Brain

APRIL 6, 2016, Ariel, Israel - An article published today in the Springer journal BioMetals raises serious questions about the safety of the gadolinium-based contrast agents that are used in about 30 percent of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. In their literature review, researchers from MedInsight Research Institute and Israel's Ariel University analyzed studies detailing the known and proposed mechanisms of retained gadolinium toxicity.

The more we rely on our smart phones being connected to the Internet, the greater the anxiety we feel if we lose that connection when travelling, according to new research published in the International Journal of Information and Communication Technology.

Clozapine (CLZ) is a "gold standard" drug for managing treatment-resistant schizophrenia (TRS), who do not respond adequately to first-line antipsychotics.

Despite its efficacy with TRS, the use of CLZ is significantly restricted by severe side effects, such as Clozapine-induced agranulocytosis (CIA) or Clozapine-induced granulocytopenia (CIG), which are rare (CIA: 1% and CIG: 3%) but potentially life-threatening.

Benjamin Franklin, Socrates, Martin Luther King Jr., Mother Teresa: All well-recognized names. In a recent study from Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, researchers studying Americans and Canadians found preferences for practical wisdom when people were asked to name important figures and tell stories about their wisdom.

Exposure to a pesticide banned by the European Union significantly affects the learning of honeybees but has no effect on bumblebees - scientists from the University of Sussex have discovered.

The research, published today, is the first time scientists have looked into how both species respond to field-realistic-levels of the neonicotinoid insecticide 'clothianidin' which was banned for use on flowering crops by the European Union in 2013.

WASHINGTON, DC -- People prone to seeking stimulation and acting impulsively may have differences in the structure of their brains according to a study published in the April 6 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience. What's more, those differences may predispose them to substance abuse.

MAYWOOD, Ill. - Drugs commonly prescribed to treat Parkinson's disease have been linked to impulse control disorders such as pathological gambling, compulsive buying, hypersexuality and binge eating in some patients, report neurologists from Loyola Medicine and Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine.

Nearly 14 percent of veterans reported suicidal thinking at one or both phases of a two-year Veterans Affairs (VA) study.

The study, now online, is slated for publication in the June 2016 issue of the Journal of Affective Disorders.

The finding is based on a nationally representative sample of more than 2,000 U.S. veterans who were surveyed twice as part of the National Health and Resilience in Veterans Study, led by Dr. Robert Pietrzak of the Clinical Neurosciences Division of VA's National Center for PTSD. The first wave was conducted in 2011, the second in 2013.

BURLINGTON, VT - Smoking during pregnancy is the leading preventable cause of poor pregnancy outcomes. Studies further indicate that in-utero smoke exposure contributes to respiratory and cardiac illnesses later in life.

The good news is that the prevalence of smoking during pregnancy has decreased. The bad news is that economically disadvantaged pregnant women continue to smoke at much higher rates than affluent women.

Scientists at the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) and August Pi i Sunyer Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBAPS) have made a first-ever identification of the alterations in the neuronal circuit that impact cerebral cortex physiology, and that could be the cause of cognitive deficits in Down Syndrome.

The study, published in the latest edition of the Journal of Neuroscience, explains how a gene linked to Down Syndrome is associated with altered oscillations in the cerebral cortex, the region responsible for our capacity for reasoning, language and social behavior.

April 5, 2016, New York - People are using brain-machine interfaces to restore motor function in ways never before possible - through limb prosthetics and exoskletons. But technologies to repair and improve cognition have been more elusive. That is rapidly changing with new tools - from fully implantable brain devices to neuron-eavesdropping grids atop the brain - to directly probe the mind.

April 5, 2016, New York - The draw is huge: Play video games and get smarter. For the past decade, various groups have claimed that their cognitive training programs do everything from staving off neurodegenerative disease to enhancing education and improving daily functioning. Absent from many of these claims has been neuroscientific evidence. Cognitive neuroscientists are now rigorously testing the potential benefits of such "brain training" tools.

Coral Gables, FL (March 16, 2016) - Relationships in distress are linked to mental and physical health problems in partners and their children. Within the U.S., one-third of married couples are distressed, and almost half of first marriages (and more than half of unmarried, cohabiting relationships) end in a divorce or separation.

INDIANAPOLIS -- Researchers have identified blood-based biomarkers and developed questionnaire-based apps that may help clinicians identify which of their female patients being treated for psychiatric disorders are at greatest risk of suicidal ideation or behavior.

In the article "Towards understanding and predicting suicidality in women: biomarkers and clinical risk assessment," researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine reported development of effective blood tests and questionnaires that are personalized for women.

(Philadelphia, PA) - Chronic lack of sleep and irregular sleep-wake cycles may be risk factors of Parkinson's disease, new work by researchers at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University (LKSOM) suggests. In an animal model, the researchers show that disturbances in circadian rhythm that exist before Parkinson's onset dramatically worsen motor and learning deficits brought on by the disease.