Brain

Anti-depressants may help spur the creation and survival of new brain cells after brain injury, according to a study by neurosurgeons at the University of Rochester Medical Center.

Jason Huang, M.D., and colleagues undertook the study after noticing that patients with brain injuries who had been prescribed anti-depressants were doing better in unexpected ways than their counterparts who were not taking such medications. Not only did their depression ease; their memory also seemed improved compared to patients not on the medication.

An experiment by researchers at the University of Warwick has found the first real evidence that men tend to make black-or-white judgements when women are more prone to see shades of grey in choices and decisions.

The research paper, entitled Sex Differences in Semantic Categorization, is about to be published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior. Authors Vickie Pasterski, Karolina Zwierzynska, and Zachary Estes are all from the Department of Psychology at the University of Warwick.

Philadelphia, PA – 18 April 2011 - The scientific foundation of psychiatry is growing rapidly, yet it is a branch of medicine distinctive for the relative absence of biological tests in routine clinical practice.

The most effective treatments for depression, including cognitive therapy, are successful for only about half the patients to whom they are given. The ability to predict those individuals who would be most likely to benefit from such treatment would reduce individuals' recovery times, eliminate the delivery of ineffective treatments, and reduce the high costs of care.

Toronto, April 15, 2011 –Neurosurgeons at the Krembil Neuroscience Centre, Toronto Western Hospital, have for the first time, initiated the restoration of lost brain tissue through brain bypass surgery in patients where blood flow to the brain is impaired by cerebrovascular disease. The study, which involved 29 patients, was published online in the journal Stroke.

SALT LAKE CITY, April 18, 2011 – University of Utah psychologists have learned why many people experience "inattention blindness" – the phenomenon that leaves drivers on cell phones prone to traffic accidents and makes a gorilla invisible to viewers of a famous video.

The answer: People who fail to see something right in front of them while they are focusing on something else have lower "working memory capacity" – a measure of "attentional control," or the ability to focus attention when and where needed, and on more than one thing at a time.

Researchers know that there is a strong link between parental alcohol use disorders (AUDs) and the risk for developing an AUD among their offspring. This study looked at the risk of AUDs in the offspring of a large population-based sample of Danish parents. Findings confirmed that parental AUDs were associated with an increased risk of AUDs among the offspring.

Results will be published in the July 2011 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research and are currently available at Early View.

• Alcohol dependence (AD) is strongly associated with impaired impulse control.
• A new study used functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine impulsive choices among people with a range of alcohol use disorders (AUDs).
• Findings suggest that impulsive choice in AD may be the result of functional anomalies in widely distributed but interconnected brain regions that are involved in cognitive and emotional control.

• A new laboratory study compares the effects of alcohol alone versus alcohol mixed with an energy drink on a cognitive task, as well as participants' reports of feelings of intoxication.
• Results show that energy drinks can enhance the feeling of stimulation that occurs when drinking alcohol.
• However, energy drinks did not alter the level of behavioral impairment when drinking alcohol, particularly for impaired impulse control.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – April 14, 2011 – Novocure today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the NovoTTF-100A System (NovoTTF) for the treatment of adult patients with glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) brain tumors, following tumor recurrence after receiving chemotherapy. The portable, wearable device delivers an anti-mitotic, anti-cancer therapy as patients maintain their normal daily activities. The NovoTTF is a novel, first-in-class treatment option for patients and physicians battling glioblastoma.

ST. LOUIS – On the cover of a recent edition of the journal Neurosurgery, the highest circulation medical journal in the field, readers saw an artist's intricate depiction of the high-flow brain bypass technique developed by SLU professor of neurosurgery, Saleem Abdulrauf, M.D.

Also in the March issue (Volume 63.3) of the journal, Abdulauf shared details of a surgery he performed to treat a patient's brain aneurysm, a weak area in the wall of an artery that supplies blood to the brain.

If it was easy to learn, it will be easy to remember. Psychological scientists have maintained that nearly everyone uses this simple rule to assess their own learning.

By asking a group of older adults to analyze videos of other people conversing -- some talking truthfully, some insincerely -- a group of scientists at the University of California, San Francisco has determined which areas of the brain govern a person's ability to detect sarcasm and lies.

Los Angeles, CA (April 7, 2011) While breastfeeding babies has numerous health advantages to both mother and child, mothers who breastfeed may find that other people look down on them and do not want to work with them. A recent study released by Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin (published by SAGE) found that mothers who breastfeed are viewed as less competent than other women.

New York, N.Y. (April 15, 2011) – A comprehensive investigation of brain tissue donated to the Autism Speaks Autism Tissue Program (ATP), a postmortem brain tissue donation program, determined that one-third of the brain donors with autism also had epilepsy, and co-morbidity data from the California State Department of Developmental Services revealed a higher than expected rate of mortality in individuals with both autism and epilepsy than for individuals with autism alone.