Brain

Published today in Nature Genetics, the study reveals three new risk genes for ALS and one of these - C21orf2 - increases an individual's risk of developing the dis-ease by 65 per cent. These results could aid the development of personalised treatments for people with ALS by using gene therapy - an approach which involves replacing faulty genes or adding new ones.

One in every 400 people will be diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) at some point in their lives, yet its causes are largely unknown and effective treatments are therefore lacking.

As the summer Olympics get underway, a new study co-authored by Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) researchers reports that popular gymnastics training equipment contains mixtures of flame-retardant chemicals that have been linked to increased risks of ADHD, cancer and brain development delays.

Cancers arise in skin, muscle, liver or other types of tissue when one cell becomes different from its neighbors. Although biologists have learned a lot about how tissues form during development, very little is known about how two cells of the same tissue stay identical for an animal's entire lifetime.

Professor Alexander Oleskin from the Faculty of Biology of the Lomonosov Moscow State University and his colleague Professor Boris Shenderov from the Gabrichevsky Moscow Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology published an article devoted to the review of gaseous neurotransmitters of microbial origin and their role in the human body.

The results of the research were published in Microbial Ecology in Health and Disease.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Despite societal perceptions that older adults' love lives are ancient history, many seniors are anything but retired from sex, a new study suggests.

Many seniors consider sexual activity essential to their well-being, happiness and quality of life. And some of these vivacious seniors are finding their golden years to be an optimal time for exploring new dimensions of their sexuality, said researcher Liza Berdychevsky, a professor of recreation, sport and tourism at the University of Illinois.

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- Patients with three or fewer metastatic brain tumors who received treatment with stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) had less cognitive deterioration three months after treatment than patients who received SRS combined with whole brain radiation therapy (WBRT). These findings are according to the results of a federally funded, Mayo Clinic-led, multi-institution research study published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

July 26, 2016 -- Researchers at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health studied the relationship between health insurance coverage and tobacco and alcohol use among reproductive age women in the United States, and whether there were differences according to pregnancy status. The findings showed that pregnant women with insurance coverage had lower odds of alcohol use in the past month; however the odds of tobacco use were not affected. For non-pregnant women, insurance coverage resulted in higher odds of alcohol use but lower odds of using tobacco.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine report they have identified a biochemical pathway linking oxidative stress and the amino acid cysteine in Huntington's disease. The findings, described in last week's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, provide a mechanism through which oxidative stress specifically damages nerve cells in Huntington's disease, an inherited and fatal neurodegenerative disorder.

Scientists have mapped the structural changes that occur in teenagers' brains as they develop, showing how these changes may help explain why the first signs of mental health problems often arise during late adolescence.

In a study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers from the University of Cambridge and University College London (UCL) used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to study the brain structure of almost 300 individuals aged 14-24 years old.

Beta rhythms, or waves of brain activity with an approximately 20 Hz frequency, accompany vital fundamental behaviors such as attention, sensation and motion and are associated with some disorders such as Parkinson's disease. Scientists have debated how the spontaneous waves emerge, and they have not yet determined whether the waves are just a byproduct of activity, or play a causal role in brain functions. Now in a new paper led by Brown University neuroscientists, they have a specific new mechanistic explanation of beta waves to consider.

The number of people living well into their 90s is projected to quadruple by 2050. By mid-century, nearly 9 million people will be 90-years-old or older. In a first-of-its-kind study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, researchers from the University of California at Irvine examined whether four different measures of poor physical performance might be linked to increased dementia risk for people aged 90 and older.

Researchers comparing mouse and macaque brains have found evidence of an evolutionary universal brain structure in mammals that enables comparisons of cortical networks between species. A new study from a researcher at the University of Notre Dame could provide insights into brain disorders such as Alzheimer's and schizophrenia.

Researchers have identified an inner ear deficiency in children with Autism that may impact their ability to recognize speech. The findings, which were published in the journal Autism Research, could ultimately be used as a way to identify children at risk for the disorder at an early age.

Crucial opportunities to manage bipolar disorder early are being lost because individuals are waiting an average of almost six years after the onset of the condition before diagnosis and treatment.

That is the key finding of a joint UNSW Australia and Italian study published today in the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry.

The accumulation of β-Amyloid (Αβ) and tau proteins in the brain is hallmark pathology for Alzheimer disease. Recently developed positron emission tomography (PET) tracers, including [18F]-AV-1451, bind to tau in neurofibrillary tangles in the brain. So, could tau imaging become a diagnostic marker for Alzheimer disease and provide insights into the pathophysiology of the neurodegenerative disorder that destroys brain cells?