Brain

MADISON, WI, May 12th, 2010 – Graduate student courses frequently incorporate student-led discussion sessions in order to encourage active participation over passive learning. They can improve communication and analytical skills, and help explore complexities in issues. Despite the popularity of discussion sessions, they often fall flat, and fail to create the stimulating environment they are supposed to. If students do not actively participate in discussions, they won't gain these benefits.

(Boston) – Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have shown that patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) are better able to remember new verbal information when it is provided in the context of music even when compared to healthy, older adults. The findings, which currently appear on-line in Neuropsychologia, offer possible applications in treating and caring for patients with AD.

MADISON — "Reach out and touch someone" — good advertising slogan, or evolutionary imperative?

How about both?

What Madison Avenue knew decades ago has been observed in brain chemistry. A simple phone call from mom can calm frayed nerves by sparking the release of a powerful stress-quelling hormone, according to researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Most high-school students participating in a new study on academic honesty say they have cheated on tests and homework – and, in some alarming cases, say they don't consider certain types of cheating out of line.

The study by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln gauged both the prevalence and perceptions of cheating among high-school students. It found the practice is widespread and many students carry misperceptions about academic dishonesty, and also identified patterns among students that may help teachers stop it.

Sickle cell disease may affect brain function in adults who have few or mild complications of the inherited blood disease, according to results of the first study to examine cognitive functioning in adults with sickle cell disease. The multicenter study, funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), part of the National Institutes of Health, compared brain function scores and imaging tests in adult patients with few sickle cell complications with results in similar adults who did not have the blood disease.

What: Adults who have mild sickle cell disease scored lower on brain function tests when compared to healthy participants, suggesting the blood disease may impact the brain more than previously realized, according to new research published in the May 12 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. This is the first study to examine cognitive functioning in adults with sickle cell disease.

PHILADELPHIA – So often the rare informs the common. Penn researchers investigating a regulatory protein involved in a rare genetic disease have shown that it may be related to epileptic and autistic symptoms in other more common neurological disorders.

The risk of cerebrovascular diseases appears to be higher among individuals with fluctuating blood pressure in addition to high blood pressure, according to a report in the May issue of Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

By analyzing the genomes of patients with schizophrenia, genetics researchers have discovered numerous copy number variations—deletions or duplications of DNA sequences—that increase the risk of developing schizophrenia. Significantly, many of these variations occur in genes that affect signaling among brain cells.

DALLAS – May 11, 2010 – Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have discovered how the genetic mutation that causes Fragile X syndrome, the most common form of inherited mental retardation, interferes with the "pruning" of nerve connections in the brain. Their findings appear in the April 29 issue of Neuron.

CHICAGO— Karen Schroeder's voice, recorded on a CD, reminded her son, Ryan, of his 4-H project when he was 10 and decided to raise pigs. "You bid on three beautiful squealing black and white piglets at the auction," she said softly. "We took them home in the trunk of our Lincoln Town Car, because we didn't have a truck."

Milan, Italy, 10 May 2010 – Children with dyslexia often struggle with reading, writing, and spelling, despite demonstrating intellectual ability in other areas.

Milan, Italy, 10 May 2010 – Flavor is how we taste life but this aspect of everyday life is vulnerable in certain degenerative dementias, with patients developing abnormal eating behaviors including changes in food preferences, faddism and pathological sweet tooths. New research has revealed evidence that these behaviors are linked to a loss of 'meaning' for flavors, as reported in the June 2010 issue of Cortex.

New research from neuroscientist Samuel Weiss, PhD, director of the Hotchkiss Brain Institute at the Faculty of Medicine, shows that paternal mice that physically interact with their babies grow new brain cells and form lasting memories of their babies. The study is published on-line this week in the prestigious international journal, Nature Neuroscience.