Brain

NEW YORK (October 16, 2013) -- A research team from Weill Cornell Medical College and The Rockefeller University has identified a bacterium it believes may trigger multiple sclerosis (MS), a chronic, debilitating disorder that damages myelin forming cells in the brain and spinal cord.

Their study, published in PLoS ONE, is the first to identify the bacterium, Clostridium (C.) perfringens type B, in humans.

Cincinnati, OH, October 17, 2013 -- Medical technology has improved the survival rates of premature infants, but adverse developmental outcomes are a continuing problem. Researchers have turned their attention to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), where premature infants spend their first few weeks or months, for potential answers. In a new study scheduled for publication in The Journal of Pediatrics, researchers studied the relationship between different room types in the NICU and the developmental outcomes of the children at 2 years of age.

Montreal − A team of researchers from Montreal has found that stroke patients living with Locked-In Syndrome (LIS) who cannot move, swallow or even breathe on their own, can regain a remarkable level of independence with technological help.

The team's findings, to be presented at the Canadian Stroke Congress, stem from a 20-year study that followed the rehabilitation of 25 LIS patients, people who are aware and awake but cannot move or communicate verbally due to complete paralysis of nearly all voluntary muscles.

A study by psychologists at the University of Liverpool has found that traumatic life events are the biggest cause of anxiety and depression, but how a person thinks about these events determines the level of stress they experience.

Researchers from the University's Institute of Psychology, Health and Society analysed the responses of over 32,000 participants, aged 18 – 85 years, who completed the BBC's `Stress Test', an online survey to explore the causes and consequences of stress.

Major research led by University of York scientists has discovered remarkable similarities between the production of vocalisations of wild chimpanzees and human language.

Dr Katie Slocombe and Dr Anne Schel, of the Department of Psychology at York, led the project in Uganda which examined the degree of intentionality wild chimpanzees have over their alarm calls.

People who carry a genetic mutation associated with Alzheimer's disease may develop the disease three years earlier than expected, according to a new study from Keck Medicine of the University of Southern California (USC).

MINNEAPOLIS – Even for elderly people with no signs of dementia, those with hardening of the arteries are more likely to also have the beta-amyloid plaques in the brain that are a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease, according to a study published in the October 16, 2013, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

"This is more evidence that cardiovascular health leads to a healthy brain," said study author Timothy M. Hughes, PhD, of the University of Pittsburgh.

Johns Hopkins researchers say that by measuring levels of certain proteins in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), they can predict when people will develop the cognitive impairment associated with Alzheimer's disease years before the first symptoms of memory loss appear.

Identifying such biomarkers could provide a long-sought tool to guide earlier use of potential drug treatments to prevent or halt the progression of Alzheimer's while people are still cognitively normal.

A Johns Hopkins-led analysis of data previously gathered on more than 3,000 elderly Americans strongly suggests that taking certain blood pressure medications to control blood pressure may reduce the risk of dementia due to Alzheimer's disease (AD).

As we learn and develop, our neurons change. They make new pathways and connections as our brain processes new information. In order to do this, individual neurons use an internal gauge to maintain a delicate balance that keeps our brains from becoming too excitable.

Cambridge, Mass. – October 16, 2013 – It's easy to spot a "bad" data visualization—one packed with too much text, excessive ornamentation, gaudy colors, and clip art. Design guru Edward Tufte derided such decorations as redundant at best, useless at worst, labeling them "chart junk." Yet a debate still rages among visualization experts: Can these reviled extra elements serve a purpose?

This news release is available in French.

Montreal, 16 October 2013 — If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands! That's easy enough for children to figure out because the emotion matches the movement. But when feelings and reactions don't align, can kids tell there's something wrong? New research from Concordia University proves that they can — as early as 18 months.

Research led by University of Arizona Regents' Professor Nick Strausfeld and London Natural History Museum's Greg Edgecombe has revealed that the ancestors of chelicerates (spiders, scorpions and their kin) branched off from the family tree of other arthropods – including insects, crustaceans and millipedes – more than half a billion years ago.

The team discovered the earliest known complete nervous system exquisitely preserved in the fossilized remains of a never-before described creature that crawled or swam in the ocean 520 million years ago.

Montreal — Stroke patients who participate in a cardiac rehabilitation program for six months make rapid gains in how far and fast they can walk, the use of weakened limbs and their ability to sit and stand, according to a study presented today at the Canadian Stroke Congress.

On average, participants saw a 21-per-cent improvement in the strength and range of motion of weakened limbs; a 19-per-cent improvement in walking speed; and a 16-per-cent improvement in the distance they could walk.

Counterintuitive findings from a new USC study show that the part of the brain that is associated with empathizing with the pain of others is activated more strongly by watching the suffering of hateful people as opposed to likable people.

While one might assume that we would empathize more with people we like, the study may indicate that the human brain focuses more greatly on the need to monitor enemies closely, especially when they are suffering.