Brain

INDIANAPOLIS, December 2, 2014 -- Today, Eli Lilly and Company announced results from new analyses of two Phase 3 trials evaluating the relationship between cognitive and functional treatment effects in patients with mild Alzheimer's disease. Based on post-hoc analyses of the Phase 3 trials, the findings suggested that cognitive deficits were more apparent than functional deficits in mild Alzheimer's disease when measured with the Alzheimer's disease Assessment Scale-Cognitive (ADAS-Cog) and the Alzheimer's disease Cooperative Study-Activities of Daily Living (ADCS-ADL) subscales.

Amsterdam, The Netherlands, December 2, 2014 - Detection, prevention, and preclinical treatment are three key areas that may make a difference in the battle to reduce the rapid rise of new Alzheimer's disease (AD) cases every year. These three topics are the focus of an important new supplement to the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease.

CHAPEL HILL, NC - UNC School of Medicine researchers have found for the first time a biochemical mechanism that could be a cause of "chemo brain" - the neurological side effects such as memory loss, confusion, difficulty thinking, and trouble concentrating that many cancer patients experience while on chemotherapy to treat tumors in other parts of the body.

A new study from the UT Dallas Center for Vital Longevity shows that the brain activity prior to seeing an item is related to how well it is later remembered.

In the study published online in NeuroImage, the researchers showed that receiving information about a pair of items before seeing them may affect how well they are remembered.

Moreover, the researchers also found that the activity in different areas of the brain was unexpectedly related to how the information was remembered.

Some men are being driven away from macho occupations like surgery and the Royal Marines because they don't feel that they are 'man enough', according to new research.

The authors of a study published today in the British Journal of Psychology say this means that only individuals who see themselves as macho apply for and stay in such jobs, which helps explain why they remain an incredibly masculine domain.

Philadelphia, PA, December 2, 2014 - Persistent anxiety is one of the most common and distressing symptoms compromising mental health. Most of the research on the neurobiology of anxiety has focused on the generation of increased anxiety, i.e., the processes that "turn on" anxiety.

But what if the problem lay with the "off switch" instead? In other words, the dysfunction could exist in the ability to diminish anxiety once it has begun.

A new study out today in the Journal of Neuroscience shows that traumatic brain injury can disrupt the function of the brain's waste removal system. When this occurs, toxic proteins may accumulate in the brain, setting the stage for the onset of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and chronic traumatic encephalopathy.

West Orange, NJ. December 2, 2014. Stroke researchers have found that the presence of frontal lesions predicts better functional improvement in individuals with spatial neglect who received prism adaptation therapy. "Integrity of medial temporal structures may predict better improvement of spatial neglect with prism adaptation treatment" (doi: 10.1007/s11682-012-9200-5) was published in September in the Neuroimaging and Rehabilitation Special Issue of Brain Imaging & Behavior. The authors are Peii Chen, PhD, Priyanka Shah, and A.M. Barrett, MD, of Kessler Foundation, Kelly M.

In at least one respect, Capuchin monkeys are smarter than humans -- they don't assume a higher price tag means better quality, according to a new Yale study appearing in the open-access journal Frontiers in Psychology.

People consistently tend to confuse the price of a good with its quality. For instance, one study showed that people think a wine labeled with an expensive price tag tastes better than the same wine labeled with a cheaper price tag. In other studies, people thought a painkiller worked better when they paid a higher price for it.

Witnessing violence by parents or a parent's intimate partner can trigger a chain of negative behaviors in some children that follows them from preschool to kindergarten and beyond, according to researchers at Case Western Reserve University.

EAST LANSING, Mich. - To hunt or not hunt wolves can't be quantified as simply as men vs. women, hunters vs. anti-hunters, Democrats vs. Republicans or city vs. rural.

What's truly fueling the divisive debate is fear of wolves or the urge to care for canis lupis. The social dynamics at play and potential options for establishing common ground between sides can be found in the current issue of the journal PLOS ONE.

West Orange, NJ. December 1, 2014. Kessler Foundation researchers have authored a new article that provides insight into the variable impact of traumatic brain injury (TBI) on long-term memory. The article, "Working memory capacity links cognitive reserve with long-term memory in moderate to severe TBI: a translational approach," was epublished ahead of print on October 7 in the Journal of Neurology (10.1007/s00415-014-7523-4). The authors are Joshua Sandry, PhD, John DeLuca, PhD, and Nancy Chiaravalloti, PhD, of Kessler Foundation.

PITTSBURGH--Psychiatric disorders -- including autism -- are characterized and diagnosed based on a clinical assessment of verbal and physical behavior. However, brain imaging and cognitive neuroscience are poised to provide a powerful advanced new tool.

LIMA--(2 December 2014) A new peer-reviewed study, released today at the start of the UN climate conference in Peru, reveals the unprecedented amount of carbon stored within the nine-nation network of Amazonian indigenous territories and protected natural areas.

Over the past thirty years, physical activity among children has declined markedly. The public health implications of this decline include a growing prevalence of obesity and chronic diseases such as diabetes and hypertension. A new issue of Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development expands the focus to ask whether physical activity is also related to children's brain and cognitive development and achievement in school.