The development of drugs for brain-related conditions is not an efficient process; only 8% of candidate drugs that enter clinical trials gain FDA approval. A key reason for this low success rate is a lack of preclinical tests that accurately predict drug efficacy and detect unwanted side effects. But now, Jeremy Nathans and colleagues, at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, have developed a new preclinical approach that they hope can be used alongside current strategies to guide more efficient drug development for brain-related conditions.
Brain
MANHATTAN, KAN. -- A Kansas State University professor is helping students improve their confidence and academic performance by creating a map of learning.
Candice Shoemaker, professor of horticulture, has spent more than four years looking at students and self-efficacy. Self-efficacy involves student confidence in understanding topics and is often linked with academic motivation, learning and achievement. Shoemaker's published research appeared in a recent issue of HortTechnology.
Calculating the surface area of Gran Canaria is no easy task for a 14-year-old. It's not simply a question of learning the right formula. Students have to develop a strategy that enables them to put mathematical theory into practice – working out the information that is important and applying the right geometric models and tools.
Realizing that the island has an almost circular shape and so its surface area can be approximated using the area of a circle is not as straightforward as it sounds.
SEATTLE, WA—The most common kind of chronically irregular heartbeat, known as atrial fibrillation, is associated with a greater risk of dementia, including Alzheimer's disease. This discovery by scientists at Group Health Research Institute and their collaborators was published online in advance of print on August 1 in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.
Columbia University Medical Center researchers have shown that new ("de novo" protein-altering mutations — genetic errors that are present in patients but not in their parents — play a role in more than 50 percent of "sporadic" (not hereditary) cases of schizophrenia, according to a study in Nature Genetics.
Animal's brains are only roughly aware of how high-up they are in space, meaning that in terms of altitude the brain's 'map' of space is surprisingly flat, according to new research.
In a study published online today in Nature Neuroscience, scientists studied cells in or near a part of the brain called the hippocampus, which forms the brain's map of space, to see whether they were activated when rats climbed upwards.
WASHINGTON — High schools in Virginia where students reported a high rate of bullying had significantly lower scores on standardized tests that students must pass to graduate, according to research presented at the 119th Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association.
WASHINGTON — Movies and TV shows often depict crime with a police officer handcuffing a suspect and warning him that he has the right to remain silent. While those warnings may appear clear-cut, almost 1 million criminal cases may be compromised each year in the United States because suspects don't understand their constitutional rights, according to research presented at the 119th Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association.
Horse-breeders are used to the fact that most new-born foals suffer from diarrhoea. Many methods have been suggested to avoid the problem, including supplementing the mothers' diets with ß-carotene, which is known to be helpful in preventing diarrhoea in young calves. However, Juliane Kuhl in the group of Christine Aurich at the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna has now shown that this food supplement has no real effect on the incidence of diarrhoea in foals.
BELMONT, MA—Researchers at Harvard-affiliated McLean Hospital have found that those who believe in a benevolent God tend to worry less and be more tolerant of life's uncertainties than those who believe in an indifferent or punishing God.
The percentage of graduating neurology residents comfortable treating stroke with a clot-busting drug has increased dramatically over the past 10 years, according to research published in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association.
New Orleans, LA – A research team that included Hamilton E. Farris, PhD, Research Assistant Professor of Neuroscience and Otorhinolaryngology at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans, reveals that two entirely different species show similar perception of auditory cues that drive basic biological functions; that these perceptions may be universally shared among animals; and that such perception may also limit the evolution of communication signals. The work is published in the August 5, 2011 issue of Science.
New York University neuroscientists have identified the parts of the brain we use to remember the timing of events within an episode. The study, which appears in the latest issue of the journal Science, enhances our understanding of how memories are processed and provides a potential roadmap for addressing memory-related afflictions.
DURHAM, N.C. -- A discovery by scientists at Duke University Medical Center and Johns Hopkins University could increase the chances for an effective combination of drug therapy to treat the second most common type of brain tumor.
For years scientists have been looking for the primary cancer genes involved in the development of oligodendrogliomas. Scientists knew the two chromosomes that held the probable mutations, but not the particular gene information.
When developing babies are growth restricted in the womb, they are typically born with heads that are large relative to their bodies. The growing brain is protected at the expense of other, less critical organs. Now, researchers reporting in the August 5th issue of Cell, a Cell Press publication, unearth new molecular evidence that explains just how the brain is spared.
In studies of rapidly growing fruit fly larvae, they've traced this developmental phenomenon to the activity of a gene called Anaplastic Lymphoma Kinase (ALK).