Brain

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — New research suggests that elite athletes – Olympic medalists in volleyball, for example – perform better than the rest of us in yet another way. These athletes excel not only in their sport of choice but also in how fast their brains take in and respond to new information – cognitive abilities that are important on and off the court.

MINNEAPOLIS – With more than one million athletes now experiencing a concussion each year in the United States, the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) has released an evidence-based guideline for evaluating and managing athletes with concussion. This new guideline replaces the 1997 AAN guideline on the same topic.

Researchers with the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry designed a one-day training program for the Edmonton Police Service that resulted in officers being more likely to quickly identify mental health issues during a call, and less likely to use physical force or a weapon in those situations. The training resulted in long-term behaviour change in the officers and saved the police force money because mental health-related calls were dealt with more efficiently.

WASHINGTON — Neuroscientists at Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC) have discovered a brain anomaly that explains why some people diagnosed with autism cannot easily recognize faces — a deficit linked to the impairments in social interactions considered to be the hallmark of the disorder.

They also say that the novel neuroimaging analysis technique they developed to arrive at this finding is likely to help link behavioral deficits to differences at the neural level in a range of neurological disorders.

Research led by a psychologist at the University of Liverpool has found that using memories of recent meals reduces the amount of food eaten later on. It also found that being distracted when eating leads to increased consumption.

Researchers analysed 24 separate studies which had examined the impact of awareness, attention, memory and distraction on how much food we eat. They found that remembering meals, being more aware and paying added attention to meals results in lower food consumption and could help with weight loss programmes.

A new study from researchers at UH Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital and other centers suggests that preterm infants with a low-grade bleeding in the brain may have similar neurodevelopmental outcomes as infants with no bleeding. The study appears online at JAMA Pediatrics.

New Rochelle, NY, March 18, 2013—The more than 100 million Americans living with chronic pain and daily suffering often have limited outlets to talk about their conditions with others who can understand and offer comfort.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — The long-term consequences of pneumonia can be more detrimental to a person's health than having a heart attack, according to joint research from the University of Michigan Health System and University of Washington School of Medicine.

Older adults who are hospitalized for pneumonia have a significantly higher risk of new problems that affect their ability to care for themselves, and the effects are comparable to those who survive a heart attack or stroke, according to the new findings in the American Journal of Medicine.

New research from an international team of scientists suggests evolution, or basic survival techniques adapted by early humans, influences the decisions gamblers make when placing bets.

The findings may help to explain why some treatment options for problem gamblers often don't work, the researchers say.

For the study, recently published in Frontiers in Psychology, scientists from McMaster University, the University of Lethbridge and Liverpool John Moores University examined how gamblers made decision after they won or lost.

BOSTON (March 18, 2013) — New research published in The Journal of Neuroscience suggests that modifying signals sent by astrocytes, our star-shaped brain cells, may help to limit the spread of damage after an ischemic brain stroke. The study in mice, by neuroscientists at Tufts University School of Medicine, determined that astrocytes play a critical role in the spread of damage following stroke.

A new study from the University of Maryland School of Medicine suggests that depression results from a disturbance in the ability of brain cells to communicate with each other. The study indicates a major shift in our understanding of how depression is caused and how it should be treated. Instead of focusing on the levels of hormone-like chemicals in the brain, such as serotonin, the scientists found that the transmission of excitatory signals between cells becomes abnormal in depression. The research, by senior author Scott M.

Bochum, 18.3.2013

In the fruit fly Drosophila, the functions of the three enzymes Tan, Ebony and Black are closely intertwined - among other things they are involved in neurotransmitter recycling for the visual process. RUB researchers from the Department of Biochemistry showed for the first time that flies cannot see without this recycling. Their analysis of the enzyme Black also raises new questions as to its function. Anna Ziegler, Florian Brüsselbach and Bernhard Hovemann report in the „Journal of Comparative Neurology", which chose this topic as cover story.

The following research from Columbia University Medical Center and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital is being presented at the 65th annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology (AAN), March 16-23, 2013, in San Diego.

For additional information, or to arrange an interview, please contact Karin Eskenazi at 212-342-0508 or ket2116@columbia.edu, or Christina Stolfo at 212-305-5587 or chs9135@nyp.org

ORAL PRESENTATIONS

SAN DIEGO - A series of studies demonstrate improved detection of the second most common form of dementia, providing diagnostic specificity that clears the way for refined clinical trials testing targeted treatments. The new research is being presented by experts from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania at the American Academy of Neurology's 65th Annual Meeting in San Diego March 16-23, 2013.

EAST LANSING, Mich. --- Scientists have discovered a molecular process in the brain triggered by cocaine use that could provide a target for treatments to prevent or reverse addiction to the drug.

Reporting in the Journal of Neuroscience, Michigan State University neuroscientist A.J. Robison and colleagues say cocaine alters the nucleus accumbens, the brain's pleasure center that responds to stimuli such as food, sex and drugs.