Hypothalamus News and Research

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The Hypothalamus is the area of the brain that controls body temperature, hunger, and thirst.

Bardet-Biedl syndrome provides clues on obesity, blood pressure

University of Iowa researchers have found a clue about how resistance to the hormone leptin might disrupt the brain signals that tell the body when to stop eating.

4 Mar 2008

Brain differences between women and men

What was once speculation is now being confirmed by scientists: the brains of women and men are different in more ways than one.

1 Mar 2008

Adult-onset obesity seen in mice when gene ubiquitin disrupted

Texas and California scientists who disrupted one type of the gene ubiquitin (Ubb) in mice observed neuronal death in the hypothalamus, impaired control of energy balance and adult-onset obesity in the rodents.

27 Feb 2008

Insulin administered intranasally may lower food intake in men, improve memory in women

Insulin administered intranasally, acutely decreases food intake in men but not women and in contrast, the compound improves memory function in women but not men according to a new study accepted for publication in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM).

22 Feb 2008

Stress hormone impacts memory, learning in diabetic rodents

Diabetes is known to impair the cognitive health of people, but now scientists have identified one potential mechanism underlying these learning and memory problems.

18 Feb 2008

Predisposition for obesity might be wired into the brain

A predisposition for obesity might be wired into the brain from the start, suggests a new study of rats in the February issue of Cell Metabolism, a publication of Cell Press.

7 Feb 2008

Deep brain stimulation may improve memory

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) surgery, which is used to treat Parkinson's disease and other movement disorders, is now being studied for its potential to treat a variety of conditions.

4 Feb 2008

Overeating and obesity triggered by lack of brain-derived neurotrophic factor

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, close to one-third of the population in the United States is obese and another third is overweight.

28 Dec 2007

Blind humans lacking rods and cones retain normal responses to non-visual effects of light

In addition to allowing us to see, the mammalian eye also detects light for a number of "non-visual" phenomena.

14 Dec 2007

Brain may have important influences on glucose metabolism and insulin action

An appetite-suppressing chemical also improves glucose tolerance and lowers insulin levels in obese and diabetic mice, researchers report in the November issue of Cell Metabolism, a publication of Cell Press.

13 Nov 2007

Brain appears to play important role in glucose metabolism and insulin action

6 Nov 2007

Study identifies pathway required for normal reproductive development

Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) clinical researchers, in collaboration with basic scientists from the University of California, Irvine (UC Irvine) have identified a new molecular pathway required for normal development of the reproductive, olfactory and circadian systems in both humans and mice.

17 Oct 2007

Insomniac fish help understand the genetics behind sleep disorders

Scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine have hooked a fish that suffers from insomnia in their quest to understand the genetics behind sleep disorders.

16 Oct 2007

Scientists identify brain circuits that 'decide' how much we eat

Scientists have identified the brain circuits that 'decide' how much we eat. Using live brain scanning techniques and an innovative study design, researchers have discovered how the brain controls food intake in humans. Their findings are published in Nature.

15 Oct 2007

Low birth weight children may be at a greater risk of stress-related health problems as adults

Findings from this study show that low birth weight (below the 10th percentile) can lead later in life to low concentrations of cortisol, a hormone that regulates stress response by adjusting blood pressure and blood sugar levels.

27 Sep 2007

Functional brain imaging shows neural circuits contributing to pedophilia

Pedophilia, the sexual attraction of adults to children, is a significant public health concern and it does not respond well to treatment.

21 Sep 2007

Sildenafil increases release of key reproductive hormone oxytocin

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison report this month that sildenafil increases the amount of oxytocin released by stimulation of the posterior pituitary gland, a small structure directly underneath the brain that regulates hormone levels in response to neural signals.

24 Aug 2007

How the brain produces fever responses during infections

With the finding that fever is produced by the action of a hormone on a specific site in the brain, scientists have answered a key question as to how this adaptive function helps to protect the body during bacterial infection and other types of illness.

6 Aug 2007

Potential dangers of Ritalin

Use of the attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) drug Ritalin by young children may cause long-term changes in the developing brain, suggests a new study of very young rats by a research team at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City.

18 Jul 2007

Chemical in brain acts like a fuel gauge

The concept that a drop in blood sugar triggers a craving for food is best understood just before lunchtime. But exactly how the process unfolds has proven difficult to explain, even on a full stomach.

9 Jul 2007