Brain

People's early-life experience sticks with them into adulthood and may render them more susceptible to many of the chronic diseases of aging, according to a new UBC study.

A team led by UBC researchers Gregory Miller and Michael Kobor performed genome-wide profiling in 103 healthy adults aged 25-40 years.

Irvine, Calif., July 14, 2009 – A drug similar to one used in clinical trials for treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis has been found to rescue memory in mice exhibiting Alzheimer's symptoms.

The discovery by UC Irvine scientists offers hope that a new treatment may be on the horizon for people in the early stages of Alzheimer's, the leading cause of elderly dementia afflicting more than 5 million people in the U.S. and for which no cure exists.

According to a new report in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, children's temperament may be due, in part, to a combination of a certain gene and a specific pattern of brain activity.

Vienna, July 14, 2009 – Eating a "heart healthy" diet and maintaining or increasing participation in moderate physical activity may help preserve our memory and thinking abilities as we age, according to new research reported today at the Alzheimer's Association 2009 International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease (ICAD 2009) in Vienna.

Berkeley -- A large study of patients with mild cognitive impairment revealed that results from cognitive tests and brain scans can work as an early warning system for the subsequent development of Alzheimer's disease.

The research found that among 85 participants in the study with mild cognitive impairment, those with low scores on a memory recall test and low glucose metabolism in particular brain regions, as detected through positron emission tomography (PET), had a 15-fold greater risk of developing Alzheimer's disease within two years, compared with the others in the study.

A study by scientists at Penn State provides new information about the genes that are involved in a mammal's early brain development, including those that contribute to neurological disorders. The study uses high-throughput sequencing to uncover active genes in developing brains. The research, which was led by Distinguished Professor of Biology Hong Ma and Associate Professor of Biology Gong Chen, will be published online in the Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences sometime during the week of 13 July 2009.

A new study of the cognitive processes involved with honesty suggests that truthfulness depends more on an absence of temptation rather than an active resistance to temptation.

Elderly people with no memory or thinking problems are more likely to later develop problems if they have a growing amount of "brain rust," or small areas of brain damage, according to a study published in the July 14, 2009, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

CHICAGO – Individuals who have higher levels of education and who are more impaired by Parkinson's disease appear to require treatment for their symptoms earlier than do other patients, according to a report posted online today that will appear in the September print issue of Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

DALLAS – July 13, 2009 – People with Parkinson's disease have significantly higher blood levels of a particular pesticide than healthy people or those with Alzheimer's disease, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found.

In a study appearing in the July issue of Archives of Neurology, researchers found the pesticide beta-HCH (hexachlorocyclohexane) in 76 percent of people with Parkinson's, compared with 40 percent of healthy controls and 30 percent of those with Alzheimer's.

One of the continuing mysteries of the HIV/AIDS epidemic is why women usually develop lower viral levels than men following acute HIV-1 infection but progress faster to AIDS than men with similar viral loads. Now, a research team based at the Ragon Institute of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), MIT and Harvard has found that a receptor molecule involved in the first-line recognition of HIV-1 responds to the virus differently in women. Consequently, differences in chronic T cell activation, a known predictor of disease progression, may develop.

Undocumented people live in a shadowy world of high fear and stress -- fear of deportation and stress brought on lack of economic, linguistic and educational resources.

And of course if they are parents their worries trickle down to their children. A new study from UCLA examines parents' concerns about development, learning and behavior for young children of Mexican origin and identifies whether these concerns differ by the families' citizenship or documentation status.

What if you could test your risk for Alzheimer's disease much like your cholesterol levels — through a simple blood test?

UCLA scientists have discovered a way to measure the amount of amyloid beta that is being absorbed by immune cells in the blood. Amyloid beta forms the plaques considered the hallmark of Alzheimer's disease, and if the immune system isn't adequately clearing amyloid beta, it may indicate Alzheimer's risk, according to the researchers.

It comes as no surprise that some babies are more difficult to soothe than others but frustrated parents may be relieved to know that this is not necessarily an indication of their parenting skills. According to a new report in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, children's temperament may be due in part to a combination of a certain gene and a specific pattern of brain activity.

If that office inkjet printer has become just another fixture, it's time to take a fresh look at it. Similar technology may soon be used to develop paper-based biosensors that can detect certain harmful toxins that can cause food poisoning or be used as bioterrorism agents.

In a paper published in the July issue of Analytical Chemistry, John Brennan and his research team at McMaster University, working with the Sentinel Bioactive Paper Network, describe a method for printing a toxin-detecting biosensor on paper using a FujiFilm Dimatix Materials Printer.