New Orleans, LA – Research led by Dr. Nicolas Bazan, Boyd Professor, Villere Chair, and Director of the Neuroscience Center of Excellence at LSU Health Sciences Center, has shown that Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), a component of fish oil, is a powerful therapeutic agent that can protect brain tissue and promote recovery in an experimental model of acute ischemic stroke, even when treatment is delayed by up to five hours.
Brain
Frank Kachanoff was surprised. He thought the sight of meat on the table would make people more aggressive, not less. After all, don’t football coaches feed their players big hunks of red meat before a game in hopes of pumping them up? And what about our images of a grunting or growling animal snarling at anyone who dares take their meat away from them? Wouldn’t that go for humans, too?
Japanese research group led by Prof. Ryusuke Kakigi and Dr. Emi Nakato (National Institute for Physiological Sciences: NIPS) and Prof. Masami K Yamaguchi (Chuo University) found that the hemispheric differences in the temporal area overlying superior temporal sulcus (STS) when processing positive (happy) and negative (angry) facial expressions in infants. Their finding was reported in NeuroImage.
LOS ANGELES (Nov. 4, 2010) – Nine years ago, scientists at Cedars-Sinai's Maxine Dunitz Neurosurgical Institute detected a subtle shift occurring in the molecular makeup of the most aggressive type of brain tumors, glioblastoma multiforme. With further study, they found that a specific protein called laminin-411 plays a major role in a tumor's ability to build new blood vessels to support its growth and spread. But technology did not exist then to block this protein.
Scientists at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford, have identified a genetic variant which influences whether a person with dyslexia is more skilled with either the left or right hand. The finding identifies a novel gene for handedness, PCSK6, and provides the first genetic evidence to support a much speculated link between handedness and a language-related disorder.
A study funded by the Motor Neurone Disease (MND) Association, in collaboration with the Medical Research Council (MRC), has identified a common signature of nerve damage in the brains of MND patients.
The study's exciting findings have been published in the prestigious journal Neurology (2 November 2010). These are the first results to be published from the ongoing Oxford Study for Biomarkers in MND/ALS (BioMOx).
It's commonly accepted that we appreciate something more if we have to work hard to get it, and a Johns Hopkins University study bears that out, at least when it comes to food.
There are disorders and conditions that entail increased itching and can be extremely troublesome for those suffering from it. The mechanisms behind itching are not well understood today. For one thing, what is it about scratching that relieves itching?
By applying electrical current to the brain, researchers reporting online on November 4 in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, have shown that they could enhance a person's mathematical performance for up to 6 months without influencing their other cognitive functions. The findings may lead to treatments for the estimated 20 percent of the population with moderate to severe numerical disabilities (for example, dyscalculia) and for those who lose their skill with numbers as a result of stroke or degenerative disease, according to the researchers.
LA JOLLA, CA, November 3, 2010 – For Immediate Release – As babies grow, their brain cells develop from a pool of stem cells—some stem cells continuously divide, replenishing the pool, whereas others morph into mature functioning nerve cells. Now researchers at The Scripps Research Institute have shown that as the newly formed nerve cells start firing electrical signals, this activity slows down stem cell division, emptying out the stem cell pool in favor of nerve cell formation.
Was it the evolution of the hand, or of the brain, that enabled prehistoric toolmakers to make the leap from striking off simple flakes of rock to fashioning a sophisticated hand axe?
A new study finds that the ability to plan complex tasks was key. The research, published Nov. 3 in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS ONE, is the first to use a cyber data glove to precisely measure the hand movements of stone tool making, and compare the results to brain activation. (Video: http://tinyurl.com/2w9cd4d)
A single injection of morphine to fight persistent pain in male rats is able to strongly reduce the hormone testosterone in the brain and plasma, according to a new paper published in Molecular Pain.
Stone Age humans were only able to develop relatively advanced tools after their brains evolved a greater capacity for complex thought, according to a new study that investigates why it took early humans almost two million years to move from razor-sharp stones to a hand-held stone axe.
Positive psychological changes that occur during meditation training are associated with greater telomerase activity, according to researchers at the University of California, Davis, and the University of California, San Francisco. The study is the first to link positive well-being to higher telomerase, an enzyme important for the long-term health of cells in the body.
The effect appears to be attributable to psychological changes that increase a person's ability to cope with stress and maintain feelings of well-being.
A new study suggests that older adults who wear multifocal contact lenses to correct problems with near vision, a very common condition that increases with age, may have greater difficulty driving at night than their counterparts who wear glasses. Age-related problems with near vision, medically termed presbyopia, usually occurs after the age of 40 and results in the inability to focus on objects up close.