Neuroscience News and Research

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Fit Brains achieves 75 million brain scores milestone

Fit Brains, a top online brain fitness platform, announces its 75 millionth brain game score achieved. And, in celebration, challenges users to play more mind strengthening games this September - it being Back-to-School and Healthy Aging Month - with a charitable incentive.

24 Aug 2012

New UCLA study pinpoints unique human patterns of gene activity in the brain

Human and chimp brains look anatomically similar because both evolved from the same ancestor millions of years ago. But where does the chimp brain end and the human brain begin? A new UCLA study pinpoints uniquely human patterns of gene activity in the brain that could shed light on how we evolved differently than our closest relative.

23 Aug 2012

A father’s stress can lead to psychiatric disorders in female offspring

A study in mice conducted by researchers at Tufts University School of Medicine (TUSM) suggests that a woman's risk of anxiety and dysfunctional social behavior may depend on the experiences of her parents, particularly fathers, when they were young.

23 Aug 2012

Neuroscientists try to decipher precisely how human brain constructs our sense of self

Ancient Greek philosophers considered the ability to "know thyself" as the pinnacle of humanity. Now, thousands of years later, neuroscientists are trying to decipher precisely how the human brain constructs our sense of self.

23 Aug 2012

Study might help solve the biggest mystery of Parkinson’s

The recent discoveries that α-Synuclein(α-Syn) protein, a central player in Parkinson´s disease (PD) brain destruction, could not only pass from one neuron to another but also exist outside neuronal cells has led to major rethink on the disease.

23 Aug 2012

Two Penn Medicine hospitals receive Primary Stroke Center certification from The Joint Commission

Two Penn Medicine hospitals have received Primary Stroke Center certification from The Joint Commission for efforts to achieve long-term success in improving outcomes for stroke patients.

23 Aug 2012

New study: Reasoning training does alter brain connections

Intensive preparation for the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) actually changes the microscopic structure of the brain, physically bolstering the connections between areas of the brain important for reasoning, according to neuroscientists at the University of California, Berkeley.

23 Aug 2012

SSEA4+ marker helps identify and isolate precursors of insulin-producing pancreatic cells

For the millions of people worldwide with type 1 diabetes who cannot produce sufficient insulin, the potential to transplant insulin-producing cells could offer hope for a long-term cure. The discovery of a marker to help identify and isolate stem cells that can develop into insulin-producing cells in the pancreas would be a critical step forward and is described in an article in BioResearch Open Access, a new bimonthly peer-reviewed open access journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.

22 Aug 2012

OBI’s Oxycyte improves imaging of penumbra following acute ischemic stroke

Oxygen Biotherapeutics, Inc., announced today that recent research conducted by its partner, Aurum Biosciences, Glasgow, Scotland, has shown that Oxycyte, OBI's proprietary perfluorocarbon-based intravenous emulsion, improves imaging of the penumbra following acute ischemic stroke in a rat model.

22 Aug 2012

Reasoning and behavioral control dependent on different regions of frontal lobes

The frontal lobes are the largest part of the human brain, and thought to be the part that expanded most during human evolution. Damage to the frontal lobes-which are located just behind and above the eyes-can result in profound impairments in higher-level reasoning and decision making. To find out more about what different parts of the frontal lobes do, neuroscientists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) recently teamed up with researchers at the world's largest registry of brain-lesion patients.

22 Aug 2012

Neurally-interfaced hand prosthesis re-establishes communication between nervous systems

Amputation disrupts not only the peripheral nervous system but also central structures of the brain. While the brain is able to adapt and compensate for injury in certain conditions, in amputees the traumatic event prevents adaptive cortical changes. A group of scientists reports adaptive plastic changes in an amputee's brain following implantation of multielectrode arrays inside peripheral nerves.

21 Aug 2012

Study finds academic problems among students who sacrifice sleep for extra study time

Regardless of how much a high school student generally studies each day, if that student sacrifices sleep in order to study more than usual, he or she is more likely to have academic problems the following day. Because students tend to increasingly sacrifice sleep time for studying in the latter years of high school, this negative dynamic becomes more and more prevalent over time.

21 Aug 2012

People with metabolic abnormalities may experience rapid decline in their cognitive skills

People who are obese and also have high blood pressure and other risk factors called metabolic abnormalities may experience a faster decline in their cognitive skills over time than others, according to a study published in the August 21, 2012, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

21 Aug 2012

Study utilizes integrative approach to probe biology of bipolar disorder

The more that we understand the brain, the more complex it becomes. The same can be said about the genetics and neurobiology of psychiatric disorders. For "Mendelian" disorders, like Huntington disease, mutation of a single gene predictably produces a single clinical disorder, following relatively simple genetic principals. Compared to Mendelian disorders, understanding bipolar disorder has been extremely challenging. Its biology is not well understood and its genetics are complex.

21 Aug 2012

Study shows significant benefits of temporal training on cognitive function in the elderly

Research has found that declines in temporal information processing (TIP), the rate at which auditory information is processed, underlies the progressive loss of function across multiple cognitive systems in the elderly, including new learning, memory, perception, attention, thinking, motor control, problem solving, and concept formation. In a new study, scientists have found that elderly subjects who underwent temporal training improved not only the rate at which they processed auditory information, but also in other cognitive areas.

21 Aug 2012

Protein toxic to nerve cells in AD also contributes to memory loss

The underlying causes of Alzheimer's disease are not fully understood, but a good deal of evidence points to the accumulation of β-amyloid, a protein that's toxic to nerve cells. β-amyloid is formed by the activity of several enzymes, including one called BACE1. Most Alzheimer's disease patients have elevated levels of BACE1, which in turn leads to more brain-damaging β-amyloid protein.

20 Aug 2012

Secondhand smoke exposure decreases sensitivity to cough-eliciting respiratory irritants in children

New research from the Monell Center reveals that exposure to secondhand smoke decreases sensitivity to cough-eliciting respiratory irritants in otherwise healthy children and adolescents.

20 Aug 2012

Pulvinar regulates communication between clusters of brain cells

A mysterious region deep in the human brain could be where we sort through the onslaught of stimuli from the outside world and focus on the information most important to our behavior and survival, Princeton University researchers have found.

18 Aug 2012

Damage to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex increases credulity

Everyone knows the adage: "If something sounds too good to be true, then it probably is." Why, then, do some people fall for scams and why are older folks especially prone to being duped? An answer, it seems, is because a specific area of the brain has deteriorated or is damaged, according to researchers at the University of Iowa.

17 Aug 2012

People with no dementia symptoms and high protein levels more likely to avoid the disease

People who are free of dementia and have high levels of a protein that indicates the presence of inflammation have relatives who are more likely to avoid the disease as well, according to a new study published in the August 15, 2012, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

16 Aug 2012

Neuroscience News and Research

Fit Brains achieves 75 million brain scores milestone

New UCLA study pinpoints unique human patterns of gene activity in the brain

A father’s stress can lead to psychiatric disorders in female offspring

Neuroscientists try to decipher precisely how human brain constructs our sense of self

Study might help solve the biggest mystery of Parkinson’s

Two Penn Medicine hospitals receive Primary Stroke Center certification from The Joint Commission

New study: Reasoning training does alter brain connections

SSEA4+ marker helps identify and isolate precursors of insulin-producing pancreatic cells

OBI’s Oxycyte improves imaging of penumbra following acute ischemic stroke

Reasoning and behavioral control dependent on different regions of frontal lobes

Neurally-interfaced hand prosthesis re-establishes communication between nervous systems

Study finds academic problems among students who sacrifice sleep for extra study time

People with metabolic abnormalities may experience rapid decline in their cognitive skills

Study utilizes integrative approach to probe biology of bipolar disorder

Study shows significant benefits of temporal training on cognitive function in the elderly

Protein toxic to nerve cells in AD also contributes to memory loss

Secondhand smoke exposure decreases sensitivity to cough-eliciting respiratory irritants in children

Pulvinar regulates communication between clusters of brain cells

Damage to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex increases credulity

People with no dementia symptoms and high protein levels more likely to avoid the disease

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