Brain

Regular exercise could help prevent brain damage associated with neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's, according to new research.

Previous research has already demonstrated that exercise after brain injury can help the repair mechanisms. This new study shows that exercise before the onset of damage modifies the brain environment in such a way that the neurons are protected from severe insults.

In families where one child has autism the risk that a younger sibling will also develop it, previously estimated at 3-10 percent, is substantially higher at approximately 19 percent, according to a large, international, multi-site study.

While the study found a combined estimated risk for all participants of nearly 19 percent, it found an even more elevated risk of recurrence of over 26 percent for male infants, and over 32 percent for infants with more than one older sibling with autism.

Conventional antipsychotics, antidepressants and benzodiazepines often administered to nursing home residents are no safer than atypical antipsychotics and may carry increased risks, according to an article in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) .

Many of us go to extraordinary lengths to avoid learning the endings of stories we have yet to read or see. It is common courtesy for book and movie critics to not give away any plot twists or, at least, oblige with a clearly labeled &'spoiler alert.' We get annoyed with friends who slip up and spill a fictional secret.

People who have experienced maltreatment as children are twice as likely to develop both multiple and long-lasting depressive episodes as those without a history of childhood maltreatment, according to a new study. The research, led by a team at King's College London Institute of Psychiatry also found that maltreated individuals are more likely to respond poorly to pharmacological and psychological treatment for depression.

A new study is providing fascinating insight into how projections conveying sensory information in the brain are guided to their appropriate targets in different species. The research in Neuron details a ew evolutionary scenario that may help to explain how subtle changes in the migration of "guidepost" neurons underlie major differences in brain connectivity between mammals and non-mammalian vertebrates.

The largest and most rigorous twin study of its kind to date has found that shared environment influences susceptibility to autism more than previously thought.

Milan, Italy, August 11, 2011 – Memory is not a single process but is made up of several sub-processes relying on different areas of the brain. Episodic memory, the ability to remember specific events such as what you did yesterday, is known to be vulnerable to brain damage involving the hippocampus. The question is, what happens when damage to the hippocampus occurs very early in life?

Voluntary movements we make have to be prepared in our brain before they are executed but why we sometimes have perfect timing, a false-start, or a delayed reaction, the neural circuitry underlying movement preparation is not well understood.

A new study provides intriguing insight into how a neural circuit forms a motor plan. The research, published by Cell Press in the August 11 issue of the journal Neuron, uses a new type of analysis to assess the moment-by-moment firing rate of neurons in the brain to accurately predict the reaction time for making an arm movement.

DALLAS – Aug. 10, 2011 – People who frequently use tanning beds may be spurred by an addictive neurological reward-and-reinforcement trigger, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found in a pilot study.

This could explain why some people continue to use tanning beds despite the increased risk of developing melanoma, the most lethal form of skin cancer. The brain activity and corresponding blood flow tracked by UT Southwestern scientists involved in the study is similar to that seen in people addicted to drugs and alcohol.

The development of drugs for brain-related conditions is not an efficient process; only 8% of candidate drugs that enter clinical trials gain FDA approval. A key reason for this low success rate is a lack of preclinical tests that accurately predict drug efficacy and detect unwanted side effects. But now, Jeremy Nathans and colleagues, at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, have developed a new preclinical approach that they hope can be used alongside current strategies to guide more efficient drug development for brain-related conditions.

WASHINGTON – The American Psychological Association featured three public demonstrations of psychological science applications, including one that enables "seeing" with one's ears rather than eyes, at the organization's 119th Annual Convention last week.

"The science of psychology affects everyone's daily life in ways that most people don't realize," said Steven J. Breckler, PhD, executive director of APA's Science Directorate. "The Science Showcase presents practical uses of psychological research that can be of great service to individuals and society as a whole."

A study examining the brain of a person with object agnosia, a defect in the inability to recognize objects, is providing a unique window into the sophisticated brain mechanisms critical for object recognition. The research, published by Cell Press in the July 14 issue of the journal Neuron, describes the functional neuroanatomy of object agnosia and suggests that damage to the part of the brain critical for object recognition can have a widespread impact on remote parts of the cortex.

A team of researchers — led by Pierre Gressens, at Inserm U676, Paris, France, and Vincent Lelièvre, at CNRS UPR-3212, Strasbourg, France — has identified a signaling pathway key for normal brain development in the mouse. Of paramount importance, the data generated suggest that environmental factors, including maternal ones, can influence the final size of the brain.

Parkinson disease (PD) affects 1-2% of the population over the age of 65 years. It results from loss or loss of function of nerve cells in the brain that coordinate movement. As a result, the hallmark symptoms of PD are trembling in hands, arms, legs, jaw, and face; stiffness of the limbs and trunk; slowness of movement; and impaired balance and coordination. There is no cure for PD, but symptoms can be alleviated with a variety of drugs.