Brain

Okazaki, Japan - Each year millions of people worldwide suffer from stroke, which can occur to anyone at any time. While some may recover completely, the majority of survivors will experience some form of impairment that requires a lengthy process toward partial or full recovery of functioning. Therefore, continuous improvement of rehabilitation methods is needed to ensure more positive long-term outcomes among survivors.

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 18, 2016 - Left untreated, high blood pressure may significantly increase your risk of developing a brain bleed, according to research presented at the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference 2016.

Intracerebral hemorrhage is a type of stroke caused by a weakened blood vessel that ruptures and bleeds into brain tissue. High blood pressure is a powerful determinant of risk for intracerebral hemorrhage.

Young people with mental problems - especially those with psychotic-like symptoms - should receive help as early as possible and in their own environment. This was the conclusion of a joint study of the University of Helsinki, the Helsinki University Hospital Department of Psychiatry and the National Institute for Health and Welfare, Finland.

URBANA, Ill. - Research has shown that nutrition plays an important role in the rapid structural development of the brain during the first few months of life. Scientists at the University of Illinois interested in this connection have studied the neonatal piglet as a model of human brain and cognitive development for nearly a decade.

A study published ahead of print in the The Journal of General Physiology has revealed new insights into Retigabine, a known pharmacological treatment for epilepsy.

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 17, 2016 -- People who have migraines with aura are more likely to have strokes caused by either a blood clot in the heart (cardio-embolic stroke) or a clot within the brain's blood vessels (thrombotic stroke), compared to those that don't have migraines with aura, according to research presented at the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference 2016.

LOS ANGELES, February 17, 2016 - The cost of an effective, widely used clot-busting drug has more than doubled over the past decade, but Medicare/Medicaid reimbursement lags far behind, according to research presented at the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference 2016.

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 17, 2016 - Women who become pregnant at age 40 or older face a greater risk of stroke and heart attack later in life than women who become pregnant at a younger age, according to research presented at the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference 2016.

MINNEAPOLIS - Antibiotics may be linked to a serious disruption in brain function, called delirium, and other brain problems, more than previously thought, according to a "Views and Reviews" article published in the Feb. 17, 2016, online issue of Neurology®, a medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

Delirium causes mental confusion that may be accompanied by hallucinations and agitation. Medications are often the cause of delirium, but antibiotics are not necessarily the first medications doctors may suspect.

Pioglitazone, a drug used for type 2 diabetes, may prevent recurrent stroke and heart attacks in people with insulin resistance but without diabetes. The results of the Insulin Resistance Intervention after Stroke (IRIS) trial, presented at the International Stroke Conference 2016 in Los Angeles and published in the New England Journal of Medicine, suggest a potential new method to prevent stroke and heart attack in high-risk patients who have already had one stroke or transient ischemic attack.

The most modern clinical trial to compare the use of carotid-artery stenting with carotid endarterectomy for the prevention of strokes in asymptomatic patients with serious narrowing of the carotid artery finds no significant differences in outcomes between the two procedures over a period of up to five years. The results are receiving Online First publication in the New England Journal of Medicine to coincide with their presentation at the International Stroke Conference in Los Angeles.

Caltech biologists have performed the first large-scale screening in a vertebrate animal for genes that regulate sleep, and have identified a gene that when overactivated causes severe insomnia. Expression of the gene, neuromedin U (Nmu), also seems to serve as nature's stimulant--fish lacking the gene take longer to wake up in the morning and are less active during the day.

Dozens of chemical interactions in the vertebrate brain go into maintaining a natural sleep schedule, and scientists have recently found one more player on the field: a neurochemical called neuromedin U, or Nmu. The protein, which was analyzed in zebrafish but is also found in humans, acts to stimulate wakefulness, particularly in the morning. The study appears Feb. 17, 2016 in Neuron.

DARIEN, IL - A new study of firefighters suggests that insomnia and nightmares may increase the risk of depression by impairing the ability to access and leverage emotion regulation strategies effectively.

LOS ANGELES, Feb.16, 2016 - Brain imaging may accurately identify patients likely to benefit from stroke clot removal instead of relying on the time since symptoms began as an indicator of treatment eligibility, according to research presented at the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference 2016.