Brain

Scientists are reporting that variants of a drug already approved for treating multiple sclerosis show promise as a long sought treatment for victims of bioterrorist attack with botulinum neurotoxin — which is 10,000 times deadlier than cyanide and the most poisonous substance known to man. The potential drugs also could be useful in treating other forms of botulism poisoning as well as Alzheimer's disease, multiple sclerosis, and myasthenia gravis, they say in an article in ACS Chemical Biology, a monthly journal.

Cells in the brain called pericytes that have not been high on the list of targets for treating diseases like Alzheimer's may play a more crucial role in the development of neurodegenerative diseases than has been realized.

Medical websites like WebMD provide consumers with more access than ever before to comprehensive health and medical information, but the sites' utility becomes limited if users use unclear or unorthodox language to describe conditions in a site search. However, a group of Georgia Tech researchers have created a machine-learning model that enables the sites to "learn" dialect and other medical vernacular, thereby improving their performance for users who use such language themselves.

Orangutans threatened with extinction could be brought back from the brink with help from a Queensland University of Technology (QUT) statistician.

Professor Kerrie Mengersen, from the School of Mathematical Sciences, is part of a study to guide efforts for saving the Indonesian primate whose name means "person of the forest".

Professor Mengersen said the study had found a quarter of villagers who lived side-by-side with orangutans did not know it was illegal under Indonesian law to kill the primates, and five per cent admitted to killing 1000 orangutans last year.

SAN DIEGO — New studies identify brain changes in people with Alzheimer's disease. The results give researchers a greater understanding of the disease and may help at-risk individuals by improving early detection. New animal research also shows a novel approach to Alzheimer's vaccine design that may avoid dangerous side effects. These new results were reported at Neuroscience 2010, the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience and the world's largest source of emerging news on brain science and health.

(CHICAGO) – New results from a study by neuroscientists at Rush University Medical Center suggest that people at risk of developing Alzheimer's disease exhibit a specific structural change in the brain that can be visualized by brain imaging. The findings may help identify those who would most benefit from early intervention.

The study will be presented at Neuroscience 2010, the annual meeting for the Society of Neuroscience in San Diego, Calif., on Wednesday, November 17.

SAN DIEGO — New human and animal studies released today uncover the extensive brain wiring used in communication and provide new insights into how the brain processes and produces language, accents, and sounds. The research also explores the brain abnormalities in people with speech and language problems, such as stuttering, suggesting future treatment avenues. The new findings were presented at Neuroscience 2010, the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience and the world's largest source of emerging news on brain science and health.

• Impulsive behavior is well known to be caused by acute ingestion of alcohol
• New findings show that periods of heavy drinking by adolescent males may increase levels of impulsive behavior over time
• These results could lead to significant work on the relationship between the amount of alcohol ingested and the impulsive behavior that follows during adolescence

• Cognitive and behavioral deficits have been found in children with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS), which is extremely difficult to diagnose
• New findings indicate that those children, when trained using classical eyeblink conditioning, suffer from deficits in both learning and memory
• Using eyeblink conditioning could provide a good model for assessing and diagnosing FAS in children

• Adolescence is a time of significant maturation, physically and emotionally
• New findings indicate that adolescents who have a family history of alcohol abuse demonstrated significantly decreased neural activity in the frontal lobe
• This could present a unique neurobiological vulnerability for adolescents at risk of developing alcohol abuse

SAN DIEGO — New research indicates that the integration of senses and functions in the brain is common. About two percent of the population has a condition called synesthesia, in which two different sensations, like color and sound, are experienced at once. Although this condition is rare, the new findings suggest the brain is wired in complex and sometimes overlapping ways to help people interpret and understand their environments.

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Almost a third of cerebral malaria survivors developed epilepsy or other behavioral disorders in the most comprehensive study to date of the disease in African children, solidifying the link between malaria and neuropsychiatric disorders that affect hundreds of thousands of children.

Mums who smoke heavily while pregnant run the risk of having kids who grow up to become repeat criminal offenders, suggests research published online in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

The findings held true, even after taking account of a comprehensive range of family and social factors, such as mental ill health and deprivation, which are likely to influence behaviours, the research showed.

Individuals who suffer from severe acne are at an increased risk of attempting suicide, according to a paper published on bmj.com today.

The study also finds that an additional risk may be present during and up to one year after treatment with isotretinoin, a commonly prescribed drug for severe acne. However, the authors stress that this additional risk is most likely due to the acne itself, rather than the drug treatment.

NASHVILLE, Tenn.—A brain area known to play a critical role in vision is divided into compartments that respond separately to different colors and orientations, Vanderbilt University researchers have discovered. The findings have important implications for furthering our understanding of perception and attention.

The research was published Nov. 14, 2010, in Nature Neuroscience.