Brain

WHAT:National Institutes of Health (NIH) scientists investigating how prion diseases destroy the brain have observed a new form of the disease in mice that does not cause the sponge-like brain deterioration typically seen in prion diseases. Instead, it resembles a form of human Alzheimer's disease, cerebral amyloid angiopathy, that damages brain arteries.

Is it possible to build supercomputers that can replicate the human brain, or to develop nanotechnology that can lead to an implantable chip for interfacing with neurons and other types of cellular networks?

A new EEG study conducted on college students at American University found they could more highly activate the default mode network, a suggested natural "ground state" of the brain, during their practice of the Transcendental Meditation technique. This three-month randomized control study is published in a special issue of Cognitive Processing dedicated to the Neuroscience of Meditation and Consciousness, Volume 11, Number 1, February, 2010.

As you read this, you may notice that the word directly in front of you is clear, but all the surrounding words are hard to make out. For most people, this effect – known as 'crowding' – is not a problem. However, for the millions of people worldwide who have lost their central vision through eye disease such as macular degeneration, it can make everyday tasks such as reading or recognising friends a challenge.

DURHAM, N.C. -- Using advanced tools to see the human brain at work, a new generation of marketing experts may be able to test a product's appeal while it is still being designed, according to a new analysis by two researchers at Duke University and Emory University.

So-called "neuromarketing" takes the tools of modern brain science, like the functional MRI, and applies them to the somewhat abstract likes and dislikes of customer decision-making.

March 4, 2010 – The Center for Advancement of Informal Science Education (CAISE), with support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), is hosting "Surrounded by Science," a biennial Informal Science Education Summit, March 3-5 in Washington, D.C. Participants include principal investigators of NSF grants and others engaged in strategic issues that cut across the informal science education field.

A clinical trial of a vaccine against a major cause of pneumonia and meningitis has shown that it can prevent three out of four cases of re-infection in HIV-infected adults in Africa.

Budget cutbacks have left many of us with more work than ever. Now new research by Dr. Danit Ein-Gar of Tel Aviv University's Recanati Graduate School of Business Administration offers us tips to help us stay at the top of our game. And the good news is there's no need to be a "control freak."

With her co-author Dr. Yael Steinhart of Haifa University, Dr. Ein-Gar is investigating multi-tasking control freaks. Contrary to the notion that they get the job done well, people with high-levels of self-control tend to burn out the fastest, she warns.

WASHINGTON — Scientists are beginning to find out why people with Parkinson's disease often feel socially awkward. Parkinson's patients find it harder to recognize expressions of emotion in other people's faces and voices, report two studies published by the American Psychological Association.

Before developing specific anti-obesity strategies, lawmakers and advocates should review the evidence on program effectiveness and costs in order to avoid policies that either won't work or will waste money, says Cornell economist John Cawley, in "The Economics of Childhood Obesity," published in the peer-reviewed journal Health Affairs, March 2, 2010.

A study from EPFL's (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) Laboratory of Neuroenergetics and Cellular Dynamics in Lausanne Switzerland, published today in the Journal of Neuroscience, may lead to new forms of treatment following a better understanding of how Amyloid-Beta found in cerebral plaques, typically present in the brain of Alzheimer's patients, may lead to neurodegeneration.

Innovative, kid-friendly strategies for losing weight and gaining nutrition savvy–plus physical fitness skills–are emerging from scientific studies funded by the Agricultural Research Service (ARS).

For example, investigators Craig A. Johnston, John P. Foreyt and Chermaine Tyler and their colleagues are building upon one of their earlier studies in which many of their Texas middle-school participants achieved weight-management success. The volunteers were primarily Hispanic children who were either overweight or at risk of becoming so.

Amyloid-beta protein – the primary constituent of the plaques found in the brains of Alzheimer's disease patients – may be part of the body's first-line system to defend against infection. In their report in the March 3 issue of the open-access journal PLoS One, a team led by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers describe their evidence that amyloid-beta protein (A-beta) is an antimicrobial peptide. These small proteins are part of the innate immune system, which provides broad defense against a wide range of pathogens.

People who have drunk a moderate amount of alcohol before a traumatic event report more flashbacks than those who have had no alcohol, according to new research at UCL (University College London).

The results may give new insight into why some individuals develop post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after a traumatic event and others do not.

Published online today in the journal Biological Psychiatry, researchers also found that those who drank a large amount of alcohol before a traumatic event did not report an increase in the number of flashbacks.

Washington, DC — Researchers have successfully reconstructed 3-D hand motions from brain signals recorded in a non-invasive way, according to a study in the March 3 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience. This finding uses a technique that may open new doors for portable brain-computer interface systems. Such a non-invasive system could potentially operate a robotic arm or motorized wheelchair — a huge advance for people with disabilities or paralysis.