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Researchers to unravel how brain makes everyday prognostications

Every day we make thousands of tiny predictions - when the bus will arrive, who is knocking on the door, whether the dropped glass will break. Now, in one of the first studies of its kind, researchers at Washington University in St. Louis are beginning to unravel the process by which the brain makes these everyday prognostications.

18 Aug 2011

Researchers isolate 17 novel antibodies against HIV

A team of researchers at and associated with the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), The Scripps Research Institute, the biotechnology company Theraclone Sciences and Monogram Biosciences Inc., a LabCorp company, report in the current issue of Nature the isolation of 17 novel antibodies capable of neutralizing a broad spectrum of variants of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

18 Aug 2011

Alcohol before bed hampers sleep: Study

A new small-scale study showed the impact of drinking before going to bed on heart rate and sleep.

18 Aug 2011

Ultrasound can predict high risk of stroke in patients with asymptomatic carotid stenosis

A new study shows that a simple ultrasound test may help to identify people at high risk of stroke who have a condition called asymptomatic carotid stenosis, a narrowing of the carotid artery found in the neck, in which few or no symptoms are present.

18 Aug 2011

Addiction – a brain disorder say experts

According to the American Society of Addiction Medicine, addiction is a chronic brain disorder like any other chronic brain disease such as obsessive-compulsive disorder and body dysmorphic disorder. Neurological abnormalities like disruptions in neurotransmission and the reward system drive addiction, the group said in a statement.

17 Aug 2011

Researchers document how immune system can counteract advancement of Alzheimer's

For the first time a research team at Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin and Universitätsklinik Freiburg succeeded in documenting how the immune system can counteract the advancement of Alzheimer's disease.

17 Aug 2011

Study: Eye contact seems to act as an invitation for mimicry

Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery but how do our brains decide when and who we should copy? Researchers from The University of Nottingham have found that the key may lie in an unspoken invitation communicated through eye contact.

17 Aug 2011

Study reveals structure of ribosomal assembly intermediate

As part of a joint research effort with the University of Michigan, scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute have for the first time defined the structure of one of the cell's most basic engines, which is required for cell growth, as it assembles from its components.

17 Aug 2011

PTSD impairs ability to recognize emotions from facial expressions

Facial expressions convey strong cues for someone's emotional state and the ability to interpret these cues is crucial in social interaction. This ability is known to be compromised in many psychiatric and neurological disorders, such as social anxiety or Korsakoff's syndrome.

17 Aug 2011

Fluctuations in brain signals explained: Spontaneous electrical background rhythms in the brain influence fMRI

Until now, brain scans obtained using fMRI – one of the most important imaging methods in use today – have been affected by fluctuations in the brain activity measured which could not be explained. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig and the Charité in Berlin have now shown that certain electric background rhythms in the brain, known as Alpha oscillations, alter the fMRI signal obtained with visual stimuli. To do this, they used a new approach in which quickly changing brain activity, which cannot be captured by the scanner, was measured using

16 Aug 2011

Study investigates autism spectrum disorder, sibling recurrence

The risk that an infant with an older sibling with autism also will develop the disorder, previously estimated at between 3 and 10 percent, is substantially higher at approximately 19 percent, a large, international, multi-site study led by researchers at the UC Davis MIND Institute has found.

16 Aug 2011

Scientists define relationship between two prostate tumor suppressor genes

Of the 250,000 American men who will be diagnosed with prostate cancer this year, very few of them-about 1 percent-will develop lethal, metastatic disease. Finding a way to distinguish between this small cohort and the majority of patients who will develop an indolent, non-lethal form of prostate cancer is a key goal in prostate cancer research.

16 Aug 2011

Modified Cdk5 enzyme triggers damage to nerve cell connections in human Alzheimer's brains

Alzheimer's disease is characterized by abnormal proteins that stick together in little globs, disrupting cognitive function. These sticky proteins are mostly made up of beta-amyloid peptide. A better understanding of these proteins, how they form, and how they affect brain function will no doubt improve the diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer's disease.

16 Aug 2011

Novel assay can accurately detect prostate cancer than traditional screening

new prostate screening test developed by AnalizaDx, Inc., a Cleveland-based biotech company, and studied by researchers at the Seidman Cancer Center at University Hospitals (UH) Case Medical Center along with colleagues at the Cleveland Clinic, the Veterans Administration Boston Healthcare and the National Cancer Institute, may prove to be a promising new tool in the diagnosis of prostate cancer.

16 Aug 2011

Regular exercise could help prevent brain damage linked with Alzheimer's

Regular exercise could help prevent brain damage associated with neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's, according to research published this month in Elsevier's journal Brain, Behavior, and Immunity.

16 Aug 2011

New role for harmonin protein in Usher syndrome

University of Iowa scientists have discovered a new role for a protein that is mutated in Usher syndrome, one of the most common forms of deaf-blindness in humans. The findings, which were published Aug. 8 in Nature Neuroscience, may help explain why this mutation causes the most severe form of the condition.

16 Aug 2011

Money now preferred to cocaine later

When a research team asked cocaine addicts to choose, hypothetically, between money now or cocaine of greater value later, "preference was almost exclusively for the money now," said Warren K., Bickel, professor in the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute, director of the Advanced Recovery Research Center, and professor of psychology in the College of Science at Virginia Tech.

12 Aug 2011

New measurement technologies provide scientists more complete look at neurological activity

In 1991, Carl Lewis was both the fastest man on earth and a profound long jumper, perhaps the greatest track-and-field star of all time in the prime of his career. On June 14th of that year, however, Carl Lewis was human. Leroy Burrell blazed through the 100-meters, besting him by a razor-thin margin of three-hundredths of a second. In the time it takes the shutter to capture a single frame of video, Lewis's three-year-old world record was gone.

12 Aug 2011

AANEM awards accreditation status to four UH Neuromuscular Center EMG labs

The American Association of Neuromuscular & Electrodiagnostic Medicine (AANEM) has awarded accreditation status to four electromyography (EMG) laboratories affiliated with the University Hospitals (UH) Neuromuscular Center in Northeast Ohio.

12 Aug 2011