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Study confirms under-utilization of medication in patients after bypass surgery

Researchers at Thomas Jefferson University discovered that nearly half of coronary artery bypass patients are not taking statins and aspirin together when they are referred for diagnostic cardiac catheterization at least three years after their initial bypass. Their results are currently in press online in the American Journal of Cardiology.

3 May 2016

Snapshots of NMDA receptor activation may help in novel drug design

Structural biologists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and Janelia Research Campus/HHMI, have obtained snapshots of the activation of an important type of brain-cell receptor. Dysfunction of the receptor has been implicated in a range of neurological illnesses, including Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, depression, seizure, schizophrenia, autism, and injuries related to stroke.

3 May 2016

MII-pH can help doctors confirm diagnosis of GERD in newborns before treatment

Millions of Americans currently use medication for their indigestion and reflux, so it may come as no surprise that parents and doctors also prescribe medicine for newborns with reflux. However, according to a new study, newborns are likely being over treated the majority of the time with interventions - including surgery - that have risks for the infant.

3 May 2016

Social networks may cause stress to children and adolescents

Research has shown the significance of social relationships in influencing adult human behavior and health; however, little is known about how children's perception of their social networks correlates with stress and how it may influence development. Now, a University of Missouri research team has determined that children and adolescents physically react to their social networks and the stress those networks may cause. Scientists believe that the quality and size of the social relationships nurtured in childhood may have important physiological consequences for physical and mental health for youth.

3 May 2016

Study provides new insights into how visual information transformed from retina to cortical representations

Neurons in our brain do a remarkable job of translating sensory information into reliable representations of our world that are critical to effectively guide our behavior. The parts of the brain that are responsible for vision have long been center stage for scientists' efforts to understand the rules that neural circuits use to encode sensory information.

30 Apr 2016

Level of salts in the brain play critical role in controlling sleep-wake cycle

Danish research is behind a new epoch-making discovery, which may prove decisive to future brain research. The level of salts in the brain plays a critical role in whether we are asleep or awake. This discovery may be of great importance to research on psychiatric diseases such as schizophrenia and convulsive fits from lack of sleep as well as post-anaesthetization confusion, according to Professor Maiken Nedergaard.

30 Apr 2016

Researchers explore changes in Parkinson's-affected cells at different stages of the disease

It's an unsettling thought: You could be walking around for 20 years developing Parkinson's disease and not even know it.

29 Apr 2016

Distracted caregivers negatively impact infants' burgeoning attention spans

Caregivers whose eyes wander during playtime -- due to distractions such as smartphones or other technology, for example -- may raise children with shorter attention spans, according to a new study by psychologists at Indiana University.

29 Apr 2016

Key gene changes reveal four previously unknown conditions within schizophrenia

Changes in key genes clearly define four previously unknown conditions within the umbrella diagnosis of schizophrenia, according to a study led by researchers from NYU Langone Medical Center published online April 28 in EBioMedicine, a Lancet journal. Cases associated with changes in each of the four genes were different from each other in terms of symptoms, intelligence level and other disease features.

29 Apr 2016

Dopamine neuron transplants controlled by designer drug may fight Parkinson's disease in mice

A University of Wisconsin-Madison neuroscientist has inserted a genetic switch into nerve cells so a patient can alter their activity by taking designer drugs that would not affect any other cell. The cells in question are neurons and make the neurotransmitter dopamine, whose deficiency is the culprit in the widespread movement disorder Parkinson's disease.

29 Apr 2016

Researchers identify role of darks in visual brain maps

Scientists have been studying how visual space is mapped in the cerebral cortex for many decades under the assumption that the map is equal for lights and darks. Surprisingly, recent work demonstrates that visual brain maps are dark-centric and that, just as stars rotate around black holes in the Universe, lights rotate around darks in the brain representation of visual space.

28 Apr 2016

New form of SBRT to deliver radiation to specific area of prostate cancer

University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center physicians have started the world's first clinical trial using a new form of stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) to deliver radiation to a specific area of the prostate invaded with cancer - instead of the entire gland. The study aims to determine if treating a targeted cancer region within the prostate in early stage prostate cancer can increase treatment options and reduce the side effects of radiation.

28 Apr 2016

New miniaturized microscope offers unprecedented insight into nervous system function

A microscope about the size of a penny is giving scientists a new window into the everyday activity of cells within the spinal cord. The innovative technology revealed that astrocytes--cells in the nervous system that do not conduct electrical signals and were traditionally viewed as merely supportive--unexpectedly react to intense sensation.

28 Apr 2016

Role of microRNAs in range of physiological activities

A group including scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) has been awarded a grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke of the National Institutes of Health to study the role of microRNAs in a range of physiological activities, including memory, sleep, synapse function and movement.

28 Apr 2016

People with TBI may have long-term sleep disturbances

People who have had a traumatic brain injury (TBI) may still have sleep problems a year and a half after being injured, according to a study published in the April 27, 2016, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. In addition, people with TBI may also be unaware of just how much their sleep is disturbed.

28 Apr 2016

New study reveals increased risk of dementia in patients with rosacea

A new study has uncovered an increased risk of dementia--in particular Alzheimer's disease--in patients with rosacea. Importantly, the risk was highest in older patients and in patients where rosacea was diagnosed by a hospital dermatologist. The findings are published in the Annals of Neurology, a journal of the American Neurological Association and Child Neurology Society.

28 Apr 2016

Study highlights significant burden of migraine on family activities

The debilitating pain and disability of migraine also attacks the emotional, social and financial fabric of a family, according to a new study conducted by researchers at Montefiore Headache Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, affiliated with the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Vedanta Research, the Mayo Clinic and Allergan plc. The findings were published today in Volume 91, Issue 5 of Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

28 Apr 2016

Experimental cancer drug Nutlin-3 shows promise in cancelling effects of fragile X syndrome

A University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher who studies the most common genetic intellectual disability has used an experimental drug to reverse — in mice — damage from the mutation that causes the syndrome.

28 Apr 2016

Scientists build semantic atlas to show how human brain organizes language

What if a map of the brain could help us decode people's inner thoughts? Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, have taken a step in that direction by building a "semantic atlas" that shows in vivid colors and multiple dimensions how the human brain organizes language. The atlas identifies brain areas that respond to words that have similar meanings.

28 Apr 2016

Group of gamma-protocadherins linked with neurons help regulate growth of dendrites

When you think of a neuron, imagine a tree. A healthy brain cell indeed looks like a tree with a full canopy. There's a trunk, which is the cell's nucleus; there's a root system, embodied in a single axon; and there are the branches, called dendrites.

28 Apr 2016