Brain

The traditional view of individual brain areas involved in perception of different sensory stimuli—i.e., one brain region involved in hearing and another involved in seeing—has been thrown into doubt in recent years. A new study published in the online open access journal BMC Neuroscience, shows that, in monkeys, the region involved in hearing can directly improve perception in the visual region, without the involvement of other structures to integrate the senses.

Irvine, Calif. — Warmer temperatures and longer dry spells have killed thousands of trees and shrubs in a Southern California mountain range, pushing the plants' habitat an average of 213 feet up the mountain over the past 30 years, a UC Irvine study has determined.

The victory stance of a gold medalist and the slumped shoulders of a non-finalist are innate and biological rather than learned responses to success and failure, according to a University of British Columbia study using cross-cultural data gathered at the 2004 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

St. Louis, August 11, 2008 — A mutation that causes a childhood tumor syndrome also impairs growth hormone secretion, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found.

ST. PAUL, Minn. – Physical frailty, which is common in older persons, may be related to Alzheimer's disease pathology, according to a study published in the August 12, 2008, issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

Running throughout middle and older ages may be associated with reduced disability in later life as well as a survival advantage, according to a report in the August 11/25 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

A type of positron emission tomography (PET) scanning may be useful in a non-invasive assessment of the formation of Alzheimer's disease–related plaques in the brain, according to small study posted online today that will appear in the October 2008 print issue of Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Individuals with mild cognitive impairment appear more likely to have earlier onset, longer duration and greater severity of diabetes, according to a report in the August issue of Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

It has probably happened to everyone at one time or another. You're driving to a restaurant for the very first time. At a crossroads, you make a turn. You drive for several minutes, and then several minutes more. Nothing in sight. The disturbing thought creeps into your mind: "I should be there by now. Did I make the wrong turn?"

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital scientists have identified one of the molecular mechanisms underlying the genetic brain malformation called holoprosencephaly (HPE). The findings not only yield insights into the most common developmental malformation of the anterior brain and face in newborns, but also help in understanding the intricate process by which the brain forms in the developing fetus.

Led by St. Jude geneticist Guillermo Oliver, Ph.D., the researchers published their findings in the August 11, 2008, issue of the journal Developmental Cell.

CHICAGO -- Parkinson's disease and drug addiction are polar opposite diseases, but both depend upon dopamine in the brain. Parkinson's patients don't have enough of it; drug addicts get too much of it. Although the importance of dopamine in these disorders has been well known, the way it works has been a mystery.

Tampa, FL (August 11, 2008) — Scientists from the University of South Florida and the University of Kentucky report that people who develop Alzheimer's disease may show signs of this illness many decades earlier in life, including compromised educational achievement. Their research appears online this month in the journal Alzheimer's Disease and Associated Disorders.

It is not easy to translate research into practice, and a therapy that works well in the sterile research lab is not always successful in the real world. Researchers across the country are driven not only to discover new treatments but also to make sure their treatments are designed to be used successfully in a variety of community settings.

DURHAM, N.C. – Cancer biologists are turning their attention to the normal cells that give rise to cancers, to learn more about how tumor growth might be stopped at the earliest opportunity.

"Identifying the specific, normal cells that cancers come from can provide critical insight into how cancers develop," said Robert Wechsler-Reya, an associate professor of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology at Duke University Medical Center. "This may help us develop more rational and effective approaches to treatment."

BOSTON--An aggressive childhood brain tumor known as medulloblastoma originates in normal brain "stem" cells that turn malignant when acted on by a known mutant, cancer-causing oncogene, say researchers from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).