Brain

A new technique for analyzing brain images offers the possibility of using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to predict the rate of progression and physical path of many degenerative brain diseases, report scientists at the San Francisco VA Medical Center and the University of California, San Francisco.

Getting an autism diagnosis could be more difficult in 2013 when a revised diagnostic definition goes into effect. The proposed changes may affect the proportion of individuals who qualify for a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder, according to a study by Yale Child Study Center researchers published in the April issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.

Based on their clinical experience and observations, a team of Johns Hopkins physicians and psychologists say that more than one-third of the patients admitted to The Johns Hopkins Hospital's inpatient epilepsy monitoring unit for treatment of intractable seizures have been discovered to have stress-triggered symptoms rather than a true seizure disorder.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Scientists report that they have mapped the physical architecture of intelligence in the brain. Theirs is one of the largest and most comprehensive analyses so far of the brain structures vital to general intelligence and to specific aspects of intellectual functioning, such as verbal comprehension and working memory.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — We all have them – positive memories of personal events that are a delight to recall, and painful recollections that we would rather forget. A new study reveals that what we do with our emotional memories and how they affect us has a lot to do with our gender, personality and the methods we use (often without awareness) to regulate our feelings.

The study appears in Emotion, a journal of the American Psychological Association.

Tampa, Fla. (April 10, 2012) – A research team led by the University of South Florida Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Neurosciences has found that a fragment of the amyloid precursor protein (APP) -- known as sAPP-α and associated with Alzheimer's disease -- appears to regulate its own production. The finding may lead to ways to prevent or treat Alzheimer's disease by controlling the regulation of APP.

Their study is published online today in Nature Communications.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – A national study shows that women are less likely than men to get at least 30 minutes of exercise per day, resulting in greater odds of developing metabolic syndrome – a risky and increasingly prevalent condition related to obesity.

Amsterdam, NL, April 10, 2012 – Alzheimer's disease (AD) is now the sixth leading cause of death among Americans, affecting nearly 1 in 8 people over the age of 65. There is currently no treatment that alters the course of this disease. However, an increasing amount of evidence suggests that changes in the way the body handles iron and other metals like copper and zinc may start years before the onset of AD symptoms. A new study shows that reducing iron levels in blood plasma may protect the brain from changes related to AD.

A new study from Case Western Reserve University finds mothers tend to be more critical of children with obsessive-compulsive disorder than they are of other children in the family. And, that parental criticism is linked to poorer outcomes for the child after treatment.

Parent criticism has been associated with child anxiety in the past, however, researchers wanted to find out if this is a characteristic of the parent or something specific to the relationship between the anxious child and the parent.

Researchers at Harvard Medical School have significantly reduced from hours to minutes the time it takes to accurately detect autism in young children.

Ottawa, Ontario (April 10, 2012) – Researchers have gained new insight into why 22% of Canadian women of childbearing age are still not achieving a folate concentration considered optimal for reducing the risk of having babies with neural tube defects, despite a virtual absence of folate deficiency in the general Canadian population.

When the authors examined a nation-wide study, they found a main reason why some women are not achieving levels optimal for reducing risk is many do not take the supplemental folic acid recommended for this population.

The bio-mechanisms of the woodpecker's resistance to head impact injury are an interesting scientific question. Professor FAN Yubo and his group from the Key Laboratory for Biomechanics and Mechanobiology of the Ministry of Education, School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Beihang University, and the School of Materials Science and Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, set out to study this problem. After 3 years of innovative research, they are making progress in uncovering the explanation for the avoidance of head impact injury by woodpeckers.

Boston, MA – Meningioma, the most common primary brain tumor in the United States, accounts for about 33 percent of all primary brain tumors. The most consistently identified environmental risk factor for meningioma is exposure to ionizing radiation.

The part of the brain we use when engaging in egalitarian behavior may also be linked to a larger sense of morality, researchers have found. Their conclusions, which offer scientific support for Adam Smith's theories of morality, are based on experimental research published in the latest issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Major life decisions such as marriage, divorce, abortion, having a child and attending university may be subconsciously influenced by how long people believe they will live, according to a Queen's University study.

"Life expectancy might be driving all of these major decisions," says Daniel Krupp, a post doctoral fellow in the Queen's math department who has a background in psychology and biology.