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Study identifies genetic variation linked with increased risk of major depression

Numerous studies have shown that the brain molecule neuropeptide Y (NPY) helps to restore calm after stressful events. A team of University of Michigan-led researchers has now found that people whose genes predispose them to produce lower levels of NPY are more responsive to negative stimuli in key brain circuits related to emotion - and are therefore less resilient in the face of stress and may be at higher risk for developing a major depressive disorder.

8 Feb 2011

Research provides new clues to understand link between deficits of AGPO-3, depression

The link between deficits of omega-3 poly-unsaturated fatty acids and the onset of depressive disorders is not new in the medical field. However, what has not been known until now is the brain mechanism by which diet can condition mental health to a certain extent.

5 Feb 2011

Neurons activated by learning show extensive expansion of structure

When a laboratory rat learns how to reach for and grab a food pellet - a pretty complex and unnatural act for a rodent - the acquired knowledge significantly alters the structure of the specific brain cells involved, which sprout a whopping 22 percent more dendritic spines connecting them to other motor neurons.

3 Feb 2011

Specific brain network acts as event monitoring system

Wouldn't life be easy if everything happened as we anticipated? In reality, our brains are able to adapt to the unexpected using an inbuilt network that makes predictions about the world and monitors how those predictions turn out.

1 Feb 2011

New study sheds further light on stroke recovery process

Most people who survive a stroke recover some degree of their motor, sensory and cognitive functions over the following months and years. This recovery is commonly believed to reflect a reorganisation of the central nervous system that occurs after brain damage. Now a new study, published in the February 2011 issue of Elsevier's Cortex, sheds further light on the recovery process through its effect on language skills.

1 Feb 2011

Brain scans can predict smokers' behavior change: New study

Brain scans showing neural reactions to pro-health messages can predict if you'll keep that resolution to quit smoking more accurately than you yourself can. That's according to a new study forthcoming in Health Psychology, a peer-reviewed journal.

1 Feb 2011

Omega-3 deficieny may play a role in neuropsychiatric disorders: Study

Researchers from Inserm and INRA and their collaborators in Spain collaboration, have studied mice fed on a diet low in omega-3 fatty acid. They discovered that reduced levels of omega-3 had deleterious consequences on synaptic functions and emotional behaviours.

30 Jan 2011

UMMS, Lundbeck announce research collaboration to develop targeted therapy for HD

The University of Massachusetts Medical School and Lundbeck Inc. today announced a research collaboration aimed at further development of a targeted therapy to slow or halt the progression of Huntington's disease.

29 Jan 2011

New insight on rehabilitating brain function in addicts

People with addictions to stimulants tend to choose instant gratification or a smaller but sooner reward over a future benefit, even if the future reward is greater. Reduced value of a future reward, called "delay discounting" by neuroscientists, is the major challenge for treatment of addiction. A new study in the February 2011 (Vol. 69, Issue 3) Biological Psychiatry appears to present a strategy for increasing the value of future rewards in the minds of addicts.

28 Jan 2011

Transcranial magnetic stimulation helps rats to learn more quickly

What sounds like science fiction is actually possible: thanks to magnetic stimulation, the activity of certain brain nerve cells can be deliberately influenced. What happens in the brain in this context has been unclear up to now. Medical experts from Bochum under the leadership of Prof. Dr. Klaus Funke (Department of Neurophysiology) have now shown that various stimulus patterns changed the activity of distinct neuronal cell types.

28 Jan 2011

UMMS, Lundbeck enter research collaboration to develop targeted therapy for HD

The University of Massachusetts Medical School and Lundbeck today announced a research collaboration aimed at further development of a targeted therapy to slow or halt the progression of Huntington's disease.

28 Jan 2011

Cognitive training may help end hijacking of imagination by drugs of abuse

The growing numbers of new cases of substance abuse disorders are perplexing. After all, the course of drug addiction so often ends badly. The negative consequences of drug abuse appear regularly on TV, from stories of celebrities behaving in socially inappropriate and self-destructive ways while intoxicated to dramatization of the rigors of drug withdrawal on "Intervention" and other reality shows.

28 Jan 2011

Teen brains react with erratic excitement during reward-driven tasks

University of Pittsburgh researchers have recorded neuron activity in adolescent rat brains that could reveal the biological root of the teenage propensity to consider rewards over consequences and explain why adolescents are more vulnerable to drug addiction, behavioral disorders, and other psychological ills.

27 Jan 2011

Potential therapy to enhance memory and prevent loss of long-term memory

Researchers from Mount Sinai School of Medicine have identified a therapy that may enhance memory and prevent the loss of long-term memory. The research is published in the January 27th issue of Nature.

27 Jan 2011

Nexstim closes additional equity financing for approximately EUR 11.4 million

Nexstim Oy, a medical device company commercializing noninvasive brain diagnostic and therapy technologies, today announced that it has closed on additional equity financing of approximately EUR 11.4 million.

27 Jan 2011

New research reveals dynamics behind signal transmission in brain

Surprising rate at which neuronal networks in the cerebral cortex delete sensory information. The dynamics behind signal transmission in the brain are extremely chaotic. This conclusion has been reached by scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization at the University of Göttingen and the Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Göttingen.

24 Jan 2011

Psychological Science journal releases new research findings

The insula has been implicated in evaluative and affective processes. New findings indicate that the insula may be broadly involved in integrating affective and cognitive processes. Participants rated the positivity and negativity of picture stimuli and how emotionally arousing they found the pictures to be.

24 Jan 2011

MGH research sheds light on mechanisms of action of mindfulness-based training

Participating in an 8-week mindfulness meditation program appears to make measurable changes in brain regions associated with memory, sense of self, empathy and stress. In a study that will appear in the January 30 issue of Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, a team led by Massachusetts General Hospital researchers report the results of their study, the first to document meditation-produced changes over time in the brain's grey matter.

24 Jan 2011

New research shows how humans readily learn to throw long distances

Can't help molding some snow into a ball and hurling it or tossing a stone as far into a lake as you can? New research from Indiana University and the University of Wyoming shows how humans, unlike any other species on Earth, readily learn to throw long distances. This research also suggests that this unique evolutionary trait is entangled with language development in a way critical to our very existence.

24 Jan 2011

New study unravels neural mechanisms underlying inability to express emotions

This German study demonstrates that the supragenual anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is constantly activated more strongly in alexithymic subjects and that this activation is related to the symptoms of alexithymia and not to associated symptoms such as depression. These findings also support the hypothesis of an altered function of the ACC in alexithymia.

18 Jan 2011