Even mild head injuries can cause significant abnormalities in brain function that last for several days, which may explain the neurological symptoms experienced by some individuals who have experienced a head injury associated with sports, accidents or combat, according to a study by Virginia...
Efforts to understand how the aging process affects the brain and cognition have expanded beyond simply comparing younger and older adults. "Everybody ages differently. By looking at genetic variations and individual differences in markers of vascular health, we begin to understand that...
Collaborative research by groups headed by scientists Joan J. Guinovart and Marco Milan at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) has revealed conclusive evidence about the harmful effects of the accumulation of glucose chains (glycogen) in fly and mouse neurons. These two...
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a major neurodegenerative disorder that affects millions of people worldwide. New and accurate techniques for early diagnosis are critical. Pravat K. Mandal, PhD, and his colleagues have developed a completely non-invasive brain imaging technique to measure specific...
Researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine have gained insight into the mechanism by which a pathological brain protein called tau contributes to the progression of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other neurodegenerative disorders. This finding, published in the most recent issue of the Journal...
Like a police officer calling for backup while also keeping a strong hold on a suspected criminal, immune cells in the brain take a two-tier approach to fighting off a threat, new research from the University of Michigan Health System finds. For the first time, the scientists managed to capture...
Sometimes, academic journals have the best stories. Like last week's issue of Forensic Science International, which describes how a man had a a drunken confrontation with the police and ended up with a taser dart stuck in his brain. More »
Why do some teenagers start smoking or experimenting with drugs - while others don't? In the largest imaging study of the human brain ever conducted - involving 1,896 14-year-olds - scientists have discovered a number of previously unknown networks that go a long way toward an answer...
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Last weekend's New York Times Magazine*contained several articles about the mind, and all the cutting edge research out there about how to improve the mind. One article detailed how playing "n-back games" can make you smarter; another about how exercise can lead to a better brain.*Several...
Researchers at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) have identified a molecular pathway that controls the retention and release of the brain's stem cells. The discovery offers new insights into normal and abnormal neurologic development and could eventually lead to regenerative therapies...
'Brain freeze' is a nearly universal experience - almost everyone has felt the near-instantaneous headache brought on by a bite of ice cream or slurp of ice-cold soda on the upper palate. However, scientists are still at a loss to explain this phenomenon. Since migraine sufferers are more likely...
With more than 1.7 million people sustaining a traumatic brain injury each year, the need to identify processes to limit inflammation and subsequent damage is critical. Approximately 275,000 people are hospitalized annually with traumatic brain injury, leaving 85,000 with long-term disabilities...
Teasing out the exact type or types of dementia someone suffers from is no easy task; neurodegenerative brain diseases share common pathology and often co-occur. Researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania are continuing efforts to differentiate diseases...
In a breakthrough for the way brain cancer is diagnosed and monitored, a team of researchers, lead by Anna M. Krichevsky, PhD, of the Center of Neurologic Diseases at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH), have demonstrated that brain tumors can be reliably diagnosed and monitored without surgery...
An interesting announcement at the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) meeting in Miami today, Tuesday 17th April, looked at the effectiveness of a vaccine against brain cancer, which showed promising results. The multicenter phase 2 clinical trial included more than 40 patients...
According to a study published in the journal Neurosurgery, using a new device called mechanical tissue resuscitation (MTR) to prevent cell death has been demonstrated to reduce the size and extent of damaged tissue caused by traumatic brain injury. The finding was made by researchers at Wake...
Shrinkage of the hippocampus occurs with age and is caused by the cumulative effect of various factors. Hippocampal atrophy is a recognized biological marker of Alzheimer's disease, so it is vital that researchers determine the cause of this process. An international study under the French...