Nervous System News and Research

Latest Nervous System News and Research

New method to separate two variants of common herpes virus linked to multiple sclerosis

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have developed a new method to separate between two different types of a common herpes virus that has been linked to multiple sclerosis.

26 Nov 2019

New models to identify internal states of the brain in fruit flies

Imagine an attractive person walking toward you. Do you look up and smile? Turn away? Approach but avoid eye contact? The setup is the same, but the outcomes depend entirely on your "internal state," which includes your mood, your past experiences, and countless other variables that are invisible to someone watching the scene.

25 Nov 2019

Obese teenagers at risk for brain damage, suggests new study

A new study being presented at the yearly conference of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) reports that MRI scanning of the brain shows signs of brain damage in obese adolescents – and that these signs could be the result of brain inflammation.

25 Nov 2019

Glaucoma risk increased by air pollution

The more polluted the air, the higher the risk is that those who live in that area will develop glaucoma, says an interesting new study from the UK, published today in the journal Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science.

25 Nov 2019

Air pollution associated with greater risk of glaucoma

Living in a more polluted area is associated with a greater likelihood of having glaucoma, a debilitating eye condition that can cause blindness, finds a new UCL-led study in the UK.

25 Nov 2019

MRI reveals signs of brain damage among obese adolescents

Biomedical imaging of obese adolescents' brains has revealed signs of damage that may be related to inflammation.

25 Nov 2019

Accelerating Medicines Partnership program for Parkinson’s disease launches new data portal

The Accelerating Medicines Partnership program for Parkinson's disease (PD) has launched a data portal to provide de-identified information collected from 4,298 PD patients and healthy controls to researchers working to develop effective therapies for the disease.

22 Nov 2019

Researchers discover molecular underpinnings of Alexander disease

Scientists have known that genetic mutations leading to the production of a defective protein called GFAP cause Alexander disease (AxD), a debilitating neurodegenerative condition that can present during infancy, adolescence, or adulthood.

21 Nov 2019

Frailty: An important predictor of worse outcome after traumatic spinal cord injury

A new study has shown that frailty is an important predictor of worse outcome after traumatic spinal cord injury in patients less than 75 years of age. In patients younger than 75 years, frailty was a predictor of adverse events, acute length of stay, and in-hospital mortality, as reported in an article published in Journal of Neurotrauma, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers.

21 Nov 2019

Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease study unearths a new mechanism of neurodegeneration

Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease is an inherited neurodegenerative condition that affects 1 in 2500 individuals.

21 Nov 2019

Coriell Institute for Medical Research wins $7.7 million NINDS contract

Coriell Institute for Medical Research has been awarded a $7.7 million contract by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, part of the National Institutes of Health focused on the study of nervous system disorders.

21 Nov 2019

Ultrasound treatment could be safe and effective option for people with essential tremor

People with tremors in their hands, head or voice may find some relief for up to three years from a treatment using ultrasound waves to destroy the area of the brain causing the tremor, according to a study published in the November 20, 2019, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

21 Nov 2019

Exploring the links between chronic stress, inflammation and depression

Chronic stress can inflame our brain, destroy the connections between our neurons and result in depression, scientists say.

21 Nov 2019

Movements affect the processing of visual stimuli

How do we perceive our environment? What is the influence of sensory stimuli on the peripheral nervous system and what on the brain? Science has an interest in this question for many reasons. In the long term, insights from this research could contribute to a better understanding of diseases such as ADHD and Parkinson's disease.

20 Nov 2019

Dopamine may worsen lung inflammation in asthma

A new study on a mouse model of asthma shows that nerve cells producing dopamine, a neurotransmitter, signal T cells in the body to promote inflammation due to allergic reactions in the lungs during childhood but not in adult mice.

19 Nov 2019

Oral vaccination with cholera toxin helps counteract age-associated obesity

Here the research team tested a safe and well-established microbe-based immune adjuvant to restore immune homeostasis and counteract inflammation-associated obesity in animal models.

19 Nov 2019

New light-based method to capture the epicenter of neural activity in the brain

Researchers from Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia and University of Salento, both in Lecce, Italy, and Harvard Medical School in Boston have developed a new light-based method to capture and pinpoint the epicenter of neural activity in the brain.

19 Nov 2019

Researchers develop new technology to inhibit the development of Alzheimer's disease

Researchers at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and their partners at Bar Ilan University have developed new technology to inhibit the development of Alzheimer's disease.

18 Nov 2019

Researchers evaluate potential of FMT, pre- and probiotics to treat Parkinson's patients

Constipation is a common complaint in patients with Parkinson's disease. Fecal microbiome transplantation and pre- and probiotics are potential options for treating constipation and restoring the microbiome of patients with Parkinson's disease, but scientists warn that clinical data are scarce, and more research is needed before supporting their use.

15 Nov 2019

Dopamine D2 receptor modulates Wnt expression, controls cell proliferation

The dopamine D2 receptor has a previously unobserved role in modulating Wnt expression and control of cell proliferation, according to a new study from the George Washington University and the University of Pittsburgh.

14 Nov 2019