Brain

Potentially beneficial brain changes (an increase in the volume of an area known as the hippocampus) occur in response to exercise both in patients with schizophrenia and healthy controls, according to a report in the February issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. The findings suggest that the brain retains some plasticity, or ability to adapt, even in those with psychotic disorders.

Individuals at extremely high risk of developing psychosis appear less likely to develop psychotic disorders following a 12-week course of fish oil capsules containing long-chain omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, according to a report in the February issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Patients who received the antidepressant escitalopram following a stroke appeared to recover more of their thinking, learning and memory skills than those taking placebo or participating in problem-solving therapy, according to a report in the February issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Brain scans reveal differences in the way the brains of individuals with body dysmorphic disorder—a psychiatric condition that causes patients to believe they appear disfigured and ugly—respond to images of their own faces, according to a report in the February issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

DURHAM, N.C. – Sharing is a behavior on which day care workers and kindergarten teachers tend to offer young humans a lot of coaching. But for our ape cousins the bonobos, sharing just comes naturally.

In fact, according to a pair of papers in the latest Current Biology, it looks like bonobos never seem to learn how not to share. Chimpanzees, by contrast, are notorious for hogging food to themselves, by physical aggression if necessary. While chimps will share as youngsters, they grow out of it.

LA JOLLA, Calif., February 1, 2010 -- Investigators at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute (Sanford-Burnham, formerly Burnham Institute for Medical Research), the Karolinska Institutet, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), Harvard Medical School and Université Libre de Bruxelles have demonstrated in mouse models that transplanted stems cells, when in direct contact with diseased neurons, send signals through specialized channels that rescue the neurons from death.

Scientists at the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet have shown how transplanted stem cells can connect with and rescue threatened neurons and brain tissue. The results point the way to new possible treatments for brain damage and neurodegenerative diseases.

Our need for stimulation and dopamine's action upon the brain areconnected, which explains why people who constantly crave stimulation are in danger of addictive behaviour such as drug abuse and gambling.

The urge to actively seek out new experiences is a personality trait thatpsychologists have known about for years, but up until now scientists have been unable to prove how this urge relates to hormonal activities in the brain.

Montreal, February, 1, 2010 (Under embargo by PNAS until 3 pm, Eastern Standard Time )– Scientists have identified a double agent in the eye that, once triggered, can morph from neuron protector to neuron killer. The discovery has significant health implications since the neurons killed through this process results in vision loss and blindness.

A new therapeutic made from tobacco plants has been shown to arrest West Nile virus infection, according to a new study by Arizona State University scientist Qiang Chen and his colleagues.

Newborn screening for a metabolic disorder could lead to false positives -- adding stress to parents, costing money and possibly subjecting a baby to unnecessary follow-up treatment and dietary restrictions.

But the benefits of diagnosing these children early and preventing the risk of mental retardation, disability or death outweigh the costs of a false positive, according to new U-M research published today in the February issue of the journal Pediatrics.

WASHINGTON — The brain's innate interest in the new and different may help trump the power of addictive drugs, according to research published by the American Psychological Association. In controlled experiments, novelty drew cocaine-treated rats away from the place they got cocaine.

Novelty could help break the vicious cycle of treatment and relapse, especially for the many addicts with novelty-craving, risk-taking personalities, the authors said. Drug-linked settings hold particular sway over recovering addicts, which may account in part for high rates of relapse.

The formative years don't stop at 18 according to a new study that found the actions and lifestyle of the family continue to influence whether young adults embrace their ethnicity and take pride in their roots. Published in the Journal of Adolescence, the study of young adults between the ages of 18 and 30 found that those whose families continue to teach them about their ethnic background had a greater sense of ethnic identity.

Helmets reduce the risk of head injury among skiers and snowboarders by 35% with no evidence of an increased risk of neck injury, states an article in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) (pre-embargo link only) http://www.cmaj.ca/embargo/cmaj091080.pdf.

Some suggest that helmets may increase the risk of neck injury in a crash or fall, particularly in children because of their greater head to body ratio.

Thomas Karlsohn at the University of Gothenburg; Sweden, has explored the IT bubble in the Swedish school system and the rhetoric used in the education trade press, and his conclusion is clear: The introduction of IT in Swedish schools could have been scrutinised better.

The introduction of IT in Swedish schools in the 1990s yielded both success, though in a limited sense, and plain failures such as the Compis school computer flop.

General IT boom