Brain

Difficulties in social interaction are considered to be one of the behavioral hallmarks of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). Previous studies have shown these difficulties to be related to differences in how the brains of autistic individuals process sensory information about faces.

EAST LANSING, Mich. — A Michigan State University researcher has discovered the first anatomical evidence that the brains of children with a nonverbal learning disability – long considered a "pseudo" diagnosis – may develop differently than the brains of other children.

The finding, published in Child Neuropsychology, could ultimately help educators and clinicians better distinguish between – and treat – children with a nonverbal learning disability, or NLVD, and those with Asperger's, or high functioning autism, which is often confused with NLVD.

Patients with a condition that causes blood vessels in the brain to form an abnormal tangle could be helped by the findings of new research.

An international patient trial suggests that the safest way of managing arteriovenous malformations (AVM) of the brain is to treat the patient's symptoms only, and not the AVM.

People with an AVM – causing disrupted blood flow in the brain – are three times more likely to suffer stroke from the AVM bursting or die within three years if the tangled vessels are treated, researchers found.

New research from Queen Mary University of London shows released prisoners with schizophrenia are three times more likely to be violent than other prisoners, but only if they receive no treatment or follow-up support from mental health services.

Maintaining psychiatric treatment both during imprisonment and after release can substantially reduce the risk of violent reoffending. Better screening and treatment of prisoners is therefore essential to prevent violence.

NEW YORK (November 19, 2013) -- George Melendez has been called a medical miracle. After a near drowning deprived his brain of oxygen, Melendez remained in a fitful, minimally conscious state until his mother, in 2002, decided to give him the sleep aid drug Ambien to quiet his moaning and writhing. The next thing she knew, her son was quietly looking at her and trying to talk. He has been using the drug ever since to maintain awareness, but no one could understand why Ambien led to such an awakening.

STANFORD, Calif. — Prolonged stress and anxiety during childhood is a risk factor for developing anxiety disorders and depression later in life. Now, Stanford University School of Medicine researchers have shown that by measuring the size and connectivity of a part of the brain associated with processing emotion — the amygdala — they can predict the degree of anxiety a young child is experiencing in daily life.

People with autism are more likely to also have synaesthesia, suggests new research in the journal Molecular Autism.

Hospital management of patients who self-harm in England has barely changed in the past 10 years despite the introduction of clinical guidelines a new study shows.

Researchers from The University of Manchester found 40% of those attending hospital after an overdose or other self-injury did not get a specialist psychosocial assessment.

The treatment patients received also varied according to where they lived - suggesting a postcode lottery was still in operation.

• Executive performance, such as attention and memory, is associated with the frontal lobes.
• Researchers found specific structural changes in the prefrontal area and left cerebellum can predict executive performance in alcoholics.
• These volumes may identify executive dysfunctions even when clinical signs of alcohol dependence are absent or mild and a more general mental status appears normal.

Toronto – The anxiety people feel making investment decisions may have more to do with the traffic they dealt with earlier than the potential consequences they face with the investment, but not if the decision-maker has high emotional intelligence a recent study published in Psychological Science suggests.

The study shows that understanding the source and relevance of emotions influences how much sway they have over individuals' decision-making and can affect the willingness to take risks.

Tampa, FL (Nov. 19, 2013) -- Add stroke to the list of severe health hazards that may be associated with smoking synthetic marijuana, popularly known as spice or K2, a University of South Florida neurology team reports.

An advance online article in the journal Neurology details case studies by the USF neurologists of two healthy, young siblings who experienced acute ischemic strokes soon after smoking the street drug spice. Ischemic strokes occur when an artery to the brain is blocked.

LAWRENCE — Whether we process language we hear without regard to anything about the speaker is a longstanding scientific debate. But it wasn't until University of Kansas scientists set up an experiment showing that the sex of a speaker affected how quickly listeners identified words grammatically that there was evidence that even higher-level processes are affected by the speaker.

Are monkeys, like humans, able to ascertain where objects are located without much more than a sideways glance? Quite likely, says Lau Andersen of the Aarhus University in Denmark, lead author of a study conducted at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center of Emory University, published in Springer's journal Animal Cognition. The study finds that monkeys are able to localize stimuli they do not perceive.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – A study in the December issue of Anesthesiology suggests a role for brain imaging in the assessment and potential treatment of chronic pain.

University of Michigan researchers are the first to use brain imaging procedures to track the clinical action of pregabalin, a drug known by the brand name Lyrica® that is prescribed to patients suffering from fibromyalgia and neuropathic pain.

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Studies have shown that resveratrol, a natural compound found in colored vegetables, fruits and especially grapes, may minimize the impact of Parkinson's disease, stroke and Alzheimer's disease in those who maintain healthy diets or who regularly take resveratrol supplements. Now, researchers at the University of Missouri have found that resveratrol may also block the effects of the highly addictive drug, methamphetamine.