News • Antioxidant study
How strawberries may prevent Alzheimer's
A natural compound in strawberries could help treat age-related mental decline and conditions like Alzheimer’s, a new study found.
Neurology
News • Emotional disorders
The key to depression may lie in our genes
Researchers have taken an in-depth look at the function of a gene that may be linked to the development of major depression. Their findings show that its activity levels might determine our susceptibility to stress and negative stimuli.
News • Microbiota
Research suggests association between gut bacteria and emotion
Researchers have identified gut microbiota that interact with brain regions associated with mood and behavior. This may be the first time that behavioral and neurobiological differences associated with microbial composition in healthy humans have been identified.
News • Artificial nerve response
Computer model simulates sense of touch from the entire hand
Neuroscientists from the University of Chicago have developed a computer model that can simulate the response of nerves in the hand to any pattern of touch stimulation on the skin. The tool reconstructs the response of more than 12,500 nerve fibers with millisecond precision, taking into account the mechanics of the skin as it presses up against and moves across objects.
News • Multimodal optical spectroscopy
An infallible hand-held probe to aid cancer surgery
Canadian researchers have invented an intraoperative probe that reliably detects multiple types of tumour cells.
News • Royal visit
Queen Máxima visits Congress of the European Academy of Neurology
The Congress of the European Academy of Neurology (EAN) in Amsterdam received a royal visit: H.M. Queen Máxima of the Netherlands attended the major scientific event at RAI Amsterdam, in which over 6,000 people are participating.
News • Neurology
For headache, telemedicine may be as effective as in-person
For people with headache, seeing the neurologist by video for treatment may be as effective as an in-person visit, according to a study published in the June 14, 2017, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Article • Positron Emission Tomography
PET offers new multiple sclerosis insights
Positron Emission Tomography (PET) is helping to provide MS experts some insight into what drives progression of the disease. PET also has the potential to quantify the effects of new, targeted therapies on MS patients, according to consultant neurologist Professor Bruno Stankoff.
News • Neuropathology
Detecting Alzheimer's disease before symptoms emerge
Long before symptoms of Alzheimer's disease become apparent to patients and their families, biological changes are occurring within the brain. Amyloid plaques, which are clusters of protein fragments, along with tangles of protein known as tau, form in the brain and grow in number, eventually getting in the way of the brain's ability to function. These biological changes can be detected early in…
News • Neurology
Unlocking the blood-brain barrier
Study reveals the surprising role of omega-3 fatty acids in keeping the blood-brain barrier closed
News • Neurology
New-found brain pathway has implications for schizophrenia treatment
Neuroscientists at Tufts University School of Medicine have discovered a new signaling pathway that directly connects two major receptors in the brain associated with learning and memory – the N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) and the alpha 7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (a7nAChR) – which has significance for current efforts to develop drugs to treat schizophrenia.
News • Neural activity
Movie research results: Our brains are bad at multitasking
The brain works most efficiently when it can focus on a single task for a longer period of time. Previous research shows that multitasking, which means performing several tasks at the same time, reduces productivity by as much as 40%. Now a group of researchers specialising in brain imaging has found that changing tasks too frequently interferes with brain activity. This may explain why the end…
News • Just by thinking
Quadriplegic bridges injury to move again
Bill Kochevar is the first recipient of implanted brain-recording and muscle-stimulating systems reanimates limb that had been stilled for eight years.
News • Blood flow control
"Switch" in brain’s capillary network monitors activity
All it takes is the flip of a protein “switch” within the tiny wire-like capillaries of the brain to increase the blood flow that ensures optimal brain function. New research has uncovered that capillaries have the capacity to both sense brain activity and generate an electrical vasodilatory signal to evoke blood flow and direct nutrients to nourish hard-working neurons.
Article • Virtual Brain
Computer model simulates epileptic events
Approximately one percent of the world population are epileptic; in France alone, an estimated 600,000 people regularly experience seizures.
Article • New Techniques
‘Very few people have a carbon hyper-polariser’
From the extremely new, but not generally available, to the somewhat new… very available and highly useful… Walter Kucharczyk outlines potentials and practicalities in advanced brain tumour Imaging.
Article • White matter
Age-appropriate disease? Doesn’t exist
What can we learn from population studies? According to Gabriel Krestin MD PhD there are things that we can un-learn, as well as learn, from population imaging studies.
News • Lab Study
A protein called PERK - Treating progressive supranuclear palsy
The brain disease “progressive supranuclear palsy” (PSP) is currently incurable and its symptoms can only be eased to a very limited degree. PSP impairs eye movements, locomotion, balance control, and speech. Scientists at the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) and the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have now discovered a molecular mechanism that may help in the search…
News • Stress Research
Chronic stress neurons discovered
A novel population of neurons that are only activated following chronic stress is identified. Today, stress is part of everyday life. However, when stress is chronic it can lead to distressing illnesses such as depression and anxiety disorders. In their latest study, scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich have identified a population of neurons in the hypothalamus that…
Interview • Neurological diseases
No case for a psychiatrist’s couch
Up to ten years ago only a handful of antibodies that could be detected in the blood were known to neurology.
News • Study
Molecular Roots of Alzheimer’s
Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have detailed the structure of a molecule that has been implicated in Alzheimer’s disease. Knowing the shape of the molecule — and how that shape may be disrupted by certain genetic mutations — can help in understanding how Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases develop and how to prevent and treat them.
News • Neurology
Neural stem cells found in brain of epilepsy patients
Neural stem cells have been found in epileptic brain tissue - outside the regions of the brain where they normally reside. In a group of patients who underwent surgery for epilepsy, over half had stem cells where healthy individuals do not have them, according to a study from Sahlgrenska Academy.
News • During Surgery
Neurosurgeons harness 3-D technology to map brain
Cedars-Sinai neurosurgeons have begun using a high-definition imaging device to see inside the brain during surgery, allowing them to map safer pathways to reach and remove tumors.
Article • Computer intelligence
Cognition-guided surgery – a rocky road
Surgery will change – with all the challenges that developments such as Big Data create there are no two ways about it. However, how deep those changes run remains to be seen. In a rather young field of research, scientists look at the ways all components used during surgery can be interlinked. Professor Beat Müller, co-initiator of the project ‘Cognition-Guided Surgery’, explains results…
Article • Neurology
The 3-D printed brain tumour
3-D printed tumour-like constructs will be used by a research team at Scotland’s Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, to raise research to a new level and successfully lead to new treatment options.
