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.

Our own mind and body give us the foundation to understand what other people are doing, thinking, or feeling

Successful social communication is based, above all, on the ability to understand the actions of other people. But how can we imagine what other people are thinking, or what intentions they have? Psychologists and neuroscientists trace it back to a kind of simulation that goes on in our brain as soon as we observe a person acting.

5 Oct 2005

Earliest signs of Alzheimer's can be screened for with an electroencephalograph

Although Alzheimer's disease affects millions of people worldwide, there is no way to identify this devastating brain disease at its earliest stages when there still may be time to delay or even prevent the downward spiral into dementia.

5 Oct 2005

Study looks at childrens end-of-life care preferences

Pediatric cancer patients as young as 10 years old who are aware that their disease is incurable have the ability to participate meaningfully in discussions of their own end-of-life care with family members and the health care team, according to investigators at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and Sydney Children's Hospital.

5 Oct 2005

Immature stem cells that proliferate to form brain tissues in mice can function for at least a year

New studies in mice have shown that immature stem cells that proliferate to form brain tissues can function for at least a year -- most of the life span of a mouse -- and give rise to multiple types of neural cells, not just neurons.

5 Oct 2005

PET imaging with FDG represents one of the most promising tools for diagnosis of Alzheimer's

Positron emission tomography (PET) imaging--with the radiotracer fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG)--is a promising tool in detecting Alzheimer's disease in patients who have mild cognitive impairment (MCI), according to a study reported in the October issue of the Society of Nuclear Medicine's Journal of Nuclear Medicine.

5 Oct 2005

High blood glucose levels early in pregnancy deprive the embryo of oxygen

The babies of women with diabetes are two to five times more likely to develop birth defects than offspring of women without the disease.

4 Oct 2005

Divalent metal transporter-1 decreases metal-related injury in the lung

Multi-vitamin products, nutritional supplements and parents tout the need for such mineral elements as calcium, zinc, phosphorus, iron and others.

4 Oct 2005

New light shed on the causes of drug addiction

A methamphetamine epidemic rages across the United States with addicts blinded by uncontrollable desires for a drug that eventually thrusts them into a dire and catastrophic existence. Doctors don't have any effective treatments for these addicts, or for any other drug addicts; drug addiction is a disease that remains a medical mystery.

4 Oct 2005

Discovery of molecular roots of asthma, arthritis, and multiple sclerosis

The molecular roots of inflammatory and autoimmune diseases such as asthma, arthritis, and multiple sclerosis (MS) have been discovered by a team of researchers led by The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. They say their findings may point to ways to effectively treat these diseases - if not stop them before they start.

4 Oct 2005

First recordings from medial mammillary body cells in awake animals

It's often said that the key to Bill Bradley's basketball success was summed up in the title of the 1965 book by John McPhee, "A sense of where you are." Bradley always seemed to know where all nine other players were, where Bradley himself was in relation to the basket – and where the open spot was to be found for his stylized jump shot.

4 Oct 2005

Ischemic brain injury - another promising avenue for stem cell therapy

Adult stem cell therapy quickly and significantly improves recovery of motor function in an animal model for the ischemic brain injury that occurs in about 10 percent of babies with cerebral palsy, researchers report.

4 Oct 2005

Discovery has implications for research on restoring mobility to people who have lost motor functions due to spinal cord injury

Yale School of Medicine researchers report in Science this week genetic evidence for the hypothesis that myelination, or formation of a protective sheath around a nerve fiber, consolidates neural circuitry by suppressing plasticity in the mature brain.

3 Oct 2005

Landmark study aims to find genetic link to Alzheimer's disease

More than 500 families affected by Alzheimer's Disease are participating in a landmark study led by Columbia University Medical Center to find a genetic link to the disease. That number will now double to 1,000 under a new $10 million five-year grant from National Institute on Aging.

3 Oct 2005

Brain mechanism may play a central role in regulating anxiety and alcohol-drinking

The finding, by researchers supported by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), could provide important clues about the neurobiology of alcohol-drinking behaviors in humans.

3 Oct 2005

Body's own defenses may cause HIV-related dementia

Publishing in the Sept. 2005 issue of the Journal of Virology, the researchers show that HIV in the temporal lobe mutates at a rate 100 times faster than in other parts of the body, triggering white blood cells to continually swarm to attack the infection. The associated overcrowding and inflammation appear to cause the dementia.

3 Oct 2005

Protein found in the brain is genetically linked to alcoholism and anxiety

The researchers studied rats selectively bred for high alcohol preference (P rats), which were found to have high anxiety levels and consume greater amounts of alcohol than alcohol non-preferring (NP) rats.

3 Oct 2005

Important developmental link between the cerebrum and the cerebellum

Higher cognitive functions, like language and visual processing, have long been thought to reside primarily in the brain's cerebrum. But a body of research in premature infants at Children's Hospital Boston is documenting an important role for the cerebellum

3 Oct 2005

Cost-effective technique for reducing mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants

Researchers at Lehigh University's Energy Research Center (ERC) have developed and successfully tested a cost-effective technique for reducing mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants.

3 Oct 2005

Brain abnormalities in people who habitually lie

While previous research has shown that there is heightened activity in the prefrontal cortex - the area of the brain that enables most people to feel remorse or learn moral behavior - when normal people lie, this is the first study to provide evidence of structural differences in that area among pathological liars.

3 Oct 2005

Potential beneficial effect of copper orotate

As one of the services for patients with Alzheimer's disease, the Department of Psychiatry at the Saarland University Medical Center offers participation in a clinical phase II trial. This clinical trial aims to elucidate a potential beneficial effect of copper orotate (an organic copper salt), which is given together with a standard cholinesterase inhibitor.

3 Oct 2005