Brain

The blood-brain barrier prevents xenobiotics from entering the central nervous system. Growing evidence indicates that neurotoxins, such as tributyltin, manganese and nanoparticles, may disrupt the function of the blood-brain and blood-cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) barriers. Previous studies show that chronic acrylamide exposure leads to central and peripheral neuropathy. However, very few studies have focused on the effects of acrylamide exposure on these barriers. Prof.

Because the majority of patients with diffuse brain injury are not suitable candidates for surgery, neuroprotective agents are of great importance. Apolipoprotein E exerts a neuroprotective effect against brain injury, but synthetic apolipoprotein E cannot cross the blood-brain barrier, thus limiting its application.It has been reported that apolipoprotein E (138�) mimetic peptide can cross the blood-brain barrier in both normal and injured brain. However, its impact on neurological function following diffuse brain injury is still unclear. Prof.

A new summary of 12 years of research on North Carolina's pre-kindergarten program for at-risk 4-year-olds shows that "dual-language learners" make the greatest academic progress in the program. According to the report from the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute (FPG), while students in NC Pre-K advance across all spheres of learning, the program is especially beneficial for the state's dual-language learners.

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Having expectant parents role-play interacting with an infant using a doll can help predict which couples may be headed for co-parenting conflicts when their baby arrives.

Researchers videotaped 182 couples in the third trimester of pregnancy while they played with a doll that they were told represented the baby they were about to have. Researchers analyzed how the couple interacted with each other around the doll.

The couples were videotaped again nine months after the birth of their baby to see how they actually played together.

Researchers at the Gladstone Institutes and University of California, San Francisco have shown that a loss of cells in the retina is one of the earliest signs of frontotemporal dementia (FTD) in people with a genetic risk for the disorder—even before any changes appear in their behavior.

To get the most enjoyment out of our dollar, science tells us to focus our discretionary spending on trips over TVs, on concerts over clothing, since experiences tend to bring more enduring pleasure than do material goods. New research shows that the enjoyment we derive from experiential purchases may begin before we even buy.

The findings are published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

We would like to point out the importance of microglia/macrophagein remyelination. Except for serving as professional scavengers to clear up tissue debris (including disintegrated myelin and dead OLs), microglia are also play important role for OL development. The study group leaded by Prof. Yi Pang, University of Mississippi Medical Center , USA have demonstrated that microglia-conditioned culture medium not only provides strong support for OPCs' survival, but also greatly enhances their differentiation in vitro.

ITHACA, N.Y. – Robo Brain – a large-scale computational system that learns from publicly available Internet resources – is currently downloading and processing about 1 billion images, 120,000 YouTube videos, and 100 million how-to documents and appliance manuals. The information is being translated and stored in a robot-friendly format that robots will be able to draw on when they need it.

Exercising to improve our cardiovascular strength may protect us from cognitive impairment as we age, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Montreal and its affiliated Institut universitaire de gératrie de Montréal Research Centre. "Our body's arteries stiffen with age, and the vessel hardening is believed to begin in the aorta, the main vessel coming out of the heart, before reaching the brain. Indeed, the hardening may contribute to cognitive changes that occur during a similar time frame," explained Claudine Gauthier, first author of the study.

There is a very good reason mothers often carry their crying babies, pacing the floor, to help them calm down. Research in Current Biology last year shows that infants experience an automatic calming reaction upon being carried, whether they are mouse or human babies.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — By striking up the right rhythm in the right brain region at the right time, Brown University neuroscientists report in Nature Neuroscience that they managed to endow mice with greater touch sensitivity than other mice, making hard-to-perceive vibrations suddenly more vivid to them.

PITTSBURGH—The world grows increasingly more chaotic year after year, and our brains are constantly bombarded with images. A new study from Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition (CNBC), a joint project between Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh, reveals how neurons in the part of the brain responsible for recognizing objects respond to being shown a barrage of images. The study is published online by Nature Neuroscience.

PITTSBURGH—Scientists can now monitor and record the activity of hundreds of neurons concurrently in the brain, and ongoing technology developments promise to increase this number manyfold. However, simply recording the neural activity does not automatically lead to a clearer understanding of how the brain works.

According to researchers at the University of Montreal, the regions of the brain below the cortex play an important role as we train our bodies' movements and, critically, they interact more effectively after a night of sleep. While researchers knew that sleep helped us the learn sequences of movements (motor learning), it was not known why.

Which shirt do we put on in the morning? Do we drive to work or take the train? From which takeaway joint do we want to buy lunch? We make hundreds of different decisions every day. Even if these often only have a minimal impact, it is extremely important for our long-term personal development to make decisions that are as optimal as possible. People with ADHD often find this difficult, however. They are known to make impulsive decisions, often choosing options which bring a prompt but smaller reward instead of making a choice that yields a greater reward later on down the line.