Brain | Page 742 | Science Codex

Curious mix of precision and brawn in a pouched super-predator

SYDNEY: A bizarre, pouched super-predator that terrorized South America millions of years ago had huge sabre-like teeth but its bite was weaker than that of a domestic cat, new research shows.

Australian and American marsupials are among the closest living relatives of the extinct Thylacosmilus atrox, which had tooth roots extending rearwards almost into its small braincase."Thylacosmilus looked and behaved like nothing alive today," says University of New South Wales palaeontologist, Dr Stephen Wroe, leader of the research team.

A calculator to estimate the likelihood of antidepressant response

Philadelphia, PA-- As in any other field of medicine, when a depressed person visits a psychiatrist for treatment of depression, they like to be informed of the odds that they will respond to the medication they are prescribed. Unfortunately, there has been no precise way to predict antidepressant response in individual patients.

New treatment for schizophrenia discovered in Finland

A research group led by professor Jesper Ekelund showed that by giving a very large dose of famotidine (200 mg daily), sufficient amounts of the drug are able to penetrate the so-called blood-brain barrier to affect the histamine system in the brain.

Famotidine has been used for the treatment of heartburn since the 1980s, but at regular dosing, famotidine almost does not enter the brain at all, since the brain is protected by the blood-brain barrier. By increasing the dosage five-fold the drug is able to enter the brain and affect the histamine system.

Why Alzheimer's medications rarely help

BACKGROUND

The Alzheimer's Association projects that the number of people living with Alzheimer's disease will soar from 5 million to 13.8 million by 2050 unless scientists develop new ways to stop the disease. Current medications do not treat Alzheimer's or stop it from progressing; they only temporarily lessen symptoms, such as memory loss and confusion.

Children with delayed motor skills struggle more socially

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Studies have shown that children with autism often struggle socially and now new research suggests that a corresponding lack of motor skills – including catching and throwing – may further contribute to that social awkwardness.

The findings, published in the July issue of Adapted Physical Activity Quarterly, add to the growing body of research highlighting the link between autism and motor skill deficits.

Penn Medicine researchers discover link between fear and sound perception

PHILADELPHIA - Anyone who's ever heard a Beethoven sonata or a Beatles song knows how powerfully sound can affect our emotions. But it can work the other way as well – our emotions can actually affect how we hear and process sound. When certain types of sounds become associated in our brains with strong emotions, hearing similar sounds can evoke those same feelings, even far removed from their original context.

Music training, cognition, and personality

Two key personality traits – openness-to-experience and conscientiousness – predict better than IQ who will take music lessons and continue for longer periods, according to a new study.

A team of researchers, led by Glenn Schellenberg at the University of Toronto Mississaug, also found that when personality traits and demographic factors are considered, the link between cognitive ability and music training disappears.

Depression Increases Diabetic Patients' Risk of Severe Hypoglycemic Episodes

Patients with diabetes and co-morbid major depression are at increased risk of severe hypoglycemic episodes requiring hospitalization or a visit to the emergency room.

Analyzing data on 4,117 adult diabetic patients over a five-year period, researchers found depressed patients compared to non-depressed patients with diabetes had a significantly higher risk of a severe hypoglycemic episode (hazard ratio = 1.42, 95 percent, confidence interval 1.03-1.96) and a greater number of hypoglycemic episodes (odds ratio = 1.34, 95 percent, CI 1.03-1.75).

Pre-existing insomnia linked to PTSD and other mental disorders after military deployment

PHILADELPHIA - A new study from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and the Naval Health Research Center has shown military service members who have trouble sleeping prior to deployments may be at greater risk of developing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression and anxiety once they return home. The new study, published in the July 2013 edition of the journal SLEEP, found that pre-existing insomnia symptoms conferred almost as a large of a risk for those mental disorders as combat exposure.

Pluripotent stem cell-derived neurons may be a viable Parkinson's disease treatment

Putnam Valley, NY. (Jun. 28 2013) – A team of researchers from Rush University, Yale University, the University of Colorado and the St. Kitts Biomedical Research Foundation transplanted human embryonic stem cells into primate laboratory animals modeled with Parkinson's disease and found "robust survival" of the cells after six weeks and indications that the cells were "well integrated" into the host animals.

Complex activity patterns emerge from simple underlying laws

A new study from researchers at Uppsala University and University of Havana uses mathematic modeling and experiments on ants to show that a group is capable of developing flexible resource management strategies and characteristic responses of its own. The results are now published in Physical Review Letters.

High-resolution mapping technique uncovers underlying circuit architecture of the brain

LA JOLLA, CA---- The power of the brain lies in its trillions of intercellular connections, called synapses that together form complex neural "networks." While neuroscientists have long sought to map these individual connections to see how they influence specific brain functions, traditional techniques have been unsuccessful. Now, scientists at the Salk Institute and the Gladstone Institutes, using an innovative brain- tracing technique, have found a way to untangle these networks.

Early brain stimulation may help stroke survivors recover language function

Non-invasive brain stimulation may help stroke survivors recover speech and language function, according to new research in the American Heart Association journal Stroke.

Between 20 percent to 30 percent of stroke survivors have aphasia, a disorder that affects the ability to grasp language, read, write or speak. It's most often caused by strokes that occur in areas of the brain that control speech and language.

Clustering the lexicon in the brain: a meta‑analysis of the neurofunctional evidence on noun and verb processing

Virtually every known human language features two different classes of words, one for "calling" things – like dogs, clouds, or rumours – and one for saying something about how they are or what they do – dogs bark, clouds are coming, rumors spread.

These classes are called nouns and verbs in Western languages, and sits at the very heart of human communication. It was widely believed that separate areas in the brain subserve the production and comprehension of nouns and verbs, based on the outcome of individual studies using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI).

Ritalin shows promise in treating addiction

A single dose of a commonly-prescribed attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) drug helps improve brain function in cocaine addiction, according to an imaging study conducted by researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Methylphenidate (brand name Ritalin®) modified connectivity in certain brain circuits that underlie self-control and craving among cocaine-addicted individuals. The research is published in the current issue of JAMA Psychiatry, a JAMA network publication.