Brain News and Research

RSS

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.

Brain scans may detect neurological decline in normal people

Brain scans may detect neurological changes in people who exhibit no outward signs of cognitive decline but who later develop dementia or mental impairment, according to the results of a new study led by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley.

16 Feb 2006

Research may help explain Alzheimer's memory loss

Based on laboratory research, scientists at Georgetown University Medical Center have a new theory as to why people with Alzheimer's disease have trouble performing even the simplest memory tasks, such as remembering a family member's name.

16 Feb 2006

Discovery suggests potential treatment for regenerating nerve tissue after stroke

Researchers at the University of Minnesota Medical School have discovered a new population of cells in human umbilical cord blood that have properties of primitive stem cells.

16 Feb 2006

Floating reduces stress-related pain

Treatment in the form of floating in huge tanks of saltwater, so-called 'floating', is effective for chronic stress-related pain. This is shown in a study at Karlstad University, Sweden, led by Professor Torsten Norlander.

16 Feb 2006

A high level of education means Alzheimer's hits later, but harder and faster

According to researchers at the Columbia University Medical Center in New York, high levels of education may help ward off Alzheimer’s disease, but they also speed up its progression once the disease has developed.

16 Feb 2006

Loud music prolongs the effects of taking ecstasy

A study published in the open access journal BMC Neuroscience shows that the reduction in rats’ brain activity induced by 3,4 -Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA or ecstasy) lasts long after administration of the drug - up to five days - if loud music is played to them simultaneously. The effects wear off within a day when no music is played.

16 Feb 2006

The pros and cons of new anti-obesity drug

According to researchers at New York's Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, an anti-obesity drug that turns off the same brain circuits which trigger the marijuana-induced hunger pangs, appears to produce sustained weight loss among patients.

16 Feb 2006

Panorama programme lead to significant increase in adverse paroxetine reports

The number of adverse reactions reported by UK doctors to the antidepressant paroxetine - often know by its brand name Seroxat - rose by 61 per cent after three editions of the BBC's award-winning current affairs programme Panorama explored increasing concerns about the drug.

14 Feb 2006

Study provides animal model of depression

A Florida State University scientist used a gene transfer technique to block the expression of a gene associated with clinical depression in a new study of mice that could lead to better treatment of human beings with this condition.

14 Feb 2006

Discovery of new cord blood cells

Researchers at the University of Minnesota Medical School have discovered a new population of cells in human umbilical cord blood that have properties of primitive stem cells.

14 Feb 2006

Potential universal strategy for treating drug addiction

An international research team led by the University of Saskatchewan has discovered a signaling pathway in the brain involved in drug addiction, together with a method for blocking its action, that may point to a single treatment strategy for most addictions.

14 Feb 2006

New sensor to provide early warning of oxygen loss to unborn children

Researchers at the University of Warwick, and the University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust, have devised a new sensor which dramatically improves the amount of early warning doctors and midwives get of a dangerous situation in the birth process when the unborn child's brain is starved of oxygen - Fetal Hypoxia.

14 Feb 2006

Gene therapy cures depressed mice

Researchers in the U.S. say that deleting a specific gene in the brain of mice that have been conditioned to be depressed, has the same effect as antidepressants.

13 Feb 2006

Acne drug which causes birth defects too hard to monitor

According to the birth watchdog group the March of Dimes, preventing birth defects from a widely used acne drug is too heavy a burden on doctors, patients and pharmacists.

13 Feb 2006

Gene mutation discovered that causes a rare form of Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease

A multi-national research team that includes a Saint Louis University neurologist has discovered a gene mutation that causes a rare form of Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, an inherited progressive nerve disorder. The findings are published in an advance online issue of Nature Genetics

13 Feb 2006

Research shows promise for stopping progression of bipolar disorder

Changes in the brain that are important indicators of bipolar disorder are not prominent until young adulthood and are reduced in persons taking mood-stabilizing medications, Yale School of Medicine researchers report this month in Biological Psychiatry.

13 Feb 2006

Rett disease progression altered by changing expression of gene

Scientists from the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Brandeis University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology report in the journal Neuron that increasing levels of brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) alleviates symptoms in a mouse model of the childhood disorder Rett Syndrome.

13 Feb 2006

Duke University biologists evolve complex trait in the laboratory

Duke University biologists have evolved a complex trait in the laboratory -- using the pressure of selection to induce tobacco hornworms to evolve the dual trait of turning black or green depending on the temperature during their development.

12 Feb 2006

Melatonin useless when it comes to sorting out sleep disorders

According to Canadian scientists there is no evidence to support the belief that melatonin has any effect in the treatment of sleep disorders.

12 Feb 2006

New findings help researchers revise models of mammalian sense of smell

In a mouse model, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine researchers discovered that olfactory sensory neurons expressing the same receptor responded to a specific odor with an array of speeds and sensitivities, a phenomenon previously not detected in the mammalian sense of smell.

12 Feb 2006