Brain

• Medulloblastoma is the most common malignant brain tumor in children.
• Disseminated medulloblastoma is particularly lethal and requires extensive radiation therapy to the brain, which can cause brain damage.
• An oncolytic measles virus has shown effectiveness in a new model of disseminated human medulloblastoma.

Children with autism often have problems developing motor skills, such as running, throwing a ball or even learning how to write. But scientists have not known whether those difficulties run in families or are linked to autism. New research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis points to autism as the culprit.

Their findings were reported in the journal Autism.

Scientists at The University of Nottingham have discovered a new molecule that could offer the hope of new treatments for people allergic to the house dust mite.

The team of immunologists led by Dr Amir Ghaem-Maghami and Professor Farouk Shakib in the University's School of Molecular Medical Sciences have identified the molecule DC-SIGN which appears to play a role in damping down the body's allergic response to the house dust mite .

University of Melbourne researchers have found Wikipedia is the most highly rated website for accessing information on mental-health related topics.

The researchers assessed a range of on-line and print material on mental health-related topics and found that in the majority of cases, Wikipedia was the most highly rated in most domains.

Content about mental health was extracted from 14 frequently accessed websites, including Wikipedia, Encyclopaedia Britannica and a psychiatry textbook. Text providing information about depression and schizophrenia was assessed.

With a growing number of terrorist attacks being committed by 'home-grown' radicals, researchers at Queen Mary, University of London are proposing a totally new approach to preventing terrorism.

Researchers say the current approach, via the criminal justice system, has failed to prevent terrorism and may have even increased membership of terrorist groups by alienating those most vulnerable to radicalisation.

After examining the evidence the researchers propose a drastic re-think and suggest that public health measures could hold the key to preventing radicalisation.

Alternative therapies for dementia patients need to be researched and applied more consistently if they are to help care organisations improve the well-being of patients and reduce the number of antipsychotic drugs prescribed.

Research published today (Wednesday 15 February 2012) by a team at the Universities of Hull and Maastricht highlights a pressing need for more comprehensive research into the Government's recommended method of an alternative treatment, known as functional or behavioural analysis.

Edmonton—University of Alberta researchers have established that the ability of the brain to rehearse or repeat electrical impulses may be absolutely critical in order to make a newly acquired memory more permanent.

U of A psychology professor Clayton Dickson likened the process to someone trying to permanently memorize a phone number, "We repeat the number several times to ourselves, so hopefully we can automatically recall it when needed."

NEW ORLEANS – The amount and quality of sleep you get at night may affect your memory later in life, according to research that was released today and will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology's 64th Annual Meeting in New Orleans April 21 to April 28, 2012.

A UT Dallas study is revealing new information about a key protein's role in the development of epilepsy, autism and other neurological disorders. This work could one day lead to new treatments for the conditions.

Humans move between 'patches' in their memory using the same strategy as bees flitting between flowers for pollen or birds searching among bushes for berries.

Researchers at the University of Warwick and Indiana University have identified parallels between animals looking for food in the wild and humans searching for items within their memory – suggesting that people with the best 'memory foraging' strategies are better at recalling items.

Scientists at Emory University School of Medicine have identified a new group of compounds that may protect brain cells from inflammation linked to seizures and neurodegenerative diseases.

Scientific research has shed new light on dissociative symptoms and dissociative identity disorder, formerly known as multiple personality disorder. This condition seems to arise most often when a vulnerable person meets a therapist with a suggestive line of questioning or encounters sensationalized media portrayals of dissociation. Research shows that people with rich fantasy lives may be especially susceptible to such influences.

A researcher at Intermountain Medical Center in Salt Lake City is part of a select panel of international experts to help develop new evidence-based clinical guidelines used by physicians worldwide for the diagnosis and treatment of blood-clotting disorders, one of the most common cardiovascular diseases in the United States.

Caffeinated drinks such as coffee and soda are the pick-me-ups of choice for many people, but too much caffeine can cause nervousness and sleep problems.

Caffeine Zone software app developed by Penn State researchers, can help people determine when caffeine may give them a mental boost and when it could hurt their sleep patterns. The software takes information on caffeine use and integrates it with information on the effects of caffeine to produce a graph of how the caffeine will affect the users over time.

Researchers of the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch have now identified and described a molecular mechanism underlying the most common malformation of the brain in humans. In holoprosencephaly (HPE), the forebrain (prosencephalon) is only incompletely formed. Here a binding site (receptor) for cholesterol plays a key role. If this receptor is defective, specific signals cannot be received, and the forebrain cannot separate into two hemispheres, as Dr. Annabel Christ, Professor Thomas Willnow and Dr.