Brain

Chicago, Illinois, July 21, 2009 — Schizophrenia is a severely debilitating psychiatric disease that is thought to have its roots in the development of the nervous system; however, major breakthroughs linking its genetics to diagnosis, prognosis and treatment are still unrealized. Jill Morris, PhD assistant professor of Pediatrics at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine and a researcher in the Human Molecular Genetics Program of Children's Memorial Research Center studies a gene that is involved in susceptibility to schizophrenia, Disc1 (Disrupted-In-Schizophrenia 1).

LIVERPOOL, UK – 21 July 2009: Interim results of a study being conducted by scientists at the University of Liverpool suggest that children aged three years and younger, who are born to women taking the anti-epileptic drug sodium valproate whilst pregnant, are likely to have an IQ of six to nine points lower than average.

Amsterdam, 21 July 2009 - In the July issue of Biomaterials, published by Elsevier, researchers from the University of Central Florida (UCF) report on the first lab-grown motor nerves that are insulated and organized just like they are in the human body. The model system will drastically improve understanding of the causes of myelin-related conditions, such as diabetic neuropathy and later, possibly multiple sclerosis (MS). In addition, the model system will enable the discovery and testing of new drug therapies for these conditions.

"Our research suggests that a large set of rich and important functions related to 3-D motion perception may have been previously overlooked in MT+," says Alexander Huk, assistant professor of neurobiology. "Given how much we already know about MT+, this research gives us strong clues about how the brain processes 3-D motion."

For the study, Huk and his colleagues had people watch 3-D visualizations while lying motionless for one or two hours in an MRI scanner fitted with a customized stereovision projection system.

Berkeley -- "Practice makes perfect" is the maxim drummed into students struggling to learn a new motor skill - be it riding a bike or developing a killer backhand in tennis. Stunning new research now reveals that the brain can also achieve this motor memory with a prosthetic device, providing hope that physically disabled people can one day master control of artificial limbs with greater ease.

"Practice makes perfect" is the maxim drummed into students struggling to learn a new motor skill – be it riding a bike or developing a killer backhand in tennis. In order to become proficient in any motor task, all that practice must eventually modify the performer's nervous system so that stable motor memories of the physical actions are formed. In this week's issue of PLoS Biology, new research reveals that macaque monkeys can achieve a kind of consolidation of motor memory when using a neuroprosthetic device to complete a motor action.

For some people, placebos work nearly as well as the medication. How well placebos work varies widely among individuals, however. Why that is so, and why they work at all, remains a mystery, thought to be based on some combination of biological and psychological factors.

The peptide alpha-MSH works in a region of the brain known as the hypothalamus to suppress appetite. A team of researchers, at Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, and the University of California Davis, has provided new insight into the way in which levels of the active form of alpha-MSH are regulated in mice.

In a major advance in obesity and diabetes research, Yale School ofMedicine scientists have found that reducing levels of a key enzyme in the brain decreased appetites and increased energy levels.

Irvine, Calif. – UC Irvine scientists have shown for the first time that neural stem cells can rescue memory in mice with advanced Alzheimer's disease, raising hopes of a potential treatment for the leading cause of elderly dementia that afflicts 5.3 million people in the U.S.

Mice genetically engineered to have Alzheimer's performed markedly better on memory tests a month after mouse neural stem cells were injected into their brains. The stem cells secreted a protein that created more neural connections, improving cognitive function.

IVIg treatments, the addition of good antibodies into the blood stream, may hold promise for lowering the risk of Alzheimer's disease and other similar brain disorders, according to research published in the July 21, 2009, print issue of Neurology®,

A new study in the Journal of Consumer Research examines children's tendencies to draw conclusions about social roles from the products they see.

"Good or bad, we adults have all made similar stereotypes about people, based on the products they own," write authors Lan Nguyen Chaplin (University of Arizona) and Tina M. Lowrey (University of Texas, San Antonio). "We recognize that the meanings of products are often derived from their existence within a set of complementary products used by a social role (referred to as consumption constellations."

In research to be published in Child Development Perspectives, the UI team calls for tossing out the nature-nurture debate, which they say has prevailed for centuries in part out of convenience and intellectual laziness.

The researchers disagree with the idea that genes are a one-way path to specific traits and behaviors. Instead, they argue that development involves a complex system in which genes and environmental factors constantly interact.

Whether it's getting a cold during exam time or feeling run-down after a big meeting, we've all experienced feeling sick following a particularly stressful time at work or school. Is this merely coincidence, or is it possible that stress can actually make us sick? In a new report in Perspectives on Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, psychologist Janice K.

New research shows babies have a handle on the meaning of different dog barks – despite little or no previous exposure to dogs.

Infants just 6 months old can match the sounds of an angry snarl and a friendly yap to photos of dogs displaying threatening and welcoming body language.

The new findings come on the heels of a study from the same Brigham Young University lab showing that infants can detect mood swings in Beethoven's music.