Brain

A RIKEN research team has discovered an enzyme called Rines that regulates MAO-A, a major brain protein controlling emotion and mood. The enzyme is a potentially promising drug target for treating diseases associated with emotions such as depression.

Monoamine oxidase A (MAO-A) is an enzyme that breaks down serotonin, norephinephrine and dopamine, neurotransmitters well-known for their influence on emotion and mood. Nicknamed the "warrior gene", a variant of the MAOA gene has been associated with increased risk of violent and anti-social behavior.

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- When it comes to some of the health hazards of light at night, a new study suggests that the color of the light can make a big difference.

In a study involving hamsters, researchers found that blue light had the worst effects on mood-related measures, followed closely by white light.

But hamsters exposed to red light at night had significantly less evidence of depressive-like symptoms and changes in the brain linked to depression, compared to those that experienced blue or white light.

COLUMBUS, Ohio – In a new study, researchers at The Center for Brain and Spinal Cord Repair at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center show that is possible to restore immune function in spinal injured mice.

People with spinal cord injury often are immune compromised, which makes them more susceptible to infections. Why these people become immune-suppressed is not known, but the Ohio State study found that a disorder called autonomic dysreflexia can cause immune suppression.

In an examination of risk factors associated with suicide in current and former military personnel observed 2001 and 2008, male sex and mental disorders were independently associated with suicide risk but not military-specific variables, findings that do not support an association between deployment or combat with suicide, according to a study in the August 7 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on violence/human rights.

DALLAS – Aug. 6, 2013 – Mental health services should be integrated into disaster response as part of emergency services planning, according to a new study by UT Southwestern Medical Center psychiatrists who completed an exhaustive review of articles on the aftereffects of disasters on mental health.

A sleepless night makes us more likely to reach for doughnuts or pizza than for whole grains and leafy green vegetables, suggests a new study from UC Berkeley that examines the brain regions that control food choices. The findings shed new light on the link between poor sleep and obesity.

WASHINGTON — The longer a child with minor blunt head trauma is observed in the emergency department, the less likely the child is to require computed tomography (CT) scan, according to the results of a study published online Friday in Annals of Emergency Medicine ("Impact of the Duration of Emergency Department Observation on Computed Tomography Use in Children with Minor Blunt Head Trauma").

Feelings of entitlement and superiority that go beyond patriotism and love of country may be a key predictor for Americans who will feel or behave negatively toward undocumented Latino immigrants, according to a study from The University of Texas at Arlington.

Adults could be at greater risk of becoming anxious and vulnerable to poor mental health if they were deprived of certain hormones while developing in the womb according to new research by scientists at Cardiff and Cambridge universities.

New research in mice has revealed the role of the placenta in long-term programming of emotional behaviour and the first time scientists have linked changes in adult behaviour to alterations in placental function.

"Pressing the button of the lift at your work place, or apartment building is an automatic action – a habit. You don't even really look at the different buttons; your hand is almost reaching out and pressing on its own. But what happens when you use the lift in a new place? In this case, your hand doesn't know the way, you have to locate the buttons, find the right one, and only then your hand can press a button.

Hypoxia-inducible factor-1 and its specific target gene heme oxygenase-1 are involved in acute cerebral ischemia. However, very few studies have examined in detail the changes in the hypoxia-inducible factor-1/heme oxygenase-1 signaling pathway in chronic cerebral ischemia. Prof. Zhongxin Xu and team from China-Japan Friendship Hospital, Jilin University clarified that the hypoxia-inducible factor-1/heme oxygenase-1 signaling pathway is activated following chronic cerebral ischemia and involved in the development of cognitive impairment induced by chronic cerebral ischemia.

The automatic detection and identification of electroencephalogram waves play an important role in the prediction, diagnosis and treatment of epileptic seizures. Unfortunately, in previous experiments, training data and test data from electroencephalogram signals are often derived from the same cases, which may affect the clinical applicability of the classifiers.

Drug treatment, electric stimulation and decimeter wave therapy have been shown to promote the repair and regeneration of the peripheral nerves at the injured site. Feng Zhao and colleagues from Hebei Medical University investigated the effects of intraoperative electric stimulation and decimeter waves on sciatic nerve regeneration in a Mackinnon's model of rat sciatic nerve compression. These results, published in the Neural Regeneration Research (Vol. 8, No.

Researchers at UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center have successfully combined cellular therapy and gene therapy in a mouse-model system to develop a viable treatment strategy for breast cancer that has spread to a patient's brain.

The research, led by Carol Kruse, a professor of neurosurgery and member of the Jonsson Cancer Center and the UCLA Brain Research Institute, was published Aug. 1 in the journal Clinical Cancer Research.

A collaborative team of researchers including scientists from UCLA has uncovered evidence that a specific genetic alteration appears to contribute to disorders of brain development, including schizophrenia. They also found that schizophrenia shares a common biological pathway with Fragile X mental retardation syndrome, a disorder associated with both intellectual impairment and autism.