Brain

A team of physicians and scientists at Barrow Neurological Institute, in collaboration with colleagues in the Ukraine, have written a first-of-its-kind biography of Ukranian anatomist and histologist Vladimir Betz. The article, "The Discovery of the Pyramidal Neurons: Vladimir Betz and a New Era of Neuroscience," appears in the November 2011 issue of the medical journal, Brain.

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a severely debilitating illness characterized by sadness and an inability to cope. Not only does it affect a person's ability to concentrate and make decisions, it also alters their ability to experience pleasurable emotion, and instead prolongs negative thoughts and feelings. New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal Biology of Mood & Anxiety Disorders used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to show aberrant connectivity in depressed brains.

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- Multiple sclerosis (MS) may progress from the outermost layers of the brain to its deep parts, and isn't always an "inside-out" process as previously thought, reported a new collaborative study from researchers at the Mayo Clinic and the Cleveland Clinic. The traditional understanding is that the disease begins in the white matter that forms the bulk of the brain's inside, and extends to involve the brain's superficial layers, the cortex.

December 7, 2011, Cleveland: Working together, researchers at Cleveland Clinic and Mayo Clinic have for the first time examined early multiple sclerosis (MS) brain lesions in the cerebral cortex. These lesions are thought to be critical to MS progression and the researchers found that the lesions are distinctly different than previously speculated, giving clues to better disease management.

Overeating, whether in children or adults, often takes place even in the absence of hunger, resulting in weight gain and obesity. Current methods to treat such overeating in youth focus on therapies that restrict what kids may eat, requiring them to track their food intake and engage in intensive exercise.

We put a lot of energy into improving our memory, intelligence, and attention. There are even drugs that make us sharper, such as Ritalin and caffeine. But maybe smarter isn't really all that better. A new paper published in Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, warns that there are limits on how smart humans can get, and any increases in thinking ability are likely to come with problems.

Psychopathic personalities are some of the most memorable characters portrayed in popular media today. These characters, like Patrick Bateman from American Psycho, Frank Abagnale Jr. from Catch Me If You Can and Alex from A Clockwork Orange, are typically depicted as charming, intriguing, dishonest, guiltless, and in some cases, downright terrifying. But scientific research suggests that psychopathy is a personality disorder that is widely misunderstood.

Your hair -- or lack of hair -- is the result of a lifelong tug-of-war between activators that wake up, and inhibitors that calm, stem cells in every hair follicle on your body, according to Cheng-Ming Chuong, M.D., Ph.D., of the University of Southern California (USC).

Chuong presented the findings on Dec. 7, at the American Society for Cell Biology 2011 Annual Meeting in Denver.

PHILADELPHIA- Middle-class children ask their teachers for help more often and more assertively than working-class children and, in doing so, receive more support and assistance from teachers according to a study from the University of Pennsylvania.

The findings are reported in the December issue of the American Sociological Review in a paper entitled, "I Need Help!" Social Class and Children's Help-Seeking in Elementary School" by Jessica McCrory Calarco, a Ph.D. candidate in Sociology in Penn's School of Arts and Sciences.

Neuroimaging has provided fascinating insight into the dynamic nature of human brain maturation. However, most studies of developmental changes in brain anatomy have considered individual locations in relative isolation from all others and have not characterized relationships between structural changes in different parts of the developing brain. Now, new research describes the first comprehensive study of coordinated anatomical maturation within the developing human brain.

In a new study to appear in Neuron, scientists at the RIKEN Brain Science Institute (BSI) have uncovered mechanisms that help our brain to focus by efficiently routing only relevant information to perceptual brain regions. The results provide valuable insights on how our brains achieve such focus and on how this focus can be disrupted, suggesting new ways of presenting information that augment the brain's natural focal capabilities.

Berkeley -- University of California, Berkeley, neuroscientists have discovered a genetic trigger that makes the nose renew its smell sensors, providing hope for new therapies for people who have lost their sense of smell due to trauma or old age.

The gene tells olfactory stem cells the adult tissue stem cells in the nose to mature into the sensory neurons that detect odors and relay that information to the brain.

Basketball fans everywhere recognize the following scenario: Their favorite player scores a three-point shot. A short time later he regains control of the ball. But does the fact that he scored the last time make him more likely to try another three-pointer? Does it change the probability that he will score again?

New research by psychologists at Queen Mary, University of London has revealed that the way we see the world might depend on reflexes in the brain.

Writing in the Journal of Vision, Dr Michael Proulx from Queen Mary's School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, and former student Monique Green, explain how an optical illusion known as the Müller-Lyer Illusion captures our attention more strongly than other visual tests, suggesting that the brain calculates size as a reflex fast enough to guide where the eyes look.