Neuroimaging News and Research

RSS

Study examines impact of APOE ε4 on cognitive function, brain anatomy in AD patients

In the most comprehensive study to date, neurologists have clearly identified significant differences in the ways that Alzheimer's disease affects patients with and without the apolipoprotein E ε4 gene, a known genetic risk factor for the neurodegenerative disease, using a combination of cognitive and neuroanatomic measures. The study found that this gene influences the way the disease manifests, even at its mildest clinical stages.

19 May 2010

Children with epilepsy say their quality of life is comparable to that of healthy siblings

Children with epilepsy often face multiple challenges - not only seizures but learning, cognitive and school difficulties, side effects from medication, and, not surprisingly, social stigma from their peers.

14 May 2010

Adults with SCA show poorer performance on neurocognitive tests: Study

Compared with a group of healthy study participants, adults with sickle cell anemia showed poorer performance on neurocognitive tests, which was associated with anemia and age, according to a study in the May 12 issue of JAMA.

13 May 2010

Imperial College London and McGill University expand scientific collaboration

Neurological research and clinical care received a significant boost today as Imperial College London and McGill University of Montreal entered an agreement enabling them to work more closely together in this field.

11 May 2010

Dyslexic children may have structural differences in brain region, says study

Children with dyslexia often struggle with reading, writing, and spelling, despite getting an appropriate education and demonstrating intellectual ability in other areas.

11 May 2010

Patients with semantic dementia have altered sense of flavours

Flavour is literally the spice of life and for many people life without the pleasures of the table would be unthinkable. Yet just this aspect of everyday life is vulnerable in certain degenerative dementias, with patients developing abnormal eating behaviours including changes in food preferences, faddism and pathological sweet tooth.

11 May 2010

A cutting-edge symposium sheds light on the possibilities of molecular neuroimaging

SNM's Molecular Imaging Center of Excellence wrapped up its Molecular Neuroimaging Symposium today in Bethesda, Md., at the Natcher Auditorium of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

10 May 2010

Two-day symposium on molecular neuroimaging

Today, SNM's Molecular Imaging Center of Excellence kicked off a two-day symposium bringing together individuals from multiple scientific disciplines-including chemistry, engineering, physics, molecular biology, neurosciences and imaging sciences-to promote the emerging field of molecular neuroimaging.

7 May 2010

Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex involved in cognitive aspects of ToM, says study

The ability to infer what another person is thinking is an essential tool for social interaction and is known by neuroscientists as "Theory of Mind" (ToM), but how does the brain actually allow us to do this? We are able to rationally infer what someone knows, thinks, or intends, but we are also able to "slip into their shoes" and infer how they feel, and it seems that the brain processes these different types of information in different ways, as confirmed by a new report in the June 2010 issue of Elsevier's Cortex.

5 May 2010

Older adults with depression do not respond to emotional stimuli, says study

Scientists have found an important clue in the quest to understand why people who suffer from depression in later life are harder to treat and keep well in the long term.

5 May 2010

Researchers develop lottery game to assess extent of spatial neglect

Patients recovering from stroke sometimes behave as if completely unaware of one half of the world: colliding with obstacles on their left, eating food only from the right side of their plate, or failing to dress their left side. This puzzling phenomenon is termed "spatial neglect" and it affects roughly 45% of patients suffering from a stroke in the right side of the brain.

29 Apr 2010

New study links psychopathy to frontal lobe dysfunction

Psychopaths are known to be characterized by callousness, diminished capacity for remorse, and lack of empathy. However, the exact cause of these personality traits is an area of scientific debate. The results of a new study, reported in the May 2010 issue of Elsevier's Cortex, show striking similarities between the mental impairments observed in psychopaths and those seen in patients with frontal lobe damage.

28 Apr 2010

Researchers find Alzheimer's pathology to originate from Amyloid-Beta oligomers in the brain

Using a new mouse model of Alzheimer's disease, researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine have found that Alzheimer's pathology originates in Amyloid-Beta (Abeta) oligomers in the brain, rather than the amyloid plaques previously thought by many researchers to cause the disease.

28 Apr 2010

Baxter International's global sales for first-quarter advances by 11% to $3.1 billion

Baxter International Inc. today reported first quarter net income of $525 million, an increase of 2 percent from $516 million reported in the first quarter of 2009. Earnings per diluted share of $0.86 increased 4 percent from $0.83 per diluted share reported in the prior-year period. Baxter's first quarter financial results included a one-time, non-cash special charge of $39 million (or $0.07 per diluted share) related to a change in the tax treatment of post-retirement prescription drug benefits under recent U.S. healthcare reform legislation.

From Baxter International Inc. 22 Apr 2010

Mild Cognitive Impairment Symposium is now 'Symposium on Early Alzheimer's Disease'

This year, the Miami Beach symposium kicked off on a rainy Friday with a new name and a new focus on biomarkers. For seven years, the meeting has been called the Mild Cognitive Impairment Symposium, but that changed this year to the Symposium on Early Alzheimer's Disease. The change comes as a nod to a recent and dramatic shift in how Alzheimer disease is perceived, and what researchers increasingly see as the most promising angle of attack for future therapeutics.

22 Apr 2010

Elan's first-quarter total revenue up by 27% to $310.5M

Elan Corporation, plc, today reported its first quarter 2010 financial results.

21 Apr 2010

Researchers find no correlation between AED drug load and number of adverse effects in epileptic patients

Researchers have found that polytherapy with multiple anti-epileptic drugs did not result in greater adverse effects than monotherapy for patients with refractory epilepsy. This observational study also found AED load was not a factor in causing adverse effects, but suggests that individual susceptibility, type of AEDs used, and physicians' skills determine which patients suffer adverse effects.

20 Apr 2010

FTO gene associated with loss of brain tissue: UCLA researchers

Three years ago, geneticists reported the startling discovery that nearly half of all people in the U.S. with European ancestry carry a variant of the fat mass and obesity associated gene, which causes them to gain weight - from three to seven pounds, on average - but worse, puts them at risk for obesity.

20 Apr 2010

Study combines CT and VBM to provide accurate picture of autistic brain

A new study, the first of its kind, combines two complementary analytical brain imaging techniques, to provide a more comprehensive and accurate picture of the neuroanatomy of the autistic brain. The study, published in the April issue of neuroimaging journal Human Brain Mapping, was conducted by researchers at The Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital - The Neuro, McGill University and the Universit- de Montr-al.

15 Apr 2010

BRAMS selected to provide DSP tools to investigate brain plasticity in humans

Sonomax Technologies Inc. has been selected by Montr-al's International Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound Research to provide miniaturized, real-time, in-ear, digital signal processing devices to investigate experience-dependent brain plasticity in humans.

15 Apr 2010