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.

UAB School of Nursing raising bar on service for veterans

Partnering with Birmingham's VA Medical Center and with colleagues across a wide range of health care professions, the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Nursing is raising the bar on service for veterans and their families.

3 Apr 2013

Report shows identical genetic mutations are shared among neurodevelopmental disorders

A paper published this month in the prestigious medical journal The Lancet Neurology suggests that a broad spectrum of developmental and psychiatric disorders, ranging from autism and intellectual disability to schizophrenia, should be conceptualized as different manifestations of a common underlying denominator, "developmental brain dysfunction," rather than completely independent conditions with distinct causes.

3 Apr 2013

Salk neuroscientist applauds launch of BRAIN Initiative

Salk neuroscientist Terrence J. Sejnowski joined President Barack Obama in Washington, D.C., on April 2, 2013, at the launch of the Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies Initiative-a major Administration neuroscience effort that advances and builds upon collaborative scientific work by leading brain researchers such as Salk's own Sejnowski.

3 Apr 2013

RUB biologists report that vitamin P ensures survival of motor neurons in culture

Biologists from the Ruhr-Universit-t Bochum have explored how to protect neurons that control movements from dying off.

3 Apr 2013

Biogen acquires TYSABRI stake from Elan

Biogen Idec today announced it has completed its purchase of Elan Corporation's interest in TYSABRI (natalizumab) and has gained full strategic, commercial and decision-making rights to TYSABRI.

3 Apr 2013

Obama to announce initiative to map human brain

The New York Times reports that President Barack Obama will unveil a broad new research initiative Tuesday, starting with $100 million next year, to find ways to record and map human brain circuits.

3 Apr 2013

Kavli Foundation applauds launch of new brain research initiative

The Kavli Foundation applauds today's launch by President Obama of his Administration's ambitious research effort to understand the brain by deciphering the brain's activity that gives rise to our perceptions, our experiences and our consciousness.

3 Apr 2013

Researchers to test cyclodextrin for treating Niemann-Pick Type C disease

Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis is playing a leading role in one of the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) first clinical trials to improve treatments for rare and neglected diseases.

3 Apr 2013

Research facilitates development of treatments, cures to Alzheimer's disease

A team of researchers at The New York Stem Cell Foundation Research Institute led by Scott Noggle, PhD, Director of the NYSCF Laboratory and the NYSCF - Charles Evans Senior Research Fellow for Alzheimer's Disease, and Michael W. Nestor, PhD, a NYSCF Postdoctoral Research Fellow, has developed a technique to produce three-dimensional cultures of induced pluripotent stem cells called embryoid bodies, amenable to live cell imaging and to electrical activity measurement.

3 Apr 2013

Image sharing aims to reduce need for repeat scans

Several state and regional health-information exchanges have begun sharing images electronically, and a number of companies sell image-sharing technology directly to hospitals and radiology clinics in a development that could slow health care spending.

3 Apr 2013

EEG can be used to identify treatable causes of common disorders in hospital patients, say researchers

EEG Could be More Widely Used to Identify Treatable Causes of Common Disorders in Hospital Patients, Say Researchers in Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

2 Apr 2013

Penn neurosurgeons use diffusion tensor imaging to better adapt brain tumor surgeries

Neurosurgeons can visualize important pathways in the brain using an imaging technique called diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), to better adapt brain tumor surgeries and preserve language, visual and motor function while removing cancerous tissue.

2 Apr 2013

Minocycline can help reduce hemorrhagic stroke damage

A new study will help determine if an antibiotic is a partial antidote for the poisonous effect blood has on the brain following a hemorrhagic stroke, researchers say.

2 Apr 2013

Men with Lynch syndrome face increased lifetime risk of prostate cancer

Men with an inherited genetic condition called Lynch syndrome face a higher lifetime risk of developing prostate cancer and appear to develop the disease at an earlier age, according to a new study led by researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center.

2 Apr 2013

Risk prediction tools that estimate future risk of stroke and heart disease may also predict memory loss

Risk prediction tools that estimate future risk of heart disease and stroke may be more useful predictors of future decline in cognitive abilities, or memory and thinking, than a dementia risk score, according to a new study published in the April 2, 2013, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

2 Apr 2013

New born neurons as a therapeutic strategy: an interview with Mi-Hyeon Jang, Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota

There are two regions in the brain that continue to produce new neurons well into adulthood. One of these regions is the hippocampus and as we converse this region is actively involved in memory formation, mood regulation and cognition.

2 Apr 2013

First Edition: April 2, 2013

Kaiser Health News consumer columnist Michelle Andrews answers readers' questions about the new marketplaces where consumers can buy 2014 health policies as part of the federal health law. (Andrews, 4/2).

2 Apr 2013

Researchers examine effects of meditation on compassion, virtuous behavior

Scientists have mostly focused on the benefits of meditation for the brain and the body, but a recent study by Northeastern University's David DeSteno, published in Psychological Science, takes a look at what impacts meditation has on interpersonal harmony and compassion.

2 Apr 2013

MIT scientists model structure of alpha synuclein protein associated with Parkinson's

Clumps of proteins that accumulate in brain cells are a hallmark of neurological diseases such as dementia, Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease. Over the past several years, there has been much controversy over the structure of one of those proteins, known as alpha synuclein.

2 Apr 2013

Researchers use common virus to modify adult stem cells

Using the same strategy that a common virus employs to evade the human immune system, researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center's Institute for Regenerative Medicine have modified adult stem cells to increase their survival - with the goal of giving the cells time to exert their natural healing abilities.

2 Apr 2013