Brain

Reston, Va. (March 1, 2012) – Imaging amino acid transporters with positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) has been shown to significantly alter intended management plans for patients with brain tumors, according to research in the March issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine. As a result of imaging with the radiopharmaceutical 3,4-dihydroxy-6-F-18-fluoro-L-phenylalanine (F-18-DOPA), physicians changed the intended management plan for 41 percent of patients with brain tumors.

Not all wines are created equal; neither are all wine tasters.

A wine expert's acute sense of taste may mean that expert ratings and recommendations are irrelevant to wine consumers who were not born with the ability to discern small differences in a broad range of tastes, according to a team of international researchers.

Whenever we are doing something, one of our brain hemispheres is more active than the other one. However, some tasks are only solvable with both sides working together. PD Dr. Martina Manns and Juliane Römling of the Ruhr-Universität Bochum are investigating, how such specializations and co-operations arise. Based on a pigeon-model, they are proving for the first time in an experimental way, that the ability to combine complex impressions from both hemispheres, depends on environmental factors in the embryonic stage.

Philadelphia, PA, March 1, 2012 – Down syndrome (DS) is the most common genetic disorder in live born children arising as a consequence of a chromosomal abnormality. It occurs as a result of having three copies of chromosome 21, instead of the usual two. It causes substantial physical and behavioral abnormalities, including life-long cognitive dysfunction that can range from mild to severe but which further deteriorates as individuals with DS age.

According to a recent study, the negative and cynical attitude of boys towards school increases dramatically as they advance in their upper secondary studies. Boys are very enthusiastic about their studies at the start of upper secondary school, but this initial enthusiasm is not sustained throughout the entire three to four years of studies. Their cynicism easily transforms into a negative attitude toward the entire society, thus increasing the risk of marginalisation. This information was gained through a longitudinal youth study that was partly funded by the Academy of Finland.

Older adults who sleep poorly have an altered immune system response to stress that may increase risk for mental and physical health problems, according to a study led by a University of Rochester Medical Center researcher.

In the study, stress led to significantly larger increases in a marker of inflammation in poor sleepers compared to good sleepers—a marker associated with poor health outcomes and death.

(Phoenix, AZ Feb. 29, 2012) -- Researchers at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix, Arizona, in collaboration with Amgen Inc. and several academic institutions, have discovered a way to block the body's response to cold using a drug. This finding could have significant implications in treating conditions such as stroke and cardiac arrest.

Alexandria, VA — On March 1, 2012, the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Foundation published a new Clinical Practice Guideline on Sudden Hearing Loss (SHL). This guideline is published as a supplement to Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery.

New research shows an increased risk of ischemic stroke in postmenopausal women who consume higher amounts of trans fatty acids, commonly found in baked goods, fried foods, and packaged products. Study findings now available in Annals of Neurology, a journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the American Neurological Association and Child Neurology Society, suggest aspirin use may moderate the stroke risk caused by a diet high in trans fats.

Reston, VA -- A medical school in Ireland has successfully implemented a radiation protection program, improving knowledge of radiation protection among medical undergraduates, according to a study in the March issue of the Journal of the American College of Radiology.

Older women whose diets include a substantial amount of trans fats are more likely than their counterparts to suffer an ischemic stroke, a new study shows.

However, the risk of stroke associated with trans fat intake was lower among women taking aspirin, according to the findings from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill researchers.

The study, "Trans Fat Intake, Aspirin and Ischemic Stroke Among Postmenopausal Women," was published Thursday (March 1, 2012) online in the journal Annals of Neurology.

Sophia Antipolis, 1 March 2012: In a groundbreaking White Paper published today in the European Heart Journal, the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) has set out its perspective on the relationship between the healthcare industry and professional medical associations with regard to the funding and delivery of continuing medical education (CME).

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- Mitochondria -- subunits inside cells that produce energy -- have long been thought to play a role in Alzheimer's disease. Now Mayo Clinic researchers using genetic mouse models have discovered that mitochondria in the brain are dysfunctional early in the disease. The findings appear in the journal PLoS ONE.

Plugging major "leaks" of students exiting formal education prematurely is a top priority in all countries -- developed and developing alike -- to successfully address a suite of problems confronting humanity in decades to come, says a leading American educator.

Addressing a Malaysian forum on entrepreneurial education, Nancy L. Zimpher, Chancellor of the State University of New York, noted the rate of kids completing education in her US state was little better than in the developing nation she was visiting.

If you want a preschooler to get the point, point. That's a lesson that can be drawn from a new study in Psychological Science, a journal published by the Association for Psychological Science. As part of their investigation of how small children know what other people know, the authors, Carolyn Palmquist and Vikram K. Jaswal of the University of Virginia, found they were able to mislead preschoolers with the simple introduction of a pointing gesture.