Brain

As doctors begin to test progesterone for traumatic brain injury at sites across the country, researchers are looking ahead to optimizing the hormone's effectiveness.

Two abstracts summarizing Emory research on progesterone are being presented at the 2009 Society for Neuroscience (SFN) meeting in Chicago.

AUGUSTA, Ga. – Over-expressing a gene that lets brain cells communicate just a fraction of a second longer makes a smarter rat, report researchers from the Medical College of Georgia and East China Normal University.

Amsterdam, 19th of October 2009 – Computer scientists from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore are working on the development of an efficient and intelligent facial expression recognition system. The system is capable of locating the face region using derivative-based filtering and recognizing facial expressions using boosting classifier. The portable device is being developed to help autistic children understand the emotions of surrounding people.

People are social creatures. Robots … not so much. When we think of robots, we think of cold, metallic computers without emotion. If science fiction has taught us anything, though, it's that we crave emotion, even in our robots - think C-3PO or Star Trek's Data. So it stands to reason that if robots are ever going to become a fixture in our society, even becoming integrated into our households, we need to be able to read their faces. But how good are we at reading robot faces?

(PHILADELPHIA) Migraine sufferers, beware. You may be more prone to an alcohol-induced headache after a night of drinking, according to researchers from the Jefferson Headache Center. The research will be presented at Neuroscience 2009, the Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, in Chicago.

CHICAGO – New data about amyloid precursor protein, or APP, a protein implicated in development of Alzheimer's disease, suggests it also may have a positive role -- directly affecting learning and memory during brain development. So is APP good or bad? Researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center say both, and that a balance of APP is critical.

Montreal, Canada, and Chicago, IL, October 19, 2009 – Angiochem, Inc. a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing drugs that are uniquely capable of crossing the blood-brain barrier to treat brain diseases, announced today that its lead drug candidate, ANG1005, has demonstrated a favorable safety and efficacy profile in more than 100 patients with brain cancer from two separate Phase 1 /2 clinical studies in patients with progressive gliomas, including recurrent glioblastoma, and in patients with progressive brain metastases.

DURHAM, N.C. -- Exercise is a key factor in improving both memory and mood after whole-brain radiation treatments in rodents, according to data presented by Duke University scientists at the Society for Neuroscience meeting.

"This is the first demonstration that exercise can prevent a decline in memory after whole-brain radiation treatment," said lead researcher and graduate student Sarah Wong-Goodrich of the Duke Department of Psychology and Neuroscience. Whole-brain radiation is sometimes used to treat brain cancers in humans.

CHICAGO -- New research clarifies how neurotransmitters like norepinephrine, serotonin, and dopamine, are regulated – a finding that may help fine-tune therapies for depression.

Current drugs for depression target the regulatory process for neurotransmitters, and while effective in some cases, do not appear to work in other cases.

CHICAGO – Epileptic seizures are the most dramatic and prominent aspect of the "alcohol withdrawal syndrome" that occurs when a person abruptly stops a long-term or chronic drinking habit. Researchers have shown that the flow of calcium ions into brain cells via voltage-gated calcium channels plays an important role in the generation of alcohol withdrawal seizures, because blocking this flow suppresses these seizures. But do the changes in calcium currents contribute to alcohol withdrawal seizures or are they a consequence of the seizures?

CHAPEL HILL – For decades, scientists have thought the faulty neural wiring that predisposes individuals to behavioral disorders like autism and psychiatric diseases like schizophrenia must occur during development. Even so, no one has ever shown that a risk gene for the disease actually disrupts brain development.

Neuroscience researchers from the Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University, will present a wide range of research topics at the Society for Neuroscience's 39th annual meeting in Chicago, Oct. 17-21, 2009. The information below is a representation of the neuroscience research Yerkes scientists will be discussing. To learn more about ongoing research and scientific resources available at the Yerkes Research Center and the other seven national primate research centers, please visit exhibit booth 2153.

Targacept, Inc. (NASDAQ: TRGT), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing a new class of drugs known as NNR Therapeutics™, today announced the presentation of data from its recently completed Phase 2b clinical trial of TC-5214 as an augmentation (add-on) treatment in subjects with major depressive disorder, or MDD, who did not respond adequately to first-line treatment with the representative SSRI citalopram hydrobromide.

ALEXANDRIA, VA – Physical therapists are calling for definitive vestibular screenings and assessment measures for US military service members with blast-induced traumatic brain injuries (BITBI). According to a Scholarly Opinion Piece in the September issue of Physical Therapy, the scientific journal of the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA), vestibular rehabilitation must be included as part of successful treatment for those who have been injured by blasts and experience vestibular symptoms such as vertigo, gaze instability, and motion intolerance.

Small-for-size graft dysfunction (SFSGD) following living-related liver transplantation (LRLT) is characterized by early graft dysfunction (EGD) when the graft-to-recipient body weight ratio (GRBWR) is below 0.8%. However, patients transplanted with GRBWR above 0.8% can develop dysfunction of the graft.