Brain

Acupuncture may help to improve the subtle memory loss that precedes the development of dementia, otherwise known as mild cognitive impairment, or MCI for short, suggests a review of the available published evidence in Acupuncture in Medicine.

And it may be particularly effective when combined with drug treatment, the findings indicate, although further better quality research is needed, caution the researchers.

Exaggerating the visual appearance of mistakes could help people further improve their motor skills after an initial performance peak, according to a new study published in PLOS Computational Biology.

Previous research has shown that manipulating the perception of mistakes can improve motor skills. Dagmar Sternad, Christopher Hasson and colleagues from Northeastern University in Boston and Hokkaido University in Japan set out to examine whether this strategy could further enhance skills after they plateau.

LA JOLLA -- Visual prosthetics, or bionic eyes, are soon becoming a reality, as researchers make strides in strategies to reactivate parts of the brain that process visual information in people affected by blindness.

MIT engineers have developed a microfluidic device that replicates the neuromuscular junction -- the vital connection where nerve meets muscle. The device, about the size of a U.S. quarter, contains a single muscle strip and a small set of motor neurons. Researchers can influence and observe the interactions between the two, within a realistic, three-dimensional matrix.

It's called mental imbalance for a reason. Sanity hangs, in part, in the gentle balance of chemicals strung together within regions of the brain in an intricate matrix.

In schizophrenia, the matrix is sharply jarred, debilitating the mind and triggering hallucinations. Now, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have created an interactive model of that matrix to fast-track research and treatment of the tormenting disorder.

DENVER - While many companies have long promised that their brain-training products can sharpen aging minds, only one type of computerized brain training so far has been shown to improve people's mental quickness and significantly reduce the risk of dementia, according to research presented at the American Psychological Association's Annual Convention.

New research out today in the journal Neuron reveals how the brain is able to meet its massive energy demands with a "just in time" system that delivers oxygen that fuels nerve cells. The findings could shed light on diseases like Alzheimer's and help explain the cognitive decline that accompanies the disease.

Mice are likely to freeze at the sight of small slow-moving shapes and flee from fast approaching ones, finds new UCL research.

This provides the first evidence that mice make instinctive behavioural choices based on vision alone, and could help inform future studies of behaviour and brain function in mice. Knowing how mice instinctively respond to visual cues will enable researchers to conduct easy, reproducible studies to see if this behaviour is disrupted in mental and physical conditions.

MADISON, Wis. -- The botulinum toxins are among the deadliest substances on Earth, and two specific toxins -- including the popular drug Botox -- have multiple uses for treating many neuromuscular conditions, including frown lines, disabling muscle spasms and migraine headaches.

The botulinum toxins cancel nerve signals to the muscles, creating paralysis that can last for months. Given its extraordinary toxicity, doses are typically measured in trillionths of a gram, and targets are carefully chosen to silence only the desired motor nerves.

From middle-age, the brains of obese individuals display differences in white matter similar to those in lean individuals ten years their senior, according to new research led by the University of Cambridge. White matter is the tissue that connects areas of the brain and allows for information to be communicated between regions.

Toronto, Canada - Researchers have pinpointed the specific part of the brain that older adults rely on to differentiate speech sounds in background noise, which could revolutionize the treatment of hearing loss.

As people age, their peripheral and central auditory system (areas of the brain that help to intake and interpret sound) decline in function and plugging into other parts of the brain is needed to compensate, according to Dr. Claude Alain, senior investigator of the study and Assistant Director of the Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest Health Sciences.

Scientists from Singapore have streamlined the process of using human stem cells to mass produce GABAergic neurons (GNs) in the laboratory. This new protocol provides scientists with a robust source of GNs to study many psychiatric and neurological disorders such as autism, schizophrenia, and epilepsy, which are thought to develop at least in part due to GN dysfunction.

Therapeutic strategies targeting Alzheimer's disease (AD)-related molecule β-amyloid (Aβ), Tau protein and BACE enzyme have been recently explored. However, the therapeutic efficacy for a single target is not ideal. The clinical trials that clean Aβ from the brain in AD patients were largely unsuccessful. It is well known that the inflammatory response is one component of AD pathogenesis, leading to a series of irreversible pathological events.

Escherichia coli K1 (E. coli K1) continues to be a major threat to the health of young infants. Affecting the central nervous system, it causes neonatal meningitis by multiplying in immune cells, such as macrophages, and then disseminating into the bloodstream to subsequently invade the blood-brain barrier. Neonatal and childhood meningitis in particular results in long-term neurological problems such as seizures or ADHD in up to half of the survivors.

Scientists from the RIKEN Center for Life Science Technology (CLST) in Japan have used a new non-invasive PET scanning technique to obtain images of neuron proliferation in the subventricular zone and subgranular zone of the hippocampal dentate gyrus. Neurogenesis in the hippocampal dentate gyrus is known to be particularly affected by depression.