Brain

A new study reveals how the brain can connect discrete but overlapping experiences to provide a rich integrated history that extends far beyond individually experienced events and may help to direct future choices. The research, published by Cell Press in the October 23rd issue of the journal Neuron, also explains why some people are good at generalizing from past experience, while others are not.

Scientists have identified a gene in mice that plays a central role in the proper development of one of the nerve cells that goes bad in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease, and some other diseases that affect our motor neurons.

The study is the result of a collaboration by scientists at the University of Rochester Medical Center who normally focus on the eye, working together with a developmental neuroscientist at Harvard who focuses on the cerebral cortex. The work appears in the Oct. 23 issue of the journal Neuron.

New and old memories have been selectively and safely removed from mice by scientists.

"While memories are great teachers and obviously crucial for survival and adaptation, selectively removing incapacitating memories, such as traumatic war memories or an unwanted fear, could help many people live better lives," says Dr. Joe Z. Tsien, brain scientist and co-director of the Brain & Behavior Discovery Institute at the Medical College of Georgia School of Medicine.

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Anti-tobacco public service announcements have been around for decades, designed to encourage people to quit smoking or to refrain from starting. Often these ads try to encourage people to avoid smoking by scaring them with the harmful effects of tobacco use. In a new study, University of Missouri researchers examined the effects of two types of content commonly used in anti-tobacco ads – tobacco health threats that evoke fear and disturbing or disgusting images.

Hypnosis can induce synaesthetic experiences – where one sense triggers the involuntary use of another – according to a new study by UCL (University College London) researchers. The findings suggests that people with synaesthesia, contrary to popular belief, do not necessarily have extra connections in their brain; rather, their brains may simply do more 'cross talking' and this can be induced by changing inhibitory processes in the average brain.

PROVIDENCE, RI – The health benefits of regular physical activity are well documented, yet only 32 percent of adults in the United States engage in regular exercise. Now a new study by researchers at The Miriam Hospital offers some new insight into the role of social and environmental influences on physical activity behaviors.

Philadelphia, PA, October 22, 2008 – Cortisol helps our bodies cope with stress, but what about its effects on the brain? A new study by Cohen and colleagues, appearing in the October 15th issue of Biological Psychiatry, suggests that the answer to this question is complex. In an animal model of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), high doses of a cortisol-related substance, corticosterone, prevented negative consequences of stress exposure, including increased startle response and behavioral freezing when exposed to reminders of the stress.

Philadelphia, PA, October 22, 2008 – Science has found many links between depression and other serious medical illnesses, such as cancer, stroke, diabetes, and heart disease. For example, people who develop depression following a heart attack (myocardial infarction) or chest pain (angina) have an elevated risk of cardiac death or hospital readmission over the following year.

University of New South Wales (UNSW) research has highlighted a link between childhood obesity and a mother's diet before and during pregnancy. The work in animals proves that overweight expectant mothers are more likely to have babies with more body fat, who are at greater risk of diabetes and lipid metabolic disorders later in life.

Previous research shows that around 30 percent of women who become pregnant are overweight.

Montreal, Canada and Geneva, Switzerland – AngioChem, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company dedicated to creating and developing new drugs to treat brain diseases, announced today that its lead product, ANG1005, is safe and well tolerated in patients with brain cancer treated to date. ANG1005 consists of a proprietary peptide vector (Angiopep) that transports drugs across the blood-brain barrier (BBB) conjugated to three molecules of the anti-cancer agent paclitaxel.

Geneva, Switzerland: Scientists have developed a new drug delivery system that is capable of crossing the blood-brain barrier to reach and kill cancer cells in the brain, according to research presented at the 20th EORTC-NCI-AACR [1] Symposium on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics in Geneva today (Wednesday 22 October). Following successful preclinical studies, the technology is being evaluated in two phase I clinical trials in patients with malignant glioma and brain metastases.

Geneva, Switzerland: Scientists have developed a new imaging agent that can be used in scanning for tumours, and which gives a much clearer and more precise image than existing methods. The discovery has the potential to revolutionise pre-clinical cancer research and clinical diagnostic practice, and it makes use of compounds that have already been approved for treating patients: the anti-cancer drug bevacizumab (Avastin) and Copper-64, a radioactive copper nuclide, which is approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for some clinical trials.

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Parents of a child with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are nearly twice as likely to divorce by the time the child is 8 years old than parents of children without ADHD, the first study to look at this issue in depth has shown.

Moreover, among couples in the study who were divorced, marriages involving children with ADHD ended sooner than marriages with no ADHD-diagnosed children.

Young people with ADHD are not only at increased risk of starting to smoke cigarettes, they also tend to become more seriously addicted to tobacco and more vulnerable to environmental factors such as having friends or parents who smoke, according to a study from Massachusetts General Hospital reseachers. The report in the Journal of Pediatrics also found that individuals with more ADHD-related symptoms, even those who don't have the full syndrome, are at greater risk of becoming dependent on nicotine than those with fewer symptoms.

New studies conducted by April Benasich, professor of neuroscience at Rutgers University in Newark, and her colleagues reveal that gamma wave activity in the brains of children provide a window into their cognitive development, and could open the way for more effective intervention for those likely to experience language problems.