Scientists uncover nuclear process in the brain
NIH-funded study highlights the possible role of glial brain cells in neurological disorders.
Brain
News • Retrograde amnesia
Researchers retrieve “lost” memories
Retrograde amnesia is the inability to recall established memories. In humans, amnesia is associated with traumatic brain injury, Alzheimer’s disease, and other neurological conditions. Whether memories lost to amnesia are completely erased or merely unable to be recalled remains an open question. Now, in a finding that casts new light on the nature of memory, researchers from the RIKEN-MIT…
News • Brain training
App may improve memory of people with schizophrenia
A 'brain training' iPad game developed and tested by researchers at the University of Cambridge may improve the memory of patients with schizophrenia, helping them in their daily lives at work and living independently, according to research published today.
Imaging glucose uptake inside single cells
Researchers at Columbia University have reported a new approach to visualize glucose uptake activity in single living cells by light microscopy with minimum disturbance.
News • Diagnostics
Children: Brain lesions can be challenging to diagnose
Brain lesions in children can be especially challenging to diagnose, according to a report in the journal Frontiers in Neurology by a multidisciplinary team of Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine physicians. Lesions include tumors, abnormal blood vessel formations, and abscesses and inflammation due to infections.
Fructose produces less rewarding sensations in brain
Fructose not only results in a lower level of satiety, it also stimulates the reward system in the brain to a lesser degree than glucose. This may cause excessive consumption accompanied by effects that are a risk to health, report researchers from the University of Basel in a study published in the scientific journal PLOS ONE. Various diseases have been attributed to industrial fructose in…
News • Neurology
Reliving nightmare flight offer new clues about trauma memory
A group of passengers who thought they were going to die when their plane ran out of fuel over the Atlantic Ocean in August, 2001 have had their brains scanned while recalling the terrifying moments to help science better understand trauma memories and how they are processed in the brain.
News • Neurology
Balanced behavior with IRBIT
Hyperactivity and social abnormalities are defining characteristics of ADHD and autism, two developmental disorders that parents and scientists around the world are struggling to understand. At the RIKEN Brain Science Institute in Japan, researchers have identified the protein IRBIT as a key player in preventing these behaviors from developing.
News • Optical Coherence Tomography
Removing brain tumor safer
Brain surgery is famously difficult for good reason: When removing a tumor, for example, neurosurgeons walk a tightrope as they try to take out as much of the cancer as possible while keeping crucial brain tissue intact — and visually distinguishing the two is often impossible. Now Johns Hopkins researchers report they have developed an imaging technology that could provide surgeons with a…
Cell density remains constant as brain shrinks with age
New, ultra-high-field magnetic resonance images (MRI) of the brain by researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago provide the most detailed images to date to show that while the brain shrinks with age, brain cell density remains constant.
New imaging technique pinpoints changes in brain connectivity following mTBI
A new imaging technique can identify the specific changes in neural communication that can disrupt functional connectivity across the brain as a result of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI).
Engineering bacteria to design vaccines
The EU-funded MycoSynVac project combines gene engineering and biotechnology to design a novel veterinary vaccine chassis based on the bacterium Mycoplasma pneumoniae.
Cardiorespiratory fitness contributes to successful brain aging
Cardiorespiratory fitness may positively impact the structure of white matter in the brains of older adults. These results suggest that exercise could be prescribed to lessen age-related declines in brain structure. The researchers together with Scott Hayes compared younger adults (age 18-31) to older adults (age 55-82).
Big data of human biology
A multi-year study led by researchers from the Simons Center for Data Analysis (SCDA) and major universities and medical schools has broken substantial new ground, establishing how genes work together within 144 different human tissues and cell types in carrying out those tissues' functions.
Researchers create 'Wikipedia' for neurons
The decades worth of data that has been collected about the billions of neurons in the brain is astounding. To help scientists make sense of this "brain big data," researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have used data mining to create a publicly available website that acts like Wikipedia, indexing physiological information about neurons.
Researchers build brain-machine interface to control prosthetic hand
A research team from the University of Houston has created an algorithm that allowed a man to grasp a bottle and other objects with a prosthetic hand, powered only by his thoughts.
News • Brain bleeds
America's aging population will require more neurosurgeons
Researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center project a national influx of patients who will need immediate treatment.
Regeneration in a hostile environment
Damage to the spinal cord rarely heals because the injured nerve cells fail to regenerate. The regrowth of their long nerve fibers is hindered by scar tissue and molecular processes inside the nerves. An international team of researchers led by DZNE scientists in Bonn now reports in Science that help might be on the way from an unexpected quarter: in animal studies, the cancer drug epothilone…
The hubs and spokes of brain traffic
New insights into the ways the human brain functions – that is the promise of mapping the entire web of connections in the brain, the so-called connectome. New developments in connectome imaging are one of the major topics at this year’s European Congress of Radiology (ECR).
Article • Focus topic
Alzheimer's disease: Demystifying dementia
Alzheimer's disease is probably the best-known form of neurodegenerative disease, which is usually characterised by a progressive loss of cognitive, emotional and social abilities. But what actually happens in the brain? Read more about current research and therapeutic approaches to this form of dementia.
Article • Cerebral insights
The brain: mysterious grey matter
More than 80 billion neurons, trillions of synapses and almost 6 kilometres of neural pathways: The brain is an anatomical masterpiece – and still puzzles science. Keep reading to find out about latest research and therapies of brain diseases.
Article • Focus topic
Multiple sclerosis (MS): one disease, many faces
Many different forms, unclear origins: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is one of the most common neurological diseases that often leads to disability in those affected. Read more about current research and therapeutic approaches to MS.
Article • Information channel
Neurology: Let's get nervous
Neural networks are emblematic of complex systems, so it's no surprise that the field of neurology is eclectic and intricate, too. Main challenges for neurologists are therapies of and research on stroke, seizures, movement disorders such as Parkinson's disease, autoimmune disorders such as multiple sclerosis and dementias such as Alzheimer's disease.
