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.

Latest "Mad Cow" case will affect the lifting of bans against American beef

The U.S. Agriculture Department has confirmed that an Alabama cow suspected of having mad cow disease, did have the fatal brain disease.

14 Mar 2006

Creative new therapies for atherosclerotic disease

Patients with a build-up of plaque in arteries in the heart, brain and leg face a high risk of major cardiovascular complications.

14 Mar 2006

Valproic acid may help slow the progression of dementia

Researchers have found that a common anticonvulsant drug improved cognitive function and appeared to restore nerve cells in the brains of patients with HIV-related dementia. The results of the Phase I clinical trial are published in the March issue of the scientific journal Neurology.

14 Mar 2006

New device for fixing holes in hearts of young stroke patients

As many as one in four adults is walking around with a "hole" between the upper chambers of the heart. Most of them will never know it.

14 Mar 2006

Link between learning results and working memory

This three-year project has concentrated on basic research into the essence of memory and learning, and its results can be applied to such things as predicting learning difficulties or successes and understanding their related factors, which within working memory hinder or promote learning at an individual level.

13 Mar 2006

Third U.S. case of mad cow disease

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture routine tests have revealed a third U.S. case of mad cow disease.

13 Mar 2006

Scientists exploit novel route to reverse enlarged hearts in obese mice

Working on genetically engineered obese mice with seriously thickened hearts, a condition call cardiac hypertrophy, scientists at Johns Hopkins have used a nerve protection and growth factor on the heart to mimic the activity of the brain hormone leptin, dramatically reducing the size of the heart muscle.

13 Mar 2006

New approach to preventing recurrent febrile seizures in vulnerable children

It's one of those unavoidable facts of life - kids get sick and have fevers. Usually, those elevated internal temperatures cause only temporary discomfort, but in some small children they spark convulsions called "febrile seizures."

13 Mar 2006

New AF267B drug reverses key cognitive deficits, pathology in Alzheimer's

A new drug that enhances the activity of a key brain cell receptor involved in Alzheimer's disease (AD) reverses learning and memory deficits in mice engineered to have pathological hallmarks of the disease.

13 Mar 2006

Stroke researchers have traced the major cause of the death of brain cells

In the neurological train wreck that is stroke, researchers have traced the major cause of the death of brain cells due to artery blockage or bleeding in the brain.

13 Mar 2006

Menthol discovery could point towards new pain therapies

This new understanding could lead to potential advances in pain therapy, the researchers said. Moreover, the scientists envision that their method may be potentially useful in studying the activation mechanism of other drugs and proteins.

13 Mar 2006

A map of recent positive selection in the human genome

By scanning the entire human genome in search of genetic variations that may signal recent evolution, University of Chicago researchers found more than 700 genetic variants that may be targets of recent natural positive selection during the past 10,000 years of human evolution.

13 Mar 2006

Health disparities in heart attack hospital transfer patterns

Older, female and minority patients rushed to community hospitals with acute heart attacks are less likely to be transferred to a larger hospital that offers procedures to immediately open clogged arteries, Duke University Medical Center cardiologists have found.

13 Mar 2006

Trial explores safety and efficacy of injecting human stem cells directly into the brain to treat fatal pediatric neurodegenerative disorder

Researchers in Doernbecher Children's Hospital at Oregon Health & Science University will begin a Phase I clinical trial using stem cells in infants and children with a rare neurodegenerative disorder that affects infants and children.

13 Mar 2006

Yale School of Medicine expands research using transcranial magnetic stimulation for schizophrenia

Yale School of Medicine researchers are recruiting patients nationally for a clinical trial using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to help still the voices that are so troubling to some persons with schizophrenia.

9 Mar 2006

Thalidomide, Lenalidomide show promise against Lou Gehrig's disease

New animal research suggests that two well-studied drugs, thalidomide and its derivative, lenalidomide, might extend the survival of patients with the neurological disorder amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease.

9 Mar 2006

Research challenges theories on the organization of the visual system

Neuroscientists from the University of Washington and the University of Minnesota have found that the first area in the cortex of the human brain that receives information from the eyes processes the perceived size, rather than the actual size, of an object.

9 Mar 2006