Brain

MANHASSET, NY -- Most people who carry a genetic mutation for a movement disorder called dystonia will never develop symptoms, a phenomenon that has puzzled scientists since the first genetic mutation was identified in the 1990's. Now, scientists at The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research have figured out why these mutation carriers are protected from symptoms of the disorder – they have an additional lesion that evens the score.

(PHILADELPHIA) – A brain-preserving cooling treatment called therapeutic hypothermia is a cost-effective way to improve outcomes after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, which claims the lives of more than 300,000 people each year in the United States and leaves thousands of others neurologically devastated.

Philadelphia, PA, 5 August 2009 - It is important to understand what biological mechanisms contribute to an individual's capacity to be resilient under conditions of extreme stress, such as those regularly experienced by soldiers, police, and firefighters. Dr. Charles A. Morgan III and his colleagues from Yale University and the VA National Center for PTSD have worked closely with collaborators at the Special Forces Underwater Warfare Operations Center to study special operations soldiers enrolled in the military Combat Diver Qualification Course (CDQC).

When you feel you are being touched, usually someone or something is physically touching you and you perceive that your "self" is located in the same place as your body. In new research published in the open-access, peer-reviewed journal PLoS ONE, neuroscientists at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland, investigated the relationship between bodily self-consciousness and the way touch stimuli are spatially represented in humans. They found that sensations of touch can be felt and mislocalised towards where a "virtual" body is seen.

The way people with autism see and process the body language of others could be preventing them from gauging people's feelings, according to new research.

With around half a million people in the UK affected by autism, the Durham University study suggests visual processing problems could be contributing to their day-to-day difficulties with social interaction.

Specific changes in brain pathways may counteract genetic mutations for the movement disorder dystonia, according to new research in the Journal of Neuroscience. Few people who inherit dystonia genes display symptoms — namely sustained muscle contractions and involuntary gestures — and the study provides a possible explanation. This result could lead to new treatments for the estimated 500,000 North Americans diagnosed with dystonia.

The adult lower digestive tract can be stimulated to add neurons to the intestinal system, according to new mouse research in the Journal of Neuroscience. The study shows that drugs similar to the neurotransmitter serotonin increase the production of new neurons in the gut. This is the first research to confirm that an adult intestine can generate neurons in the enteric nervous system, the network of neurons in the gut's wall that controls the gastrointestinal system.

A recent study of more than 2,000 identical twins found that medical problems early in life, rather than the neurotoxic effects of anesthesia, are likely linked to an individual's risk for developing learning disabilities. The study's findings, reported in the journal Twin Research and Human Genetics, contradict research published earlier this year, which concluded that receiving anesthesia younger than age four is associated with subsequent learning problems.

Milan, Italy, 4 August 2009 - The study of the neural basis of language has largely focused on regions in the cortex – the outer brain layers thought by many researchers to have expanded during human evolution.

Professor Declan Murphy and colleagues Dr Michael Craig and Dr Marco Catani from the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London have found differences in the brain which may provide a biological explanation for psychopathy. The results of their study are outlined in the paper 'Altered connections on the road to psychopathy', published in Molecular Psychiatry.

BETHESDA, Md. (August 4, 2009) — Divers who held their breath for several minutes had elevated levels of a protein that can signal brain damage, according to a new study from the Journal of Applied Physiology. However, the appearance of the protein, S100B, was transient and leaves open the question of whether lengthy apnea (breath-holding) can damage the brain over the long term.

Activation of two different kinds of neurons is necessary for appetitive and aversive memory recall in crickets, say researchers BMC Biology who blocked octopaminergic (OA-ergic) and dopaminergic (DA-ergic) transmission and found that this resulted in the inability to recall pleasant and unpleasant memories, respectively.

Scientists at Leeds have prevented epilepsy caused by a gene defect from being passed on to mice offspring – an achievement which may herald new therapies for people suffering from the condition.

The study is published today in the US journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). It offers, for the first time, irrefutable proof that a faulty version of a gene known as Atp1a3 is responsible for causing epileptic seizures in mice.

People who engage in activities that exercise the brain, such as reading, writing, and playing card games, may delay the rapid memory decline that occurs if they later develop dementia, according to a study published in Neurology®,.

The study involved 488 people age 75 to 85 who did not have dementia at the start of the study. They were followed for an average of five years; during that time 101 of the people developed dementia.

Depression among preschoolers appears to be a continuous, chronic condition rather than a transient developmental stage, according to a report in the Archives of General Psychiatry.