Brain

OAK BROOK, Ill. – A combination of diagnostic tests, including imaging and cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers can improve prediction of conversion from mild cognitive impairment (MCI) to Alzheimer's disease, according to a new study published online in the journal Radiology.

DURHAM, N.C. -- Employing a combination of imaging and biomarker tests improves the ability of doctors to predict Alzheimer's in patients with mild cognitive impairment, according to researchers at Duke Medicine.

The findings, which appear Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2012, in the journal Radiology, provide new insight into how to accurately detect Alzheimer's before the full onset of the disease.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Following the birth of a child, new mothers may have an altered perception of stresses around them, showing less interest in threats unrelated to the baby. This change to the neuroendocrine circuitry could help the mothers adapt to the additional stress often accompanying newborns, say researchers from Indiana University's Kinsey Institute and the University of Zurich.

Feeling lonely, as distinct from being/living alone, is linked to an increased risk of developing dementia in later life, indicates research published online in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry.

Various factors are known to be linked to the development of Alzheimer's disease, including older age, underlying medical conditions, genes, impaired cognition, and depression, say the authors.

(CHICAGO) —People who sometimes went hungry as children had slower cognitive decline once they were elderly compared to people who always had enough food to eat, according to a new study by neurological researchers from the Rush Alzheimer's Disease Center at Rush University Medical Center.

The findings will be published in the Dec. 11, 2012, print issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

MINNEAPOLIS – People who sometimes went hungry as children had slower cognitive decline once they were elderly than people who always had enough food to eat, according to a new study published in the December 11, 2012, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

When it comes to climate change, deforestation and toxic waste, the assumption has been that conservative views on these topics are intractable. But new research from the University of California, Berkeley, suggests that such viewpoints can be changed after all, when the messages about the need to be better stewards of the land are couched in terms of fending off threats to the "purity" and "sanctity" of Earth and our bodies.

Public opinion on environmental issues such as climate change, deforestation, and toxic waste seems to fall along increasingly partisan lines. But new research suggests that environmental messages framed in terms of conservative morals — describing environmental stewardship in terms of fending off threats to the "purity" and "sanctity" of Earth and our bodies — may help to narrow the partisan gap.

A medication being tested to help smokers kick the habit also may help avoid the weight gain that is common after quitting but only in women, according to a study published in the December issue of Biological Psychiatry. This is the first medication shown to reduce weight gain for up to one year in women smokers who quit.

ATLANTA – Auditory systems differ between sexes in sparrows depending on the season, a Georgia State University neuroscientist has found. The work adds to our knowledge of how the parts of the nervous system, including that of humans, are able to change.

Megan Gall, a post-doctoral researcher with Georgia State's Neuroscience Institute, tested the peripheral auditory systems of male and female house sparrows, comparing the hearing of each gender during non-breeding seasons and breeding seasons.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Just yelling "turn it down" isn't enough when young people are blasting music directly into their ears via earbuds and headphones, parents say. A new poll from the University of Michigan shows parents are strongly in favor of required hearing screenings for kids all the way up to age 17.

The University of Michigan Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health recently asked a nationwide sample of parents of children 0-17 years old about whether they'd support requirements for hearing screening and where they'd prefer to have the screening done.

In a study published today in Pediatrics, scientists at Umeå University in Sweden conclude that giving iron supplements to low birth weight infants reduces the risk of behavior problems like ADHD later in life.

The study, Effects of Iron Supplementation on LBW Infants on Cognition and Behavior at 3 Years, is published in the January 2013 issue, released online Dec. 10, 2012.

DURHAM, N.C. -- A nanomaterial engineered by researchers at Duke can help regulate chloride levels in nerve cells that contribute to chronic pain, epilepsy, and traumatic brain injury.

The findings, published online Dec. 10, 2012, in the journal Small, were demonstrated in individual nerve cells as well as in the brains of mice and rats, and may have future applications in intracranial or spinal devices to help treat neural injuries.

We all perhaps know the feeling of mental exhaustion, but what does it mean physiologically to have mental fatigue? A new study carried out using brain scans could help scientists uncover the neurobiological mechanisms underlying mental fatigue.

Philadelphia, PA, December 10, 2012 – A large body of research has focused on the ability of oxytocin to facilitate social bonding in both marital and parenting relationships in human females. A new laboratory study, led by Dr. Ruth Feldman from Bar-Ilan University in Israel and published in the current issue of Biological Psychiatry, has found that oxytocin administration to fathers increases their parental engagement, with parallel effects observed in their infants.