Brain

A trainee carefully clamps a workpiece in a lathe. He must program the machine correctly before he can machine the part. This is a tricky task and the trainee will have to solve a similar problem for his final exam. Therefore, he is learning to handle such equipment at a vocational school. However, rather than standing in front of a real machine, he sits in front of a computer. The control panels and the lathe behind it appear on a monitor. A computer guides the trainee step by step.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – December 7, 2009 – Biogen Idec (NASDAQ: BIIB) today announced that its oral compound BG-12 (dimethyl fumarate) achieved key milestones in clinical trials for multiple sclerosis (MS) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA). In recent months, the last patient was enrolled in the CONFIRM trial, the second of two Phase III trials designed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of BG-12 as a monotherapy in patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS).

Dec. 6, 2007--The Web site Neuroanthropology asks visitors to complete this quote, "One of the difficulties in understanding the brain is …". In addition to the typical facetious remarks, such as "so few of us seem to have one" and "the damn thing is smart enough to realize what you are doing, and contrary enough to change the way it reacts just to spite you…," there are more serious ones, such as "… it's not a computer" and the methods we have available "are not enough accurate in saying how neural mechanisms correlates to behavior."

Although the actual interruption may only last a few moments, the study shows that we then lose more time when we try to find our place and resume the task that was interrupted.

The research, led by Dr Helen Hodgetts and Professor Dylan Jones at Cardiff University, examined the cost of on-screen interruptions in terms of the time taken to complete a simple seven-step computer task.

The researchers found that, even after only a five second interruption, people take longer than normal to complete the next step in the task they are working on.

BOSTON, Mass. — Neuroscientists at the Mayo Clinic campus in Jacksonville, Fla., have demonstrated how brain waves can be used to type alphanumerical characters on a computer screen. By merely focusing on the "q" in a matrix of letters, for example, that "q" appears on the monitor.

Studies with fruit flies have shown that the specialized nerve cells called neurons can rebuild themselves after injury.

These results, potentially relevant to research efforts to improve the treatment of patients with traumatic nerve damage or neurodegenerative disease, were presented at the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) 49th Annual Meeting, Dec. 5-9, 2009 in San Diego.

An injured neuron's remarkable ability to reprogram itself was reported by Michelle Stone, Melissa Rolls, Ph.D., and colleagues at Penn State University (PSU).

Rockville, MD – "Why is it that men can be bastards and women must wear pearls and smile?" wrote author Lynn Hecht Schafran. The answer, according to an article in the Journal of Vision, may lie in our interpretation of facial expressions.

In two studies, researchers asked subjects to identify the sex of a series of faces. In the first study, androgynous faces with lowered eyebrows and tight lips (angry expressions) were more likely to be identified as male, and faces with smiles and raised eyebrows (expressions of happiness and fear) were often labeled feminine.

• More than 15 million Americans are recruited annually to participate in clinical trials according to the Alliance for Human Research Protection (AHRP), and most will be compensated for their participation.
• Research institutions view payments to volunteers as compensation for time and expenses; not as compensation for potential risks related to participating in the experiments.

The teen years can be a tumultuous time, as many parents know, a time when adolescents begin to flex their mental muscles, testing boundaries and turning to peers rather than parents for advice. Sometimes emotions and arguments can become so intense that things get out of hand and the child runs away.

A new study published this week in the Journal of Neurosurgery: Pediatrics finds that operative plans for removing Juvenile Pilocytic Astrocytoma, or JPA, tumors in the thalamus of the brain can be augmented with Diffusion Tensor Imaging, or DTI. The sensitivity of DTI imaging allows for the visualization of nerve fiber bundles in the brain. This information can maximize the potential of completely removing the tumor while avoiding damage to the fiber bundles that are directly related to motor functions of the patient.

Boston, December 4, 2009 -- Substantial progress has been made over the last 15 years in the healthcare community's ability to diagnose and treat epilepsy and its complications. Yet this progress in epilepsy management has not reached most of the 50 million people around the world, including many of the nearly three million people in the United States who have the disorder,

The electroencephalogram (EEG) is widely used by physicians and scientists to study brain function and to diagnose neurological disorders. However, it has remained largely unknown whether the electrodes on the head give an exact view of what is happening inside the brain. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tübingen, Germany, have now found a crucial link between the activity generated within the brain to that measured with EEG.

Humans and mice have previously unknown and potentially critical differences in one of the genes responsible for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). Researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Biology have found that two major features of a key DMD gene are present in most mammals, including humans, but are specifically absent in mice and rats, calling into question the use of the mouse as the principal model animal for studying DMD.

Cannabis can reduce spasticity in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients. A systematic review, published in the open access journal BMC Neurology, found that five out six randomized controlled trials reported a reduction in spasticity and an improvement in mobility.