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.

Auditory training with noise can work in hearing-impaired children

Children with hearing loss struggle to hear in noisy school classrooms, even with the help of hearing aids and other devices to amplify their teacher's voice. Training the brain to filter out background noise and thus understand spoken words could help the academic performance and quality of life for children who struggle to hear, but there's been little evidence that such noise training works in youngsters.

13 Feb 2013

Exposure to harmful quantities of lead may lead to juvenile delinquency

Lead is a common element but is found in old paints (including those once used on children's toys), soil, old piping, water, and the atmosphere from lead-containing vehicular fuels, even drinking vessels. At high dose it is lethal but also causes seemingly trivial symptoms such as headaches. However, in children lead can also lead to irreversible damage to the organs, the kidneys in particular, and the nervous system including the brain.

13 Feb 2013

GSK, Vanderbilt partner to develop and commercialize new therapies for severe obesity

Vanderbilt University announced today that it has signed a collaboration agreement with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) for the discovery, development and commercialization of novel therapies for severe obesity.

13 Feb 2013

Tips for menopausal women to better enjoy their sex lives

Menopause can be a real rollercoaster—and that can impact women's sex lives. It can cause women's libidos to climb, suddenly drop, and then climb again due to the combination of estrogen and women's own levels of testosterone powering this wild cycle.

13 Feb 2013

Interleukin 6 variant associated with developmental problems after preterm birth in females

In a study to be presented on February 14 between 1:15 p.m., and 3:30 p.m. PST, at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine's annual meeting, The Pregnancy Meeting -, in San Francisco, researchers will report that variation in a gene involved in inflammation is associated with developmental problems after preterm birth in females, but not males.

13 Feb 2013

Boston College biologist receives $2.7M NIH grant to continue HIV and AIDS research

Boston College biologist Ken Williams, whose research focuses on the role of immunological cells in a range of illnesses that strike people living with HIV and AIDS, has been awarded a five-year, $2.7 million grant from the NIH's National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

12 Feb 2013

Menopausal brain changes support estrogen’s protective role in schizophrenia

Researchers have found morphological differences between pre- and postmenopausal women with schizophrenia that support a protective role for estrogen in the psychiatric disorder.

12 Feb 2013

Strokes that occur during or shortly after surgery can be devastating

Strokes that occur during or shortly after surgery can be devastating, resulting in longer hospital stays and increased risks of death or long-term disability.

12 Feb 2013

Developing tiny probes for research and brain-related medical applications

Developing tiny probes for research and brain-related medical applications - that is the goal of the project NeuroSeeker, launched in February 2013 with a kick-off event in Leuven, Belgium.

12 Feb 2013

Enzyme therapy slows progression of Batten disease in dogs

Batten disease is a rare, fatal genetic disorder that affects children. Currently, no effective treatment exists for the disease, which ultimately kills all who are affected. Dachshunds also suffer from Batten disease, and now researchers from the University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine and School of Medicine, in collaboration with BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc., have developed a treatment for the disease that has significantly delayed the onset and progression of symptoms in the Dachshunds.

12 Feb 2013

Valor, Oxygen Biotherapeutics enter License and Supply Agreement for Dermacyte

Oxygen Biotherapeutics, Inc., announced today that it has entered into a License and Supply Agreement with the Cosmetics Division of Valor SA of Lausanne, Switzerland, for Dermacyte, a perfluorocarbon based cosmetic product currently manufactured and distributed by Oxygen Biotherapeutics.

11 Feb 2013

Study shows effects of maternal obesity on fetuses

In a study to be presented on February 15 between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. PST, at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine's annual meeting, The Pregnancy Meeting -, in San Francisco, California, researchers from Tufts Medical Center will present findings showing the effects of maternal obesity on a fetus, specifically in the development of the brain.

11 Feb 2013

Modified measure quickly and effectively gauges intraventricular hemorrhage

Researchers have modified the Graeb score to produce a reliable, simple, quick, and clinically meaningful approximation of intraventricular hemorrhage volume.

11 Feb 2013

Valproate, pregnancy and IQ: an interview with Professor Kimford Meador

Valproate (sodium salt of valproic acid) is an anticonvulsant used in the treatment of epilepsy, migraine and bipolar disorder as well as some other off label psychiatric indications.

11 Feb 2013

Scientists identify enigmatic aggregates linked to neurodegenerative diseases

The proteins that have now been identified shouldn't actually exist. Nevertheless, they build the core of cellular aggregates whose identity has been enigmatic until now. These aggregates are typically associated with hereditary neurodegenerative diseases including variants of frontotemporal dementia (FTD), also known as frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD), and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). They are likely to be damaging and might be a target for therapy.

11 Feb 2013

Experts discuss hottest topics in Alzheimer's brain imaging at 7th HAI conference

At the 7th Human Amyloid Imaging conference held last month in Miami, Florida, 250 experts discussed the hottest topics in Alzheimer's disease brain imaging.

11 Feb 2013

Study questions high rate of cesarean deliveries in women with aneurysms

For women with aneurysms involving the brain blood vessels, pregnancy and delivery don't appear to increase the risk of aneurysm rupture, reports a paper in the February issue of Neurosurgery, official journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons.

11 Feb 2013

Dkk1 molecule accumulates with age and inhibits formation of new neurons

As the elderly age, their ability to concentrate, reason, and recall facts tends to decline in part because their brains generate fewer new neurons than they did when they were younger. Now, researchers reporting in the February 7th issue of the Cell Press journal Cell Stem Cell have discovered a molecule that accumulates with age and inhibits the formation of new neurons.

11 Feb 2013

FDA issues draft guidance on developing new treatments for Alzheimer's

Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a proposal designed to assist companies developing new treatments for patients in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease, before the onset of noticeable (overt) dementia.

11 Feb 2013

Intra-arterial therapy no more effective than IV t-PA in treating acute ischemic stroke

A stroke survivor's chances of living independently after 90 days are not improved by the use of devices inserted into the artery to dissolve or remove a stroke-causing clot shortly after the onset of symptoms, according to a randomized controlled trial involving 656 patients.

11 Feb 2013