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.
Brain
News • Brain drain
The mere presence of your smartphone reduces brain power
Your cognitive capacity is significantly reduced when your smartphone is within reach — even if it’s off. That’s the takeaway finding from a new study from the McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin.
News • Tumor detection
MRI without contrast agents? Yes, with sugar!
Scientists from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), in collaboration with colleagues from Heidelberg University Hospital, have been able to visualize brain cancer using a novel MRI method. They use a simple sugar solution instead of conventional contrast agents, which can have side effects in the body.
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 • Neuro-oncology
Study provides better understanding of how brain tumors ‘feed’
All cancer tumors have one thing in common – they must feed themselves to grow and spread, a difficult feat since they are usually in a tumor microenvironment with limited nutrients and oxygen. A study at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center has revealed new details about how an enzyme called acetyl-CoA synthetase 2 (ACSS2) allows brain tumors to grow despite their harsh…
News • Avoidance strategy
Our brains detect disease in others even before it breaks out
The human brain is much better than previously thought at discovering and avoiding disease, a new study led by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden reports. Our sense of vision and smell alone are enough to make us aware that someone has a disease even before it breaks out. And not only aware - we also act upon the information and avoid sick people.
News • Research
Deep sleep maintains the learning efficiency of the brain
For the first time, researchers of the University of Zurich and Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich have demonstrated the causal context of why deep sleep is important to the learning efficiency of the human brain. They have developed a new, non-invasive method for modulating deep sleep in humans in a targeted region of the brain.
News • Brain pathology
New insights into early cognitive markers of Alzheimer's
New research led by the University of Hertfordshire, may significantly change the understanding of cognitive processes that are most impaired at very early stages of Alzheimer's disease. The findings could potentially be used to detect the condition at an earlier stage and improve diagnostic accuracy, by creating new cognitive tests that are more sensitive to brain pathology than ones currently…
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 • Study
Link between blood sugar and brain cancer found
New research further illuminates the surprising relationship between blood sugar and brain tumors and could begin to shed light on how certain cancers develop. While many cancers are more common among those with diabetes, cancerous brain tumors called gliomas are less common among those with elevated blood sugar and diabetes, a study from The Ohio State University has found. The discovery builds…
News • Distribution
Grabbing multiple sclerosis by the nose
Over the next few years, in a research project funded by the EU, an international consortium is developing a new technology for a better treatment of multiple sclerosis. The idea of the innovative “Nose2Brain” approach is to transport a special active substance directly through the nose into the central nervous system.
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 • 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.
News • Brain Diseases
Bigger Tests: Cancer Drug Might Slow Parkinson's and Alzheimer's
Scientists are hoping that a single drug can treat two devastating brain diseases: Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. The drug is nilotinib, which is approved to treat a form of leukemia.
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.
News • brain research
Progress Towards a Circuit Diagram of the Brain
Precise knowledge of the connections in the brain – the links between all the nerve cells – is a prerequisite for better understanding this most complex of organs. Researchers from Heidelberg University have now developed a new algorithm – a computational procedure – that can extract this connectivity pattern with far greater precision than previously possible from microscopic images of…
News • Brain Injury and Disease
Researchers Identify How Inflammation Spreads Through the Brain After Injury
Researchers have identified a new mechanism by which inflammation can spread throughout the brain after injury. This mechanism may explain the widespread and long-lasting inflammation that occurs after traumatic brain injury, and may play a role in other neurodegenerative diseases.
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…
Article • Hirnübungen I
Neuro MR: What‘s new in brain tumors?
From the extremely new, but not very available, to the somewhat new, very available and highly useful, Walter Kucharczyk will cover the potentials and practicalities in advanced brain tumor imaging.
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.
New discovery may improve recovery after stroke
Faster and better recovery after stroke may be the result of a newly discovered treatment strategy that created new nerve synapses in the brain—a key factor for learning. A study at Sahlgrenska Academy showed improved ability to use the affected paw in mice that received the treatment.
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 • Brain functions transfer
Pioneering cancer surgery
Brain cancer treatment is taking a major step ahead as Spanish surgeons pioneer a new technique that spares language and motion functions. This splendid development might even one day result in epilepsy surgery.
