Neuroimaging News and Research

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Major biomarker candidates for Alzheimer's disease explored

Alzheimer's disease - specific biomarkers clearly are needed for the differential diagnosis of cognitive impairment in the elderly.

8 Mar 2006

Dyslexic children exhibit a different pattern of brain activity while reading

Brain images of children with dyslexia taken before they received spelling instruction show that they have different patterns of neural activity than do good spellers when doing language tasks related to spelling. But after specialized treatment emphasizing the letters in words, they showed similar patterns of brain activity.

24 Feb 2006

First potential treatment for intracerebral hemorrhage

The first potential treatment for strokes that result from bleeding in the brain is under study at the Medical College of Georgia.

18 Jan 2006

New techniques are able to detect and monitor Alzheimer's disease

The search for new measures, or "biomarkers," to detect Alzheimer's disease (AD) before signs of memory loss appear has advanced an important step in a study by researchers at Washington University in St. Louis, MO, and the University of Pittsburgh.

22 Dec 2005

Chronic pain sufferers may be able to reduce pain levels by studying their own live brain images

Chronic pain sufferers may be able to reduce pain levels by studying their own live brain images, researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine report in a new study.

15 Dec 2005

Meditation may slow down brain aging

The regular practice of meditation appears to produce structural changes in areas of the brain associated with attention and sensory processing.

14 Nov 2005

MRI helps early diagnosis of schizophrenia

Researchers may have discovered a new way that may ultimately assist in the early diagnosis of schizophrenia - by utilizing MRI to study the patient's brain.

7 Nov 2005

Research has important implications for autism

New research from Melbourne's Howard Florey Institute helps to explain why children with autism spectrum disorders (autism) have problem-solving difficulties.

24 Oct 2005

Combining fMRI and PET scanning creates a way to compare different measurements of the brain's function concurrently

Clinical researchers from the University of Pennsylvania Health System (UPHS) are the first to combine fMRI and PET scanning in radiology, creating a way to compare different measurements of the brain's function concurrently. This analysis could lead to better diagnosis and treatment in patients suffering from brain disorders, like Alzheimer's disease.

12 Oct 2005

New way to measure the impact of AIDS on the living brain

A new University of California - Los Angeles/University of Pittsburgh imaging study for the first time shows the selective pattern of destruction inflicted by AIDS on brain regions that control motor, language and sensory functions. High-resolution 3-D color scans created from magnetic resonance images (MRI) vividly illustrate the damage.

10 Oct 2005

Important developmental link between the cerebrum and the cerebellum

Higher cognitive functions, like language and visual processing, have long been thought to reside primarily in the brain's cerebrum. But a body of research in premature infants at Children's Hospital Boston is documenting an important role for the cerebellum

3 Oct 2005

Been there, done that!

One of the neural oddities of "declarative" memory--the recall of past things and events--is that some experiments have shown that recognizing a familiar object is accompanied by a reduction in activity of the brain's memory centers in the medial temporal lobe. Such a reduction seems counterintuitive, since remembering seems to be a positive event.

1 Sep 2005

Riluzole appears to have significant antiobsessional, antidepressant, and antianxiety properties

A medication used to ease symptoms of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease, also is helpful in treating people with treatment-resistant obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), according to a pilot study at Yale School of Medicine.

31 Jul 2005

Sleep helps memory

A good night's sleep triggers changes in the brain that help to improve memory, according to a new study led by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC).

28 Jun 2005

Danger of mixing mobile phones and motoring

The reason talking on a cell phone makes drivers less safe may be that the brain can't simultaneously give full attention to both the visual task of driving and the auditory task of listening, a study by a Johns Hopkins University psychologist suggests.

21 Jun 2005

Brain surgery for epilepsy means patients still free of fits 30 years later

A study has shown that thirty years after undergoing temporal lobectomy for epilepsy, half of patients are still free from seizures.

15 Jun 2005

Evidence of cross-activation in brain regions of people who see letters and numbers in colors

Synesthesia, a condition characterized by one sensory experience generating another – so that shapes have tastes, for instance – is estimated to affect between 1 in 200 to 1 in 2,000 people. The most common form involves seeing specific letters or numbers (graphemes) in specific colors.

23 Mar 2005

Extremely shy children have distinct facial expressions

Children who appear to have higher levels of shyness, or a particular gene, appear to have a different pattern of processing the signals of interpersonal hostility, according to a study in the January issue of The Archives of General Psychiatry.

3 Jan 2005

Ethical challenges ahead for neuroscience and society

Are we ready for a future where brain scans invade our private thoughts? Will we have to alter our brains chemically to keep competitive at our jobs? Could science determine that "souls" do not exist, and, if so, what does that mean for how we think of ourselves as human beings?

20 Dec 2004

Prenatal alcohol exposure has effects far beyond fetal alcohol syndrome

Numerous studies have documented IQ deficits in children with fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS). Little research, however, has found IQ deficits in children with alcohol-related neurodevelopmental disorder (ARND), who generally exhibit less severe neurobehavioral deficits than children with FAS.

14 Nov 2004