Brain

Montreal, June 2, 2014 - A new study finds a link between prenatal maternal stress (PNMS) and the development of symptoms of asthma and autism in children.

DARIEN, IL – A new study provides novel evidence suggesting that suicides are far more likely to occur between midnight and 4 a.m. than during the daytime or evening.

Results show that the weighted, scaled mean suicide rate per hour was 10.27 percent after midnight, peaking at 16.27 percent between 2 a.m. and 2:59 a.m. In contrast, the mean suicide rate per hour was 2.13 percent between 6 a.m. and 11:59 p.m. When six-hour time blocks were examined, the observed frequency of suicide between midnight and 5:59 a.m. was 3.6 times higher than expected.

A seven-year study of women who take antipsychotic medication while pregnant, proves it can affect babies.

The observational study, published in the journal PLOS ONE, reveals that whilst most women gave birth to healthy babies, the use of mood stabilisers or higher doses of antipsychotics during pregnancy increased the need for special care after birth with 43 per cent of babies placed in a Special Care Nursery (SCN) or a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), almost three times the national rate in Australia.

DURHAM, N.C. -- Duke researchers have found a new type of neuron in the adult brain that is capable of telling stem cells to make more new neurons. Though the experiments are in their early stages, the finding opens the tantalizing possibility that the brain may be able to repair itself from within.

Sleeping well is a crucial factor contributing to our physical and mental restoration. SWS in particular has a positive impact for instance on memory and the functioning of the immune system. During periods of SWS, growth hormones are secreted, cell repair is promoted and the defence system is stimulated. If you feel sick or have had a hard working day, you often simply want to get some good, deep sleep. A wish that you can't influence through your own will – so the widely held preconception.

DARIEN, IL – A new study shows that college students who are poor sleepers are much more likely to earn worse grades and withdraw from a course than healthy sleeping peers.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — 1 in 2 hypertensive pregnant women who habitually snore may have unrecognized obstructive sleep apnea, a sleeping disorder that can reduce blood oxygen levels during the night and that has been linked to serious health conditions, new University of Michigan-led research shows.

One in four hypertensive pregnant women who don't snore also unknowingly suffer from the sleeping disorder, according to the study that appears in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

TORONTO, June 2, 2014 — Even by three months of age, babies are visually able to locate objects that stand out from a group, a York University study has found.

"For example, an infant can pick a red umbrella in a sea of grey ones," says Psychology Professor Scott Adler in the Faculty of Health, who led the research. "This indicates that babies at a very young age are able to selectively extract information from the environment, just like adults."

Slight variations in how an individual face is viewed can lead people to develop significantly different first impressions of that individual, according to research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

"Our findings suggest that impressions from still photos of individuals could be deeply misleading," says psychological scientist and study author Alexander Todorov of Princeton University.

New research reveals that bilingualism has a positive effect on cognition later in life. Findings published in Annals of Neurology, a journal of the American Neurological Association and Child Neurology Society, show that individuals who speak two or more languages, even those who acquired the second language in adulthood, may slow down cognitive decline from aging.

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have erased and reactivated memories in rats, profoundly altering the animals' reaction to past events.

The study, published in the June 1 advanced online issue of the journal Nature, is the first to show the ability to selectively remove a memory and predictably reactivate it by stimulating nerves in the brain at frequencies that are known to weaken and strengthen the connections between nerve cells, called synapses.

DURHAM, N.C. – A collaborative effort between Duke Medicine researchers and neurosurgeons and scientists in China has produced new genetic insights into a rare and deadly form of childhood and young adult brain cancer called brainstem glioma.

The researchers identified a genetic mutation in the tumor cells that plays a role in both the growth and the death of a cell. Additionally, the mutation to the newly identified gene may also contribute to the tumor's resistance to radiation.

Using a flash of light, scientists have inactivated and then reactivated a memory in genetically engineered rats. The study, supported by the National Institutes of Health, is the first cause-and-effect evidence that strengthened connections between neurons are the stuff of memory.

Twenty years after the hormone leptin was found to regulate metabolism, appetite, and weight through brain cells called neurons, Yale School of Medicine researchers have found that the hormone also acts on other types of cells to control appetite.

Published in the June 1 issue of Nature Neuroscience, the findings could lead to development of treatments for metabolic disorders such as obesity and diabetes.

CHICAGO — A chemotherapy regimen consisting of procarbazine, CCNU, and vincristine (PCV) administered following radiation therapy improved progression-free survival and overall survival in adults with low-grade gliomas, a form of brain cancer, when compared to radiation therapy alone. The findings were part of the results of a Phase III clinical trial presented today at the 2014 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting by the study's primary author Jan Buckner, M.D., deputy director, Cancer Practice, at Mayo Clinic Cancer Center.