Brain

People who have superior language skills early in life may be less likely to develop Alzheimer's disease decades later, despite having the hallmark signs of the disease. This is according to research published in the July 9, 2009, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

The anti-inflammatory drug indomethacin could hold promise as a treatment for Alzheimer's disease, says a Saint Louis University doctor and researcher.

Two research studies published by William A. Banks, M.D., professor of geriatrics and pharmacological and physiological science at Saint Louis University School of Medicine, support this conclusion and offer what he calls a "one-two punch" in giving clues on how Alzheimer's disease develops and could be treated.

Ask any mother and she'll tell you that raising a preschooler is no easy task. Now imagine what it must be like to bring up a child with autism or a developmental delay.

WASHINGTON — Most of the cognitive tests that have been used to decide whether someone has Alzheimer's disease or vascular dementia have not been very helpful when used alone. A new report published by the American Psychological Association concluded that when older people are confused and forgetful, doctors should base their diagnoses on many different types of information, including medical history and brain imaging.

New Orleans, LA – For the first time, an international group of researchers has found genetic evidence linking schizophrenia to a specific region of DNA – on chromosome 6. This is the same area where key genes for immune function are located. The LSUHSC research team was led by Nancy Buccola, APRN, PMH CNS-BC, Assistant Professor of Clinical Nursing at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans, who also coordinated the ten clinical sites.

Scientists at the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet and Linköping University are well on the way to creating the first artificial nerve cell that can communicate specifically with nerve cells in the body using neurotransmitters. The technology has been published in an article in Nature Materials.

A new study carried out at the University of Haifa sheds light on how first and second languages are represented in the brain of a bilingual person. A unique single case study that was tested by Dr. Raphiq Ibrahim of the Department of Learning Disabilities and published in the Behavioral and Brain Functions journal, showed that first and second languages are represented in different places in the brain.

These are the latest findings of research funded in primary and secondary schools by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) into what makes good teachers even better.

The two year Effective Classroom Practice (ECP) was conducted by Professor Christopher Day, Professor Pam Sammons and Dr Alison Kington at the School of Education University of Nottingham from 2006-2008 and funded by ESRC.

The principal investigator, Professor Christopher Day believes the research provides a unique picture of the more effective teacher.

"Push your finger as hard as you can against the surface. Now as hard as you can but move it slowly - follow the ticking clock. Now faster. Now faster."

These were the commands for volunteers in a simple experiment that casts doubt on old ideas about mechanisms to control hand muscles. Complete understanding of the result may help explain why manual dexterity is so vulnerable to aging and disease, and even help design more versatile robotic graspers.

Healthy young mice treated with erythropoietin show lasting improved performance in learning and other higher brain functions. Researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Biology tested the cognitive effects of the growth factor, finding that it improved the sequential learning and memory components of a complex long-term cognitive task.

The latest work to 'turn off the taps' in the brain and stop a chemical being released in excess amounts – which can lead to Parkinson's Disease – will be presented at The British Pharmacological Society's Summer Meeting in Edinburgh today (Wednesday, 8 July 2009).

Dr Susan Duty from King's College London will present her latest work, aimed at stimulating 'trigger points' to stop the release of a chemical that can kill brain cells, at a special symposium that focuses on research into new types of drugs for treating disorders of the central nervous system.

Catastrophic epilepsy – characterized by severe muscle spasms, persistent seizures, mental retardation and sometimes autism – results from a mutation in a single gene, said Baylor College of Medicine (www.bcm.edu) researchers in a report that appears in the current issue of the Journal of Neuroscience.

Addiction to and abuse of prescription opioid drugs is prevalent, and they exact an immense toll on patients, physicians and society, according to Steven Passik, Ph.D., Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, in "Issues in Long-Term Opioid Therapy: Unmet Needs, Risks, and Solutions."

Opioid drugs have been used by humans for thousands of years and are one of the longest continuously used class of medications.

The cornerstone of a good doctor-patient relationship begins with the doctor's ability to clarify a patient's preferences and values, especially during a difficult diagnosis, a commentary in the Journal of the American Medical Association said.

Lead author Ronald M. Epstein, M.D., of the University of Rochester Medical Center, also suggests there are certain things physicians can do or say to define each situation, including being mindful their own biases.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Dissociative amnesia, or repressed memories, have been widely debunked and instead listed as disingenuous sources of trauma and conflict by modern science but Brown University political scientist Ross Cheit says two Harvard University psychiatrists that are skeptical are also wrong.