Brain

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) –– A ballet dancer grasps her partner's hand to connect for a pas de deux. Later that night, in the dark, she reaches for her calf to massage a sore spot. Her brain is using different "maps" to plan for each of these movements, according to a new study at UC Santa Barbara.

One-third of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth have attempted suicide in their lifetime -- a prevalence comparable to urban, minority youth -- but a majority do not experience mental illness, according to a report by researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Neuroscientists using a new brain imaging technique could see an investigational drug for Parkinson's disease get into a patient's brain and affect blood flow in several key structures, an indicator the drug may be effective.

Memory difficulties such as those seen in dementia may arise because the brain forms incomplete memories that are more easily confused, new research from the University of Cambridge has found. The findings are published today in the journal Science.

A fast test to diagnose fatal brain conditions such as mad cow disease in cattle and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans could be on the horizon, according to a new study from National Institutes of Health scientists. Researchers at NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) have developed a highly sensitive and rapid new method to detect and measure infectious agents called prions that cause these diseases.

A dysfunction in the lining of blood vessels that is linked to cardiovascular illness also appears to play a role in the development of Alzheimer's disease, according to a study published in Circulation Research: Journal of the American Heart Association.

Alzheimer's disease is a progressive brain condition that typically affects people age 60 and older, depriving them of memory, reasoning and other cognitive skills. As many as 5 million Americans have Alzheimer's, according to the National Institutes of Health.

In an advance that is being compared to the sequencing of the fly genome, researchers have created the first brain-wide wiring map of a fruit fly. The breakthrough paves the way for a comprehensive analysis of information processing within and between neurons and ultimately a deeper understanding of control and causality in fly behavior, according to the researchers who report their findings online on December 2 in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication.

Why does a child grow up to become a lawyer, a politician, a professional athlete, an environmentalist or a churchgoer?

It's determined by our inherited genes, say some researchers. Still others say the driving force is our upbringing and the nurturing we get from our parents.

Scientists from The University of Manchester say a naturally occurring chemical found in soy could prove to be an effective new treatment for a fatal genetic disease that affects children.

Dr Brian Bigger, from the University's MPS Stem Cell Research Laboratory, found that genistein – derived from soya beans and licensed in the US as an osteoporosis drug – had a dramatic effect on mice suffering from the human childhood disease Sanfilippo.

Philadelphia, PA, 2 December 2010 - Many brain imaging studies have reported that tobacco smoking is associated with large-scale and wide-spread structural brain abnormalities.

The cerebral cortex is a specific area of the brain responsible for many important higher-order functions, including language, information processing, and memory. Reduced cortical thickness has been associated with normal aging, reduced intelligence, and impaired cognition.

However, prior research had not described the impact of smoking upon cortical thickness.

BELMONT, MA—Researchers at Harvard-affiliated McLean Hospital and the University of Utah have developed the best biologically based test for autism to date. The test was able to detect the disorder in individuals with high-functioning autism with 94 percent accuracy. The study will be published online the week of November 29th in Autism Research.

A large genetic study of people with major depression has found that a duplicated region of DNA on chromosome 5 predisposes people to the disorder. The gene involved plays an important role in the development of nerve cells, adding to evidence that disruptions in neurotransmission networks form a biological basis for depression.

PORTLAND, Ore. – Young women veterans are nearly three times as likely as civilians to commit suicide, according to new research published by researchers at Portland State University (PSU) and Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU).

The paper, "Self-Inflicted Deaths Among Women With U.S. Military Service: A Hidden Epidemic?" appears in the December 2010 issue of Psychiatric Services, a journal published by the American Psychiatric Association. This work is the first general population study of current suicide risk among women who've served in the U.S. military.