Brain

Inhibiting fatty acid synthesis in brain cancer cells may offer a new option to treat about 50 percent of deadly glioblastomas that are driven by amplified signaling of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), according to a first-of-its-kind study by researchers at UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — The Sirt1 enzyme in the body has generated enormous attention as a possible secret to living longer. Some scientists believe that fasting and drinking wine appear to aid in this quest because both likely activate Sirt1, unleashing its power.

PHILADELPHIA –- Examining data obtained from a University of Pennsylvania and Vanderbilt University psychology study, researchers at these universities and Northwestern University have reported the first placebo-controlled evidence that antidepressant medications—particularly selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs—can substantially change patients' personalities. The personality changes also appeared to be linked to long-term improvements in mood.

St. Louis, Dec. 10, 2009 — Scientists have long assumed that amyloid brain plaques found in autopsies of Alzheimer's patients are harmful and cause Alzheimer's disease. But autopsies of people with no signs of mental impairment have also revealed brain plaques, challenging this theory.

Now, for the first time, researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have shown that brain plaques in apparently healthy individuals are associated with increased risk of diagnosis with Alzheimer's disease years later.

Women participating in the Women's Health Initiative study who reported taking an antidepressant drug had a small but statistically significant increase in the risk of stroke and of death compared with participants not taking antidepressants. The authors of a report in the December 14 Archives of Internal Medicine note that their findings are not conclusive but may signify a need for additional attention to patients' cardiovascular risk factors.

Postmenopausal women who take antidepressants face a small but statistically significant increased risk for stroke and death compared with those who do not take the drugs. The new findings are from the federally-funded, multi-institution, Women's Health Initiative Study sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, and the results are published in the December 14 online edition of Archives of Internal Medicine.

Intensive medical therapy, including aggressive control of blood pressure and cholesterol levels, for patients with asymptomatic plaque buildup in their carotid arteries (which supply blood to the brain) appears to be associated with reduced rates of cardiovascular events and reduced risk of microemboli (microscopic-sized blood clots) in the brain arteries, according to a report posted online today that will appear in the February 2010 print issue of Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Early Alzheimer's disease detected by a compound that binds to brain plaques appears likely to progress into symptomatic Alzheimer's disease with dementia, according to a report in the December issue of Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

HOUSTON - (Dec. 14, 2009) – Waking and walking to the bathroom in the pitch black of night requires brain activity that is both conscious and unconscious and requires a single master gene known as Math1 or Atoh1, said Baylor College of Medicine (www.bcm.edu) researchers in a report that appears online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Whether it's doing sit-ups or eating steamed veggies instead of fries, it's often difficult to get ourselves to do something we know is beneficial. A new study in the Journal of Consumer Research says we can trick ourselves into more favorable evaluations of certain products and behaviors.

Even the way people remember dance moves depends on the culture they come from, according to a report in the December 14th issue of Current Biology, a Cell Press publication. Whereas a German or other Westerner might think in terms of "step to the right, step to the left," a nomadic hunter-gatherer from Namibia might think something more like "step to the east, step to the west."

Those differences aren't just a matter of language; rather, they reflect differences in the way our minds encode and remember spatial relationships.

SAN FRANCISCO — For a generation of students raised and nurtured at the computer keyboard, it seems like a no-brainer that computer-assisted learning would have a prominent role in the college science classroom.

WASHINGTON – Students who watch as their peers endure the verbal or physical abuses of another student could become as psychologically distressed, if not more so, by the events than the victims themselves, new research suggests.

Bullies and bystanders may also be more likely to take drugs and drink alcohol, according to the findings, which are reported in the December issue of School Psychology Quarterly, published by the American Psychological Association.

HAMILTON, ON, December 10, 2009–If you are spending the holidays with big Uncle Frank or bossy Aunt Minnie and wondering whether you would be better off with another family, spare a thought for the humble cichlid fish.

A research team from McMaster University and the University of New South Wales has found that among cichlids, a species that lives in groups, members make strategic decisions about their living situation.

The results appear in the current issue of Biology Letters.

Large-scale electronic patient record (EPR) programmes promise much but sometimes deliver little, according to a new study by UCL researchers that reviewed findings from hundreds of previous studies from all over the world.