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Xenon gas shown to be safe in surgery and could help stop nervedamaging illnesses

Scientists have successfully conducted the first clinical trial giving xenon gas to patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting in order to safeguard against postoperative brain damage that can occur following this procedure.

27 Feb 2006

New tool to discover molecules that can enhance or block different kinds of tastes

Researchers from the Monell Chemical Senses Center have succeeded in growing mature taste receptor cells outside the body and for the first time have been able to successfully keep the cells alive for a prolonged period of time.

27 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

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

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

Chewing gum after bowel surgery gets you out of hospital sooner

According to a team of doctors at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital in California, patients who chew gum following intestinal surgery leave hospital sooner.

21 Feb 2006

Pig cells reverse diabetes in monkeys

A team of researchers in the U.S. have successfully reversed diabetes in monkeys using transplanted islet cells from pigs.

21 Feb 2006

Education and rates of cognitive decline in incident Alzheimer's disease

High levels of education may help ward off Alzheimer's disease, but they also speed up its progression once developed, reveals research in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry.

21 Feb 2006

Glaucoma set to reach 80 million by 2020

The global toll of the disabling eye disease glaucoma is set to reach 60 million by 2010, rising to almost 80 million by 2020, finds research in the British Journal of Ophthalmology.

20 Feb 2006

Researchers create animal model of any schizophrenic characteristics

Researchers have developed a mouse strain in which the abnormal activity of the dopamine machinery in a specific part of the brain causes cognitive and behavioral impairments mimicking those in human schizophrenics.

20 Feb 2006

Thrill seekers at less risk of Parkinson's disease

According to a new study by British researchers, risk takers stand less chance of getting Parkinson's disease, live longer, and have more friends.

20 Feb 2006

Pig islets successfully reversed diabetes in monkeys

Researchers at the University of Minnesota's Diabetes Institute for Immunology and Transplantation have successfully reversed diabetes in monkeys using transplanted islet cells from pigs.

19 Feb 2006

Major Alzheimer's discovery

A team from the Faculty of Medicine at Universiti Laval and the research centre at CHUQ (Centre hospitalier universitaire de Quibec) has discovered a natural defence mechanism that the body deploys to combat nerve cell degeneration observed in persons with Alzheimer's disease (AD).

17 Feb 2006

Research suggests that a common mechanism may underlie a variety of protein folding diseases

Misfolded and damaged proteins are common to all human neurodegenerative diseases. Clumps of these aggregated proteins destroy neurons within the brain and cause disease.

16 Feb 2006

Researchers develop way to visualize synchronized interactions of nerve cells in the brain

Researchers at the University of Minnesota Medical School and the Brain Sciences Center at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center have discovered a new way to assess how brain networks act together.

16 Feb 2006

Hormone aldosterone linked to quality of hearing

Researchers have linked a hormone known to adjust levels of key brain chemicals to the quality of our hearing as we age. The more of the hormone that older people have in their bloodstream, the better their hearing is, and the less of the hormone, the worse their hearing is.

16 Feb 2006

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