Entries categorized as Neuroscience

Critical Brain Chemical Shown To Play A Role In Severe Depression

On March 9, 2010 / By Chris Fisher / In Depression / No Comments

The next advance in treating major depression may relate to a group of brain chemicals that are involved in virtually all our brain activity, according to a study published today in Biological Psychiatry. The study is co-authored by Drs. Andrea J. Levinson and Zafiris J. Daskalakis of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). This study shows that compared to healthy individuals, people who have major depressive disorder have altered functions of the neurotransmitter GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid). (read the full story)

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Do Not Make That Face At Me!

On March 6, 2010 / By Chris Fisher / In News / No Comments

Think back to your last fight with someone you love. How did you feel afterwards? How did you behave? Conflict with a loved one often leaves a person feeling terrible and then behaving badly. So much so that these scenarios have become soap opera clichés. After an argument, one partner may brood, slam the door, and then drive to a local bar to drown their sorrows in alcohol. These dramas rarely have happy endings. Given these stereotypes, how do people control their emotional reactions and prevent emotional storms and their attendant use of intoxicating substances? (read the full story)

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UCI Researchers Find That Learning Keeps The Brain Healthy

On March 6, 2010 / By Chris Fisher / In Brain Imaging, Neuroscience / No Comments

human brainUC Irvine neurobiologists are providing the first visual evidence that learning promotes brain health – and, therefore, that mental stimulation could limit the debilitating effects of aging on memory and the mind. Using a novel visualization technique they devised to study memory, a research team led by Lulu Chen and Christine Gall found that everyday forms of learning animate neuron receptors that help keep brain cells functioning at optimum levels. (read the full story)

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Novel Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) Sensor Provides A Molecular View Of The Brain

On March 4, 2010 / By Chris Fisher / In Brain Imaging / No Comments

MIT neuroscientists have designed a new MRI sensor that responds to the neurotransmitter dopamine, an achievement that may significantly improve the specificity and resolution of future brain imaging procedures. Although functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has enhanced our understanding of brain function since it was first introduced about 20 years ago, the technology actually measures blood flow, which is a slow and indirect readout of neural activity. Check the end of this report for a link to review a video interview with the researcher and demonstration of this technology (reading the full story)

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UT Southwestern Researchers Find That Gene Mutation Is Linked To Autism-Like Symptoms In Mice

On March 3, 2010 / By Chris Fisher / In Autism / No Comments

When a gene implicated in human autism is disabled in mice, the rodents show learning problems and obsessive, repetitive behaviors, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found. The researchers also report that a drug affecting a specific type of nerve function reduced the obsessive behavior in the animals, suggesting a potential way to treat repetitive behaviors in humans. The findings appear in the Feb. 24 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience. (read the full story)

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EEG Study Finds That A Neural Mechanism May Underlie An Enhanced Memory For The Unexpected

On March 3, 2010 / By Chris Fisher / In Neuroscience, QEEG / No Comments

The human brain excels at using past experiences to make predictions about the future. However, the world around us is constantly changing, and new events often violate our logical expectations. “We know these unexpected events are more likely to be remembered than predictable events, but the underlying neural mechanisms for these effects remain unclear,” says lead researcher, Dr. Nikolai Axmacher, from the University of Bonn in Germany. (read the full story)

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Good Parenting Triumphs Over Prenatal Stress

On March 3, 2010 / By Chris Fisher / In Parenting / No Comments

A mother’s nurture may provide powerful protection against risks her baby faces in the womb, according to a new article published online today in the journal Biological Psychiatry. The research shows that fetuses exposed to high levels of stress hormone – shown to be a harbinger for babies’ poor cognitive development – can escape this fate if their mothers provide them sensitive care during infancy and toddler-hood. (read the full story)

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Increasing Neurogenesis Might Prevent Drug Addiction And Relapse

On March 2, 2010 / By Chris Fisher / In Neuroscience, Substance Abuse / No Comments

Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center hope they have begun paving a new pathway in the fight against drug dependence. Their hypothesis – that increasing the normally occurring process of making nerve cells might prevent addiction – is based on a rodent study demonstrating that blocking new growth of specific brain nerve cells increases vulnerability for cocaine addiction and relapse. The study’s findings, available in the Journal of Neuroscience, are the first to directly link addiction with the process, called neurogenesis, in the region of the brain called the hippocampus. (read the full story)

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EEG Brain Implant Reveals The Neural Patterns Of Attention

On February 28, 2010 / By Chris Fisher / In QEEG / No Comments

A paralyzed patient implanted with a brain-computer interface device has allowed scientists to determine the relationship between brain waves and attention. Characteristic activity patterns known as beta and delta oscillations have been observed in various regions of the brain since the early 20th century, and have been theoretically associated with attention. The unique opportunity to record directly from a human subject’s motor cortex allowed University of Chicago researchers to investigate this relationship more thoroughly than ever before. (read the full story)

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Damaged Protein Identified As Early Diagnostic Biomarker For Alzheimer’s Disease In Healthy Adults

On February 28, 2010 / By Chris Fisher / In Public Health / No Comments

Researchers at NYU School of Medicine have found that elevated cerebrospinal fluid levels of phosphorylated tau231 (P-tau231), a damaged tau protein found in patients with Alzheimer’s disease, may be an early diagnostic biomarker for Alzheimer’s disease in healthy adults. The study, published this month online by Neurobiology of Aging, shows that high levels of P-tau231 predict future memory decline and loss of brain gray matter in the medial temporal lobe – a key memory center. (read the full story)

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Protecting The Brain From A Deadly Genetic Disease

On February 27, 2010 / By Chris Fisher / In Neuroscience / No Comments

Huntington’s disease (HD) is a cruel, hereditary condition that leads to severe physical and mental deterioration, psychiatric problems and eventually, death. Currently, there are no treatments to slow down or stop it. HD sufferers are born with the disease although they do not show symptoms until late in life. In a new study published in The Journal of Neuroscience, Stephen Ferguson and Fabiola Ribeiro of Robarts Research Institute at The University of Western Ontario identified a protective pathway in the brain that may explain why HD symptoms take so long to appear. The findings could also lead to new treatments for HD. (continue reading)

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The Role Of Sleep In Brain Development

On February 27, 2010 / By Chris Fisher / In Sleep / No Comments

Marcos Frank, PhD, associate professor of Neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, presented information on early brain development and the importance of sleep during early life when the brain is rapidly maturing and highly changeable, at the 2010 American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in San Diego this week. (continue reading)

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Genes Responsible For The Ability To Recognize Faces

On February 26, 2010 / By Chris Fisher / In Neuroscience / No Comments

The ability to recognize faces is largely determined by your genes, according to new research at UCL (University College London). Published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, scientists found that identical twins were twice as similar to each other in terms of their ability to recognize faces, compared to non-identical twins. Check the end of this report for a link to take the Cambridge Face Memory Test (the same memory test used in this research). (continue reading)

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Impaired Brain Activity Underlies Impulsive Behaviors In Women With Bulimia

On February 26, 2010 / By Chris Fisher / In Brain Imaging / No Comments

Women with bulimia nervosa (BN), when compared with healthy women, showed different patterns of brain activity while doing a task that required self-regulation. This abnormality may underlie binge eating and other impulsive behaviors that occur with the eating disorder, according to an article published in the January 2009 issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry. (continue reading)

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Magnesium Supplement Helps Boost Brainpower

On February 25, 2010 / By Chris Fisher / In Neuroscience, Nutrition / 1 Comment

Neuroscientists at MIT and Tsinghua University in Beijing show that increasing brain magnesium with a new compound enhanced learning abilities, working memory, and short- and long-term memory in rats. The dietary supplement also boosted older rats’ ability to perform a variety of learning tests. Magnesium, an essential element, is found in dark, leafy vegetables such as spinach and in some fruits. Those who get less than 400 milligrams daily are at risk for allergies, asthma, and heart disease, among other conditions. (continue reading)

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