Brain

There is currently no standard pharmacological treatment for spinal cord injury. Here, Dr. Florencia Labombarda, who comes from Buenos Aires University, Argentina suggests that progesterone, a steroid hormone, may be a promising therapeutical candidate as it is already for traumatic brain injury, where it has reached phase II clinical trials.

Oxidative stress is closely associated with secondary cell death in many disorders of the central nervous system including stroke, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease. Among many aberrant oxidative stress-associated proteins, DJ-1 has been associated with the oxidative stress cell death cascade primarily in Parkinson's disease. Although principally expressed in the cytoplasm and nucleus, DJ-1 can be secreted into the serum under pathological condition. Recently, a close pathological association between DJ-1 and oxidative stress in stroke has been implicated. To this end, Prof.

Overindulging in high-calorie snacks is partly caused by lapses in a very specific part of the brain, according to a new University of Waterloo study.

The study, published in Psychosomatic Medicine: Journal of Biobehavioral Medicine, is the first to conclusively link reduced operation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex with self-restraint in the dietary context.

OAK BROOK, Ill. – Imaging can be a cost-effective way to identify people at risk for stroke who might benefit from aggressive intervention, according to a new modeling study published online in the journal Radiology.

Using advanced computer models, neuroscience researchers at the University of Copenhagen have gained new knowledge about the complex processes that cause Parkinson's disease. The findings have recently been published in the prestigious Journal of Neuroscience.

DALLAS, TX – September 12, 2014 - An estimated 8% of Americans will suffer from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) at some point during their lifetime. Brought on by an overwhelming or stressful event or events, PTSD is the result of altered chemistry and physiology of the brain. Understanding how threat is processed in a normal brain versus one altered by PTSD is essential to developing effective interventions.

UC San Francisco researchers have used brain scans to predict how young children learn to read, giving clinicians a possible tool to spot children with dyslexia and other reading difficulties before they experience reading challenges.

A cancer drug that has shown promise against Alzheimer's disease in mice and has begun early clinical trials has yielded perplexing results in a novel mouse model of AD that mimics the genetics and pathology of the human disease more closely than any other animal model.

The drug, bexarotene, was found to reduce levels of the neurotoxic protein amyloid-beta in experimental mice with late-stage Alzheimer's but to increase levels during early stages of disease.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — A peek inside the brains of more than 750 children and teens reveals a key difference in brain architecture between those with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and those without.

Kids and teens with ADHD, a new study finds, lag behind others of the same age in how quickly their brains form connections within, and between, key brain networks.

PITTSBURGH—The public dialogue surrounding whether to vaccinate children is one example of how poor communication of science can cause confusion and worsen people's health and lives. Many other issues – from climate change to nuclear power to using "smart" electricity grids – also require accurate, understandable scientific communication so that policymakers and the general public can make informed decisions.

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Neuroscientists have found that a gene mutation that arose more than half a million years ago may be key to humans' unique ability to produce and understand speech.

Researchers from MIT and several European universities have shown that the human version of a gene called Foxp2 makes it easier to transform new experiences into routine procedures. When they engineered mice to express humanized Foxp2, the mice learned to run a maze much more quickly than normal mice.

Cognitive neuroscience research has shown that certain brain regions are associated with specific cognitive abilities, such as language, naming, and decision-making.

How and where these specific abilities are integrated in the brain to support complex cognition is still under investigation. However, researchers at the University of Iowa and Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, believe that several hub regions may be especially important for the brain to function as an integrated network.

Toronto – Calculating the pros and cons of a potential decision is a way of decision-making. But repeated engagement with numbers-focused calculations, especially those involving money, can have unintended negative consequences, including social and moral transgressions, says new study co-authored by a professor at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management.

EUGENE, Ore. -- Clinical psychologists are being urged by two University of Oregon researchers to recognize the experiences of institutional betrayal so they can better treat their patients and respond in ways that help avoid or repair damaged trust when it occurs in their own institutions.

The call to action for clinicians as well as researchers appears in a paper in the September issue of the American Psychologist, the leading journal of the American Psychological Association.

September 15, 2014 - Magnetic stimulation of a brain area involved in "executive function" affects cravings for and consumption of calorie-dense snack foods, reports a study in the September issue of Psychosomatic Medicine: Journal of Biobehavioral Medicine, the official journal of the American Psychosomatic Society.