortex when the animals clutched a piece of food.

8 May 2007

Current approach to drug discovery for Lou Gehrig's disease be re-examined

Most research on Lou Gehrig's disease therapeutics has been based on the assumption that its two forms (sporadic and hereditary) are similar in their underlying cause.

8 May 2007

Intense trauma can have long lasting effects on the brain and behavior of healthy people without causing a clinical disorder

Exposure to trauma may create enough changes in the brain to sensitize people to overreact to an innocuous facial gesture years later, even in people who don't have a stress-related disorder, says new research.

8 May 2007

Electroconvulsive therapy helps patients with severe depression who don't respond to other treatments

Electroconvulsive therapy has been shown to be a highly effective, safe, and even life-saving treatment for persistent and severe depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia.

8 May 2007

Brain cells 'talk' with each other in more ways than previously thought

Johns Hopkins scientists have discovered to their surprise that nerves in the mammalian brain's white matter do more than just ferry information between different brain regions, but in fact process information the way gray matter cells do.

8 May 2007

Loss of a single gene in kidney cancer cells causes them to stop making mitochondria

Studying a rare inherited syndrome, researchers at Johns Hopkins have found that cancer cells can reprogram themselves to turn down their own energy-making machinery and use less oxygen, and that these changes might help cancer cells survive and spread.

8 May 2007