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Neural clues found for impaired emotional response in bipolar disorder

Researchers have identified distinct trait- and state-related neural abnormalities during emotional response inhibition in patients with bipolar disorder.

22 Jan 2013

Neuronal reprogramming may help treat neurodegenerative diseases

A new finding by Harvard stem cell biologists turns one of the basics of neurobiology on its head - demonstrating that it is possible to turn one type of already differentiated neuron into another within the brain.

22 Jan 2013

Low blood flow to the premature brain disrupts cells' ability to fully mature

Physician-scientists at Oregon Health & Science University Doernbecher Children's Hospital are challenging the way pediatric neurologists think about brain injury in the pre-term infant. In a study published online in the Jan. 16 issue of Science Translational Medicine, the OHSU Doernbecher researchers report for the first time that low blood and oxygen flow to the developing brain does not, as previously thought, cause an irreversible loss of brain cells, but rather disrupts the cells' ability to fully mature.

19 Jan 2013

New model of tau pathology spread

Brain diseases associated with the misformed protein tau, including Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal lobar degeneration with tau pathologies, are characterized by neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) comprised of pathological tau filaments.

19 Jan 2013

New insight into personality psychology

Extraversion does not just explain differences between how people act at social events. How extraverted you are may influence how the brain makes choices - specifically whether you choose an immediate or delayed reward, according to a new study. The work is part of a growing body of research on the vital role of understanding personality in society.

19 Jan 2013

New combination of neural imaging methods discovers brain's ability to adapt to injury

For the first time, scientists at Carnegie Mellon University's Center for Cognitive Brain Imaging (CCBI) have used a new combination of neural imaging methods to discover exactly how the human brain adapts to injury.

17 Jan 2013

Preterm infants with slower growth have delayed development in the cerebral cortex

Preterm infants who grow more slowly as they approached what would have been their due dates also have slower development in an area of the brain called the cerebral cortex, report Canadian researchers in a new study published today in Science Translational Medicine.

17 Jan 2013

Sp2 protein plays a key role in creation of neurons from stem cells

A protein known as Sp2 is key to the proper creation of neurons from stem cells, according to researchers at North Carolina State University. Understanding how this protein works could enable scientists to "program" stem cells for regeneration, which has implications for neural therapies.

16 Jan 2013

Fifteen established scientists to receive NARSAD Distinguished Investigator Grants

The Brain & Behavior Research Foundation (formerly NARSAD, the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression) announced the latest recipients of its highly competitive NARSAD Distinguished Investigator Grants.

16 Jan 2013

Bilingual older people reap neural rewards

Older bilingual people are faster than their monolingual peers in switching from one task to another, show researchers.

9 Jan 2013

Scientists wrestle to understand why Huntington's can produce variable symptoms

Scientists have wrestled to understand why Huntington's disease, which is caused by a single gene mutation, can produce such variable symptoms. An authoritative review by a group of leading experts summarizes the progress relating cell loss in the striatum and cerebral cortex to symptom profile in Huntington's disease, suggesting a possible direction for developing targeted therapies.

9 Jan 2013

Fluoxetine stimulates production of new neurons from L1-INP cells

The production of new neurons in the adult normal cortex in response to the antidepressant, fluoxetine, is reported in a study published online this week in Neuropsychopharmacology.

7 Jan 2013

Women with menopausal transition experience cognitive difficulties

The memory problems that many women experience in their 40s and 50s as they approach and go through menopause are both real and appear to be most acute during the early period of post menopause. That is the conclusion of a study which appears today in the journal Menopause.

4 Jan 2013

New insight into 22q11.2 deletion syndrome

Research out of the George Washington University (GW), published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), reveals another piece of the puzzle in a genetic developmental disorder that causes behavioral diseases such as autism.

4 Jan 2013

MRI could serve as lumbar puncture proxy

Structural brain patterns on magnetic resonance imaging predict cerebrospinal fluid biomarker levels in patients with suspected Alzheimer’s disease or frontotemporal lobar degeneration, preliminary research suggests.

3 Jan 2013

Electroconvulsive therapy releases opiate-like substances

Researchers used electricity on certain regions in the brain of a patient with chronic, severe facial pain to release an opiate-like substance that's considered one of the body's most powerful painkillers.

3 Jan 2013

Prenatal brain development may be important influence on psychiatric risk later in life

Some brain changes that are found in adults with common gene variants linked to disorders such as Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia, and autism can also be seen in the brain scans of newborns.

3 Jan 2013

Study provides clear understanding of how the brain organizes visual input

Our eyes may be our window to the world, but how do we make sense of the thousands of images that flood our retinas each day? Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, have found that the brain is wired to put in order all the categories of objects and actions that we see. They have created the first interactive map of how the brain organizes these groupings.

21 Dec 2012

Bipolar subtypes show neurobiologic differences

Results from a Taiwanese study show that there are significant neurobiologic differences between patients with bipolar I and II disorder.

20 Dec 2012

Harvard scientists shed new light on olfactory feedback mechanism

More than a century after it was first identified, Harvard scientists are shedding new light on a little-understood neural feedback mechanism that may play a key role in how the olfactory system works in the brain.

19 Dec 2012