Brain

Nerve fibers that link perception and motor regions of the brain are disconnected in tone-deaf people, according to new research in The Journal of Neuroscience. Experts estimate that at least 10 percent of the population may be tone deaf – unable to sing in tune. The new finding identifies a particular brain circuit that appears to be absent in these individuals.

A specific protein on the surface of a common bacterial pathogen allows the bacteria to leave the bloodstream and enter the brain, initiating the deadly infection known as meningitis. The new finding, which may guide development of improved vaccines to protect those most vulnerable, including young infants and the elderly, is now available in the Journal of Experimental Medicine.

Researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health have found that the activity of a protein in brain cells helps stimulate the spread of an aggressive brain cancer called glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). In a move toward therapy, the researchers showed that a small designer protein can block this activity and reduce the spreading of GBM cells grown in the laboratory.

PASADENA, Calif.—A team of scientists from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have pinpointed two groups of neurons in fruit fly brains that have the ability to sense and manipulate the fly's fat stores in much the same way as do neurons in the mammalian brain. The existence of this sort of control over fat deposition and metabolic rates makes the flies a potentially useful model for the study of human obesity, the researchers note.

Their findings were published in the August 13 issue of the journal Neuron.

The European Association of Urology Nurses (EAUN) presented their 'Incontinent Urostomy; Good Practice in Health Care' document last March in Stockholm (Sweden) during the 10th International EAUN meeting, held in conjunction with the 24th Annual EAU Congress.

The aim of this document is to provide the best and most up-to-date information on this topic and thereby assist nurses working in the urological field.

Using advanced brain imaging and genomics technologies, an international team of researchers co-led by Scripps Research Institute scientists has shown for the first time that natural variations in a specific gene influence brain structure. By establishing this link, the researchers have opened the door to a range of potential research efforts that could reveal gene variations responsible for a number of neurological conditions such as autism.

With a vast majority of the world speaking more than one language, it is no wonder that psychologists are interested in its effect on cognitive functioning. For instance, how does the human brain switch between languages? Are we able to seamlessly activate one language and disregard knowledge of other languages completely?

Mad cow disease is caused by the accumulation of an abnormal protein, the prion, in the brain of an affected patient. Outside of the brain, very little is known about prions. Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, researchers have, for the first time, identified the prion as a biomarker for pancreatic cancer. Pancreatic cancer is one of the most deadly cancers in humans; the five year survival rate is less than 10 percent.

An international group of researchers has shown that common variations in a gene – previously shown to be associated with Retts Syndrome, autism, and mental retardation – are associated with differences in brain structure in both healthy individuals and patients with neurological and psychiatric disorders. Their findings will be published in the early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences the week of August 17.

ST. PAUL, Minn. –People who smoke and have multiple sclerosis (MS) may be at increased risk of brain shrinkage and increased brain lesions related to the disease, according to a study published in the August 18, 2009, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Smoking has already been linked to an increased risk of developing MS.

Patients with multiple sclerosis who smoked for as little as six months during their lifetime had more destruction of brain tissue and more brain atrophy than MS patients who never smoked, a study by neuroimaging specialists at the University at Buffalo has shown.

Research published in Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology, showed that "ever-smokers" had more brain lesions and greater loss of brain volume, as well as higher scores on the Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS), than MS patients who had no history of smoking.

Assistant Professor Josh Dubnau, Ph.D., of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) and his team have uncovered an important molecular and cellular basis of the difference between short-term and long-term memories using the fruit fly as a model. The results of their study appear in Current Biology.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The polyphenols found in red wine are thought to help prevent Alzheimer's disease, and new research from Purdue University and Mount Sinai School of Medicine has shown that some of those compounds in fact reach the brain.

WASHINGTON — Although exercise is good for your health, extreme exercise may be physically addicting. Rats given a drug that produces withdrawal in heroin addicts went into withdrawal after running excessively in exercise wheels, according to new research. Rats that ran the hardest had the most severe withdrawal symptoms.

UCLA psychologists have determined for the first time that a gene linked with physical pain sensitivity is associated with social pain sensitivity as well.

Their study indicates that variation in the mu-opioid receptor gene (OPRM1), often associated with physical pain, is related to how much social pain a person feels in response to social rejection. People with a rare form of the gene are more sensitive to rejection and experience more brain evidence of distress in response to rejection than those with the more common form.