Brain

In humans, active periods of the debilitating disease Multiple Sclerosis (MS) can last for mere minutes or extend to weeks at a time. They're caused by lesions in the brain that develop, partly heal, and then recur. Research into a cure has been difficult, because to date scientists have not been able to replicate these brain recurring symptoms in laboratory mice. That's frustrating because these lab animals, known as animal "models," are the primary tool for research into the mechanisms and potential treatments for MS.

Philadelphia, PA -- An important ongoing debate in the field of psychiatry is whether inflammation in the body is a consequence of or contributor to major depression. A new study in Biological Psychiatry has attempted to resolve the issue.

Inflammation in the body is common to many diseases, including high blood pressure, coronary artery disease, and diabetes. Depression has also been linked to an inflammation marker in blood called C-reactive protein (CRP).

KINGSTON, R.I. – January 4, 2012 – Abraham Kovoor was studying a brain protein, called RGS9 2, that he had previously related to the involuntary, random and repetitive body movements that are side effects of drugs used to treat Parkinson's disease and schizophrenia.

While studying these side effects, which are called dyskinesia, Kovoor, an assistant professor in the University of Rhode Island's College of Pharmacy, discovered that RGS9 2 also plays a role in regulating body weight.

For more than a quarter of a century, Jerald "Snook" Pataky's research in the University of Illinois Sweet Corn Hybrid Disease Nursery has been helping growers make important decisions to increase their profitability.

His observations and trends from evaluating sweet corn hybrids for disease resistance are featured this month in Plant Disease.

It's official: older adults are naturally inclined to drive in the middle of the road, leaving the younger generation to cut corners.

This tendency to sit mid-lane is an in-built safety mechanism that helps pensioners stay safe behind the wheel, according to researchers at the University of Leeds, UK.

Is losing weight as simple as doing a 15-minute writing exercise? In a new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, women who wrote about their most important values, like close relationships, music, or religion, lost more weight over the next few months than women who did not have that experience.

WASHINGTON – Blogging may have psychological benefits for teens suffering from social anxiety, improving their self-esteem and helping them relate better to their friends, according to new research published by the American Psychological Association.

Philadelphia, PA, January 4, 2012 – Psychiatric disorders can be described on many levels, the most traditional of which are subjective descriptions of the experience of being depressed and the use of rating scales that quantify depressive symptoms. Over the past two decades, research has developed other strategies for describing the biological underpinnings of depression, including volumetric brain measurements using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and the patterns of gene expression in white blood cells.

The left brain/right brain dichotomy has been prominent on the pop psychology scene since Nobel Laureate Roger Sperry broached the subject in the 1960s. The left is analytical while the right is creative, so goes the adage.

And then there is the quasi-scientific obsession with "the face." Facial recognition technology and facial microexpressions are the stuff of television crime dramas, such as Person of Interest and Lie to Me.

Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y. – Quite early in its development, the mammalian brain has all the raw materials on hand to forge complex neural networks. But forming the connections that make these intricate networks so exquisitely functional is a process that occurs one synapse at a time. An important question for neuroscience has been: how exactly do stable synapses form? How do nerve cells of particular types know which of their cortical neighbors to "synapse" with, and which to leave out of their emerging networks?

Colin Saldanha, a biology professor at American University in Washington, D.C., has always been intrigued by the hormone estrogen. Specifically, how the hormone that does so much (for example, it promotes sexual behavior in women but can also increase susceptibility to seizures) does not cause major cross circuit meltdowns.

A new study led by the University of Colorado Boulder could be a wake-up call for parents of toddlers: Daytime naps for your kids may be more important than you think.

Washington, D.C. – Imagine listening to music while carrying on a conversation with friends. This type of multi-tasking is fairly easy to do, right? That's because our brains efficiently and effectively separate the auditory signals – music to the right side; conversation to the left. But what researchers have not been able to do in humans or animals is to see a parsing of duties at the single neuron level – until now.

PHILADELPHIA -- Scientists are one step closer to repairing the damage caused by brain metastasis, a major challenge in cancer treatment, according to data published in Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

"We are making progress from the neck down in cancer treatment, but brain metastases are increasing and are often a primary reason patients with breast cancer do not survive," said Patricia S. Steeg, Ph.D., head of the Women's Cancers Section at the National Cancer Institute's Center for Cancer Research.

Use of torture around the world has not diminished but the techniques used have grown more complex and sophisticated, according to new research from Queen Mary, University of London.

The study* suggests that these emerging forms of torture, which include various types of rape, bestiality and witnessing violent acts, are experienced by people seeking asylum in the UK.