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.

Nature’s own gene therapy

A brand-new technique of gene therapy was reported on December 16, 2019, in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering. The scientists made use of the potential of human cells to produce biological nanoparticles chockful of edited genes, so that they could insert beneficial genes into people suffering from various disease processes.

17 Dec 2019

Cancer drug shows promise in battling Parkinson’s disease

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a lifelong condition that affects the nerve cells in the brain that produce dopamine. As a result, people with this neurodegenerative disease experience tremors, changes in speech, gait issues, and muscle rigidity. Though it has no cure, a new drug used to treat cancer shows promise in treating Parkinson’s.

17 Dec 2019

High-fat meal can silence gut's communication with the body, study shows

A high-fat meal can silence communication between the intestine and the rest of the body, according to a new Duke University study in zebrafish.

17 Dec 2019

MGH scientists use electronic health records for early diagnosis of dementia

A team of scientists from Massachusetts General Hospital has developed a software-based method of scanning electronic health records to estimate the risk that a healthy person will receive a dementia diagnosis in the future.

17 Dec 2019

Immune cells may link body composition to how cognition changes with age, study suggests

Iowa State researchers have found for the first time that less muscle and more body fat may affect our thinking as we age, and changes in parts of the immune system could be responsible.

17 Dec 2019

UTHealth researchers receive $3.1 million NIH grant to address youth vaping epidemic

As e-cigarette use by young people reaches epidemic proportions, researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston have received a $3.1 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to conduct the first-ever assessment on the long-term results of a nationwide nicotine vaping prevention program for youth called CATCH My Breath.

17 Dec 2019

Scientists reveal brain mechanisms and functional regions that underlie confirmation bias

An international research team comprising neuroscientists at Virginia Tech, University College London and the University of London revealed brain mechanisms and functional regions that underlie confirmation bias -- a phenomenon where people strongly favor information that reinforces their existing opinions over contradictory ones.

17 Dec 2019

Contribution of suicide to opioid-related deaths may be overstated, study suggests

The study is the first to use national data on opioid overdose deaths between 2000 and 2017 to find out what share of these deaths in individuals age 15 and older were unintentional, due to suicide, or of undetermined intent.

17 Dec 2019

Smart, nature-inspired system provides continuous information on patient’s health

Researchers at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and China's Xidian University present, in Chemical Reviews, a comprehensive review of smart systems that provide continuous information on a subject's health.

17 Dec 2019

New discovery can allow scientists to tell old and new memories apart

Researchers have discovered signatures in brain activity that allow them to tell old and new memories apart. A team at Japan's RIKEN Center for Brain Science analyzed recordings from mouse brains using a machine-leaning algorithm, which was able to accurately classify memories as recent or remote. They also found robust communication between a frontal brain region and the hippocampus, an area strongly involved in memory formation.

17 Dec 2019

New technique could lead to better diagnosis and effective tracking of Huntington’s disease

Researchers at the universities of Southampton and Cambridge have developed a new technique to analyze biochemical changes unique to Huntington's disease.

17 Dec 2019

Modified stroke drug boosts injury repair in rats with spinal cord damage

Adding a modified stroke drug to stem cells used to treat rats with spinal injury boosted the therapy and motor activity.

17 Dec 2019

Stroke drug improves stem cell therapy in rat spinal cord injury models

Four months after treating them, Yasuhiro Shiga, MD, PhD, checked on his rats. Walking into the lab, he carried minimal expectations.

17 Dec 2019

The Acoustics of the Brain: Random-access 3D Microscopy in Neuroscience

Máté Marosi and Zsolt Iván discuss the use of acousto-optic microscopes to study neural networks in the brain, from cell bodies to dendrites, to tiny spines.

From Femtonics Ltd. 17 Dec 2019

New wearable monitoring device can benefit people with swallowing disorders

A wearable monitoring device to make treatments easier and more affordable for the millions of people with swallowing disorders is about to be released into the market.

17 Dec 2019

Spine surgery is safe in advanced-age patient group

Spine surgeons from seven institutions in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan, conducted a multicenter, prospective study of spine surgeries performed in patients 80 years of age and older.

17 Dec 2019

Researchers identify factors impacting money management skills in MS patients

A team of rehabilitation researchers identified factors associated with the money management problems experienced by some individuals with multiple sclerosis.

17 Dec 2019

Study shows nilotinib drug is safe and well tolerated in patients with Parkinson's disease

A clinical trial investigating the repurposed cancer drug nilotinib in people with Parkinson's disease finds that it is reasonably safe and well tolerated.

17 Dec 2019

Researchers demonstrate a novel method for treating multiple sclerosis

Measuring changes in the speed of electrical signals along nerves connecting the eyes to the brain may accurately reflect recovery from myelin loss in multiple sclerosis (MS), according to researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and could be used to evaluate new treatments for the disease.

17 Dec 2019

New gene therapy has potential to reverse disease processes

Scientists have developed a new gene-therapy technique by transforming human cells into mass producers of tiny nano-sized particles full of genetic material that has the potential to reverse disease processes.

17 Dec 2019