Brain

Unlocking the secrets to better treating the pernicious disorders of obesity and dementia reside in the brain, according to a paper from American University's Center for Behavioral Neuroscience. In the paper, researchers make the case for treating obesity with therapies aimed at areas of the brain responsible for memory and learning. Furthermore, treatments that focus on the hippocampus could play a role in reducing certain dementias.

Irvine, Calif., July 23, 2014 — A therapy combining salmon fibrin injections into the spinal cord and injections of a gene inhibitor into the brain restored voluntary motor function impaired by spinal cord injury, scientists at UC Irvine's Reeve-Irvine Research Center have found.

RIVERSIDE, Calif. — Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is a genetic disorder that causes obsessive-compulsive and repetitive behaviors, and other behaviors on the autistic spectrum, as well as cognitive deficits. It is the most common inherited cause of mental impairment and the most common cause of autism.

Currently, no cure exists for Alzheimer's disease, the devastating neurological disease affecting more than 5 million Americans. But scientists are now reporting new progress on a set of compounds, initially developed for cancer treatment, that shows promise as a potential oral therapy for Alzheimer's. Their study appears in ACS' Journal of Medicinal Chemistry.

The hippocampal region of the brain is important for encoding environment inputs and memory formation. However, the underlying mechanisms are unclear. Dr. Zhouyan Feng and co-workers from Zhejiang University, China monitored the activity of hippocampal neurons in rats using microelectrode arrays, and explored the mechanisms underlying the neuronal responses. Somatosensory stimulation, in the form of tail clamping, changed local field potentials into theta rhythm-dominated waveforms, decreased the spike firing of pyramidal cells, and increased interneuron firing.

Basement membrane degradation and blood-brain barrier damage appear after cerebral infarction, severely impacting neuronal and brain functioning. Matrix metalloproteinase-9 is able to degrade the major components of the basement membrane around cerebral blood vessels and to mediate extracellular matrix remodeling. Therefore, Dr.

Neuroprotection by ischemic preconditioning has been confirmed by many studies, but the precise mechanism remains unclear. In a study released in the Neural Regeneration Research (Vol. 9, No. 11, 2014), Dr. Yong Liu and co-workers from Tongji Hospital Affiliated to Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China performed cerebral ischemic preconditioning in rats by simulating a transient ischemic attack, and explored the mechanism underlying the neuroprotective effect of ischemic preconditioning.

CHICAGO --- Controlling pain during childbirth and post delivery may reduce the risk of postpartum depression, writes Katherine Wisner, M.D., a Northwestern Medicine® perinatal psychiatrist, in a July 23 editorial in Anesthesia & Analgesia.

Wisner's editorial is based on a new Chinese study that found women who had pain control with epidural anesthesia during a vaginal delivery had a much lower risk for postpartum depression than women who didn't have the epidural.

Computer scientists at MIT and Israel's Technion have discovered an unexpected source of information about the world's languages: the habits of native speakers of those languages when writing in English.

The work could enable computers chewing through relatively accessible documents to approximate data that might take trained linguists months in the field to collect. But that data could in turn lead to better computational tools.

Recent published research in the Journal of Clinical Investigation demonstrates how changes in dopamine signaling and dopamine transporter function are linked to neurological and psychiatric diseases, including early-onset Parkinsonism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

If you're a member of the Clean Plate Club – you eat pretty much everything you put on your plate – you're not alone! A new Cornell University study shows that the average adult eats 92% of whatever he or she puts on his or her plate. "If you put it on your plate, it's going into your stomach," says Brian Wansink Ph.D., author of the forthcoming book, Slim by Design, Professor of Marketing and Director of the Cornell Food and Brand Lab.

Contrary to previous assumptions, researchers find that preschoolers are able to gauge the strength of their memories and make decisions based on their self-assessments. The study findings are published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

How would a child respond to this question? Would his or her list be full of relatives, animals from movies and books, or perhaps neighborhood pets? Would the poppies blooming on the front steps make the list or the oak tree towering over the backyard?

How might the animals children name compare to those named by children raised in a different cultural or language background or in a community that offers more direct contact with the natural world?

NEW YORK, NY -- As part of a multinational, collaborative effort, researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have helped identify over 100 locations in the human genome associated with the risk of developing schizophrenia, in the largest genomic study published on any psychiatric disorder to date, conducted with 80,000 people.

Television commercials for luxury vehicles pack a lot in their 30-second running times: the camera offers quick shots of the soft leather upholstery, the shiny colors, the state-of-the-art entertainment system, and the four-wheel drive. But these multiple angles and shifting perspectives have a negative impact on consumer evaluation of products, according to a new study from a Tel Aviv University researcher.