Brain

Chevy Chase, MD— A new consensus statement published in the September, 2010, issue of The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM) finds that the increasing recognition that beta-cell failure occurs much earlier and severely than commonly believed suggests that regular glycemia screening, early identification of patients at metabolic risk and prompt and aggressive intervention deserves greater emphasis.

BETHESDA, Md., Oct. 6, 2010 – Massachusetts General Hospital researchers say they have determined how iron contributes to the production of brain-destroying plaques found in Alzheimer's patients.

It's an experience shared by everyone: You run into someone you know, but his or her name escapes you.

Now, Temple psychologist Ingrid Olson has found a way to improve the recall of proper names.

Olson dedicates her research to understanding human memory. In a recent study, she found that electric stimulation of the right anterior temporal lobe of the brain improved the recall of proper names in young adults by 11 percent. Her study appears this month in the journal Neuropsychologia.

JUPITER, FL, October 5, 2010 - Scripps Research Institute scientists have shown for the first time that the neurotransmitter serotonin uses a specialized signaling pathway to mediate biological functions that are distinct from the signaling pathways used by hallucinogenic substances. The new findings could have a profound effect on the development of new therapies for a number of disorders, including schizophrenia and depression.

The study was published in the October 6, 2010 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience.

DALLAS – Oct. 6, 2010 – A set of proteins found in blood serum shows promise as a sensitive and accurate way to diagnose Alzheimer's disease, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found as part of a statewide study.

An analysis of the proteins, plus a clinical exam, proved 94 percent accurate in detecting suspected Alzheimer's and 84 percent accurate in ruling it out in people without the disease, the researchers said.

Patients with a severe traumatic brain injury (and not in shock because of blood loss) who received out-of-hospital administration of hypertonic fluids (a solution with increased concentration of certain electrolytes and thought to help reduce intracranial pressure) as initial resuscitation did not experience better 6-month neurologic outcomes or survival compared to patients who received a normal saline solution, according to a study in the October 6 issue of JAMA.

New neuroscience research by life scientists from UCLA and Australia may potentially help people who have lost their ability to remember due to brain injury or disease.

By examining how we learn and store memories, these scientists have shown that the way the brain first captures and encodes a situation or event is quite different from how it processes subsequent similar events.

The study is published in the Sept. 29 edition of the online journal PLoS ONE, a publication of the Public Library of Science.

For Immediate Release - (October 5, 2010) –Toronto's Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) has been selected as one of seven adult field trial sites in North America and the only site in Canada to test proposed diagnostic criteria for the American Psychiatric Association's (APA) fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). Used by health professionals around the world, DSM is the manual that provides descriptions, symptoms and other criteria for diagnosing mental disorders.

Pioneering new research by archaeologists at the University of York suggests that Neanderthals belied their primitive reputation and had a deep seated sense of compassion.

A team from the University's Department of Archaeology took on the 'unique challenge' of charting the development of compassion in early humans.

OAK BROOK, Ill. – Using advanced MRI and an artificial intelligence technique, researchers in Geneva, Switzerland, have identified a method that may help identify which individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) will continue to decline, according to a study published online and in the December issue of Radiology.

(Cincinnati, OH) – In a study published today in the Journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, an international team of researchers based in the U.S. and UK revealed that they were able to halt the potentially lethal, breath holding episodes associated with the neurological disease Rett syndrome.

STANFORD, Calif. — Family-based therapy, in which parents of adolescents with anorexia nervosa are enlisted to interrupt their children's disordered behaviors, is twice as effective as individual psychotherapy at producing full remission of the disease, new research from the Stanford University School of Medicine, Lucile Packard Children's Hospital and the University of Chicago shows. The study is the first head-to-head comparison of these two common treatment approaches for adolescents suffering from the eating disorder.

An anorexia nervosa treatment strategy that promotes parental involvement in restoring an adolescent to healthy weight and eating habits is more effective than traditional individual-based anorexia nervosa therapy, according to new research.

The study, published online October 4 in Archives of General Psychiatry, is the first randomized clinical trial to definitively demonstrate that family based treatment, also known as the Maudsley Approach, is the treatment of choice for this patient population.