Brain

New research by scientists at UC San Francisco shows that one of the brain's fundamental self-protection mechanisms depends on coordinated, finely calibrated teamwork among neurons and non-neural cells knows as glial cells, which until fairly recently were thought to be mere support cells for neurons. The study, which has implications for understanding neurodegenerative diseases, stroke, and other nervous system disorders, adds to a growing body of evidence that glial cells are integral to brain function.

CLEMSON, S.C. — Clemson University scientists are working to determine how neurons are generated, which is vital to providing treatment for neurological disorders like Tuberous Sclerosis Complex (TSC).

TSC is a rare genetic disease that causes the growth of tumors in the brain and other vital organs and may indicate such disorders as autism, epilepsy and cognitive impairment that may arise from the abnormal generation of neurons.

CHESTNUT HILL, MA (Oct. 22, 2013) – A new report from researchers at Boston College and Tufts University shows the distinct emotional and educational price children pay when their families live in run down apartments and homes.

Collegiate researchers from a variety of disciplines, communication, neuroscience, psychology, population studies, statistics, biomedical engineering, and pediatrics, to name just a few, have formed a collaboration of social and life scientists to formalize the process of cross-disciplinary scientific collaboration. This collaboration is meant to be a model of how to incorporate often disparate groups of researchers that study genes, brain, and environmental factors that matter to the outcomes of population.

As researchers develop novel therapies based on inducing specific cells to do specific things, getting the right message to the right group of cells at the right time remains a major challenge. The use of light to communicate with cells has been restricted by its limited ability to pass through tissues. Now researchers at the Wellman Center for Photomedicine at Massachusetts General Hospital have developed a way to deliver a light signal to specific tissues deep within the body. They describe their accomplishment in the current issue of Nature Photonics.

Childhood poverty and chronic stress may lead to problems regulating emotions as an adult, according to research published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"Our findings suggest that the stress-burden of growing up poor may be an underlying mechanism that accounts for the relationship between poverty as a child and how well your brain works as an adult," said Dr. K. Luan Phan, professor of psychiatry at University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine and senior author of the study.

Early math skills are emerging as important to later academic achievement. As many countries seek to strengthen their workforces in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields, understanding the early contributions to math skills becomes increasingly vital. New longitudinal research from Finland has found that children's early spatial skills and knowledge of written letters, rather than oral language skills, predict competence in this area.

Regular moderate to vigorous exercise improves teens' academic performance, and particularly seems to help girls do better in science, indicates research published online in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

The improvements were sustained over the long term, with the findings pointing to a dose-response effect—the more intensive exercise was taken, the greater the impact on test results.

If confirmed by further research, this could have implications for public health and education policy, say the authors.

Getting less sleep and poor sleep quality are associated with abnormal brain imaging findings suggesting Alzheimer disease (AD) in older adults, according to a report published by JAMA Neurology, a JAMA Network publication.

Deposits of β-Amyloid (Αβ) plaques are one of the hallmarks of AD. Fluctuations in Αβ levels may be regulated by sleep-wake patterns, the authors write in the study background.

Poor sleep quality may impact Alzheimer's disease onset and progression. This is according to a new study led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health who examined the association between sleep variables and a biomarker for Alzheimer's disease in older adults. The researchers found that reports of shorter sleep duration and poorer sleep quality were associated with a greater β-Amyloid burden, a hallmark of the disease. The results are featured online in the October issue of JAMA Neurology.

The major genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's disease (AD), present in about two-thirds of people who develop the disease, is ApoE4, the cholesterol-carrying protein that about a quarter of us are born with. But one of the unsolved mysteries of AD is how ApoE4 causes the risk for the incurable, neurodegenerative disease. In research published this week in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers at the Buck Institute found a link between ApoE4 and SirT1, an "anti-aging protein" that is targeted by resveratrol, present in red wine.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a technique widely used in medicine to create images of internal organs such as the heart, the lungs, the liver and even the brain. Since its invention in 1977, MRI has become a staple of clinical radiology, used across the world to identify health problems in millions of patients worldwide. But despite its prominence, MRI suffers from low sensitivity, which can be improved by injecting patients with potentially toxic agents.

Philadelphia, PA, October 21, 2013 – Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, is the most common childhood psychiatric disorder. Scientists do not know what causes it, but genetics play a clear role. Other risk factors have also been identified, including premature birth, low birth weight, a mother's use of alcohol or tobacco during pregnancy, and environmental exposures to toxins like lead.

Older adults are often encouraged to stay active and engaged to keep their minds sharp, that they have to "use it or lose it." But new research indicates that only certain activities — learning a mentally demanding skill like photography, for instance — are likely to improve cognitive functioning.

These findings, forthcoming in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, reveal that less demanding activities, such as listening to classical music or completing word puzzles, probably won't bring noticeable benefits to an aging mind.

WORCESTER, MA – In a biological quirk that promises to provide researchers with a new approach for studying and potentially treating Fragile X syndrome, scientists at the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS) have shown that knocking out a gene important for messenger RNA (mRNA) translation in neurons restores memory deficits and reduces behavioral symptoms in a mouse model of a prevalent human neurological disease.