Brain

COLUMBUS, Ohio – About half of Medicaid-covered children and adolescents in Ohio who are in treatment for depression complete their first three months of prescribed antidepressants, and only one-fifth complete the recommended minimum six-month course of drugs to treat depression, new research suggests.

Among those at the highest risk for not completing treatment are adolescents – as opposed to younger children – and minority youths, particularly African Americans, according to the analysis of Medicaid prescription data over a three-year period.

Our memories work better when our brains are prepared to absorb new information, according to a new study by MIT researchers. A team led by Professor John Gabrieli has shown that activity in a specific part of the brain, known as the parahippocampal cortex (PHC), predicts how well people will remember a visual scene.

STANFORD, Calif. — Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have identified a brain-circuit defect that triggers absence seizures, the most common form of childhood epilepsy, they publish the results in Nature Neuroscience,.

Blocking a transport pathway through the brain cells offers new prospects to prevent the development of Alzheimer's. Wim Annaert and colleagues of VIB and K.U. Leuven discovered that two main agents involved in the inception of Alzheimer's disease, the amyloid beta precursor protein (APP) and the beta secretase enzyme (BACE1), follow a different path through the brain cells to meet up. It is during the eventual meeting between protein and enzyme that the basis is laid for the development of the disease.

Toronto, Canada – Older adults who lead sedentary lifestyles and consume a lot of sodium in their diet may be putting themselves at risk for more than just heart disease.

A study led by researchers at Baycrest in Toronto – in collaboration with colleagues at the Institut Universitaire de Gériatrie de Montréal, McGill University and the Université de Sherbrooke – has found evidence that high-salt diets coupled with low physical activity can be detrimental to cognitive health in older adults.

Windows are a part of everyday life for children in the United States. While many parents know that windows can be a hazard for their child, they may not be aware just how often things can take a turn for the worse.

Philadelphia, PA, August 22, 2011 - All of us, at times, ruminate or brood on a problem in order to make the best possible decision in a complex situation. But sometimes, rumination becomes unproductive or even detrimental to making good life choices. Such is the case in depression, where non-productive ruminations are a common and distressing symptom of the disorder. In fact, individuals suffering from depression often ruminate about being depressed. This ruminative thinking can be either passive and maladaptive (i.e., worrying) or active and solution-focused (i.e., coping).

Traumatic brain injury has entered the public's consciousness as the silent, signature wound brought back by many of our military warriors from Iraq and Afghanistan. But such injuries don't only happen in warfare, they happen to civilians too. Think car crashes, a slip and fall, two football players colliding helmet to helmet.

Philadelphia, PA, August 22, 2011 - Depression is increasingly recognized as an illness that strikes repeatedly over the lifespan, creating cycles of relapse and recovery. This sobering knowledge has prompted researchers to search for markers of relapse risk in people who have recovered from depression. A new paper published in Elsevier's Biological Psychiatry suggests that when formerly depressed people experience mild states of sadness, the nature of their brains' response can predict whether or not they will become depressed again.

Giving your heart to a supportive spouse turns out to be an excellent way to stay alive, according to new research from the University of Rochester. Happily wedded people who undergo coronary bypass surgery are more than three times as likely to be alive 15 years later as their unmarried counterparts, reports a study published online August 22 in Health Psychology, a publication of the American Psychological Association.

LAS VEGAS — Veterans were significantly more likely to have ever engaged in extramarital sex and ever gotten divorced than people who were never in the military, according to new research to be presented at the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association.

The study, based on data from a 1992 national survey, found that more than 32 percent of ever-married veterans reported extramarital sex, which is about twice the rate among ever-married non-veterans (16.8 percent).

CHICAGO --- The underlying disease process of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS and Lou Gehrig's disease), a fatal neurodegenerative disease that paralyzes its victims, has long eluded scientists and prevented development of effective therapies. Scientists weren't even sure all its forms actually converged into a common disease process.

We know from experience that particular smells are almost inseparable in our minds with memories, some vague and others very specific.  The smell of just-baked bread may trigger an involuntary mental journey, even if for a moment, to childhood, or to a particular day during childhood.  Or it may, more diffusely, remind someone of grandma.  How are these associations forged in the brain and how do we remember them?

Could it be love? Rats infected with the parasite Toxoplasma seem to lose their fear of cats – or at least cat urine. Now Stanford researchers have discovered that the brains of those infected, fearless male rats show activity in the region that normally triggers a mating response when they meet a female rat. But that does not necessarily mean the rats find cats sexually appealing. It's a trick that Toxoplasma plays to have the rats eaten by cats, a clever manipulation of rat behavior that is part of the parasite's reproduction scheme.

Researchers at the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Copenhagen have collaborated with the company NeuroSearch to generate new knowledge about an important part of the brain's complex communication system. The discovery could form the basis for future development of better medicines for patients with psychiatric disorders. The results were recently published Journal of Neuroscience.