Nervous System News and Research

Latest Nervous System News and Research

Tryptophan metabolites play an important role in the immune system

Tryptophan is the source of Thanksgiving legend and grist for a "Seinfeld" episode, but it's not the chemical that you'd expect to find in Lawrence Steinman's lab.

7 Nov 2005

Brain has more than one pathway along which visual information can be sent

Visual information can be processed unconsciously when the area of the brain that records what the eye sees is temporarily shut down, according to research at Rice University in Houston.

1 Nov 2005

Link between the act of lying and a significant increase in gastric arrhythmia

A new study suggests that changes in gastric physiology perform better than standard polygraph methods in distinguishing between lying and telling the truth.

1 Nov 2005

When it comes to telling lies it's the stomach not the heart which is the giveaway

According to a new study it is suggested that it is the stomach rather than the heart that offers greater lie detection accuracy.

31 Oct 2005

Gene involved in B-cell development might play a role in multiple sclerosis

The results of a large study published today in the open access journal BMC Neurology reveal that multiple sclerosis (MS) patients are more likely to carry two specific genetic variations in the Early B-cell factor gene (EBF-1), than healthy individuals.

30 Oct 2005

Type 2 diabetes and depression can be a fatal mix

Patients whose type 2 diabetes was accompanied by minor or major depression had higher mortality rates, compared to patients with type 2 diabetes alone, over the three-year period of a recent study in Washington state.

27 Oct 2005

The face represents an important window into the influences of stress and emotion on health

A provocative new study has found that people who respond to stressful situations with angry facial expressions, rather than fearful expressions, are less likely to suffer such ill effects of stress as high blood pressure and high stress hormone secretion.

25 Oct 2005

Viagra may be the next drug treatment for heart problems

Sildenafil citrate (Viagra), a drug used to treat erectile dysfunction (ED) in millions of men, reduces the stimulatory effects of hormonal stress on the heart by half, according to results of a new study by researchers at Johns Hopkins.

24 Oct 2005

Blocking a signaling lipid can keep nerves from developing and may even cause neurons to die

Blocking a signaling lipid can keep nerves from developing the arm-like extensions they need to wire the body and may even cause neurons to die, researchers have found.

24 Oct 2005

Canada province will seize children of drug addicts

Canadian province Alberta wants to be able to remove children from the homes of parents who recklessly abuse drugs or are involved in selling them.

24 Oct 2005

C. elegans, free-living soil nematodes, pave way for better anesthetics

Ten genes that may make patients more or less susceptible to a common anesthetic agent have been identified by researchers using tiny worms and sophisticated technology that eliminates the activity of individual genes.

23 Oct 2005

Intravenous lidocaine and oral derivatives relieve pain from damage to the nervous system

Lidocaine and similar local anesthetics are effective for treating pain that emanates from damaged nerves, according to a systematic review of current evidence.

23 Oct 2005

Newly discovered role of MECP2 gene in Rett Syndrome

Huda Zoghbi, of Baylor College of Medicine and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Juan Young, also of Baylor and colleagues report in the online Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, posted the week of October 17, 2005, that the Rett Syndrome gene, MECP2, regulates RNA splicing.

18 Oct 2005

Protein involved in 'mad cow' disease

The journal Brain Research has recently published the results of research work by scientists from the University of Navarra.

18 Oct 2005

Discovery could lead to tests for the clinic or battlefield to diagnose ailments with just a few drops of blood

A way to detect fragments of broken brain cells that leak into the bloodstream may help doctors more quickly and precisely treat people with severe head injuries or brain diseases, say researchers at the University of Florida's McKnight Brain Institute.

17 Oct 2005

New findings on brain tumors called ependymomas

Brain tumors called ependymomas that occur in different parts of the central nervous system appear to arise from subpopulations of stem cells called radial glia cells (RGCs), according to investigators at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. The discovery explains why some identical-looking ependymomas are actually distinctly different diseases, the researchers said.

17 Oct 2005