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.

Steroids trigger long lasting aggression in teens

According to a U.S. study steroids may have a lasting effect on teenagers' brains, and could even flip the adolescent brain's switch for aggression which may last for at least two years.

27 Feb 2006

Parents lose court battle over future of gravely ill child

A high court in the UK has ruled that doctors treating a seriously ill two-year-old girl can let her die naturally.

27 Feb 2006

Link found between morphine addiction and the tendency to explore

The tendency to use drugs depends on each individual person. Not all those who have access to drugs become addicts, therefore there may be personality characteristics that influence their use.

24 Feb 2006

Dyslexic children exhibit a different pattern of brain activity while reading

Brain images of children with dyslexia taken before they received spelling instruction show that they have different patterns of neural activity than do good spellers when doing language tasks related to spelling. But after specialized treatment emphasizing the letters in words, they showed similar patterns of brain activity.

24 Feb 2006

Study provides new evidence of the importance of reward pathways in the brain

Deleting a specific gene in the brain has the same effect that antidepressants do in mice that have been conditioned to be depressed, report researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center.

24 Feb 2006

Hand-held device brings speech to impaired

A middle-aged woman makes plans over the telephone to get together with a friend, even though she cannot talk after suffering a stroke.

24 Feb 2006

SRY protein explains why men more likely to develop Parkinson's

Scientists at Prince Henry's Institute, Melbourne, and the University of California, Los Angeles, have discovered that SRY, the male protein that forms the testes is also produced in the brain region affected in Parkinson's disease.

24 Feb 2006

Lifestyle choices help maintain our brain and emotional health

Heart health risk factors and lifestyle choices, such as exercise, learning new things and staying socially connected, are associated with maintaining brain health as we age according to a new report.

24 Feb 2006

Study shows brain anticipates taste

Now, however, scientists have begun to peel back some of the neurological secrets of this remarkable phenomenon and show how the brain can be rewired in anticipation of sensory input to respond in prescribed ways.

24 Feb 2006

PET and MR imaging reveals white matter degeneration in Huntington's

Using both brain function (PET) and anatomical structure (MR) imaging studies, Italian researchers - within the context of an Italian-British collaboration - discovered that degenerative and dysfunctional events occur in individuals many years before the onset of Huntington's disease - particularly in the brain's white matter - an area not previously considered primarily involved with the disease.

24 Feb 2006

New report suggests promising strategies to preserve brain health as people grow older

With the rapid aging of the population, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is intensifying the search for strategies to preserve brain health as people grow older.

24 Feb 2006

Alcoholism, smoking and genetics among Plains American Indians

Alcoholism and smoking have a high rate of co-occurrence in the general population. Yet little is known about the co-morbidity of alcoholism and smoking among American Indians.

23 Feb 2006

We may learn best on an empty stomach!

Researchers at Yale School of Medicine have found evidence that a hormone produced in the stomach directly stimulates the higher brain functions of spatial learning and memory development.

23 Feb 2006

Discovery of molecule that may hold key to learning and memory

Independent research teams from Harvard Medical School and Children's Hospital Boston have identified a master protein that sheds light on one of neurobiology's biggest mysteries--how neurons change as a result of individual experiences.

23 Feb 2006

SRY gene directly controls neuronal function in the brain

Shaped by much previous research, the prevailing view regarding sex-specific differences in the brain is that they are caused by circulating sex hormones, which are generated outside the brain and influence certain aspects of brain development, as well as brain function in adults.

23 Feb 2006