Brain | Page 1430 | Science Codex

Cognitive therapy: Meditate your way to less female incontinence?

MAYWOOD, Ill. – After nine years of suffering in silence and living in fear of leaving the house, Anna Raisor, 53, turned to physicians at Loyola University Health System (LUHS) for alternative measures to treat the embarrassing side effects of incontinence.

LUHS physicians enrolled Raisor in a clinical trial using cognitive therapy to manage her overactive bladder. Cognitive therapy employs deep-breathing and guided-imagery exercises that train the brain to control the bladder without medication or surgery.

Lithium may help radiation target cancer, spare healthy tissue

Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center investigators have uncovered a mechanism that helps explain how lithium, a drug widely used to treat bipolar mood disorder, also protects the brain from damage that occurs during radiation treatments.

In the May 1 issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Fen Xia, M.D., Ph.D., and colleagues show that lithium promotes DNA repair in healthy cells but not in brain tumor cells. The findings suggest that lithium treatment could offer a way to protect healthy brain tissue from damage that may occur during cranial radiation treatments.

Drug prevents seizure progression in model of epilepsy

PITTSBURGH—Carnegie Mellon University researchers have identified a new anticonvulsant compound that has the potential to stop the development of epilepsy. The findings are published in the March issue of the journal Epilepsia.

The research discovery builds on previous work identifying a specific molecular target whoseincreased activity is associated with seizure disorders, a potassium channel known as the BK channel.

Children with concussions require follow-up care before returning to play, say researchers

Children hospitalized with concussions should wait until they are seen by a clinician in a follow-up exam before returning to regular sports or playtime activities, according to researchers at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

Psyched out by stereotypes: IU research suggests thinking about the positive

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- In a new study, cognitive scientists have shown that when aware of both a negative and positive stereotype related to performance, women will identify more closely with the positive stereotype, avoiding the harmful impact the negative stereotype unwittingly can have on their performance.

Narcolepsy is an autoimmune disorder, Stanford researcher says

STANFORD, Calif. — Ten years ago, Stanford University School of Medicine scientist Emmanuel Mignot, MD, PhD, and his colleagues made headlines when they identified the culprit behind the sleep disorder narcolepsy. Now Mignot and his collaborators have shown for the first time that a specific immune cell is involved in the disorder — confirming experts' long-held suspicion that narcolepsy is an autoimmune disease.

Neuroscientists discover long-term potentiation in the olfactory bulb

CLEVELAND – May 3, 2009 –Ben W. Strowbridge, Ph.D, associate professor of Neuroscience and Physiology/Biophysics, and Yuan Gao, a Ph.D. student in the neurosciences program at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, are the first to discover a form of synaptic memory in the olfactory bulb, the part of the brain that processes the sense of smell.

Their study, entitled "Long-term plasticity of excitatory inputs to granule cells in the rat olfactory bulb" will be published in the June 2009 issue of Nature Neuroscience and is currently available online.

Your brain on -- and off -- caffeine

Ever miss your daily cup of coffee and subsequently get a pounding headache? According to reports from consumers of coffee and other caffeinated products, caffeine withdrawal is often characterized by a headache, fatigue, feeling less alert, less energetic and experiencing difficulty concentrating. Researchers from the University of Vermont College of Medicine and Johns Hopkins School of Medicine sought to investigate the biological mechanisms of caffeine withdrawal in a paper published recently in the online edition of the scientific journal Psychopharmacology.

Where tumor cells boldly go: Weill Cornell cancer biologists shed light on the metastatic niche

NEW YORK (May 1, 2009) -- Traditionally, cancer biologists have embraced a simple and direct model of the disease process: The tumor -- the "seed" -- was seen as bearing total responsibility for the spread of cancer to distant tissues -- the "soil" in which the seed embedded itself, grew, and reproduced. The result was a seed-dominant model that determined the way doctors treated cancer, using strategies targeting the tumor seed but neglecting the role of the soil.

Weight loss competitions produce encouraging results

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Statewide weight loss competitions appear to be a potentially successful weapon in the battle against obesity. These programs can produce weight loss in large numbers of people at minimal cost, according to a new study from The Miriam Hospital and Brown University.

Dolphins maintain round-the-clock visual vigilance

Dolphins have a clever trick for overcoming sleep deprivation. Sam Ridgway from the US Navy Marine Mammal Program explains that they are able to send half of their brains to sleep while the other half remains conscious. What is more, the mammals seem to be able to remain continually vigilant for sounds for days on end. All of this made Ridgway and his colleagues from San Diego and Tel Aviv wonder whether the dolphins' unrelenting auditory vigilance tired them and took a toll on the animals' other senses?

Injured Marines at risk for abnormal bone growth

ROSEMONT, IL—Marines and other military personnel who are wounded in combat as the result of a high-energy trauma, such as a bomb blast, are likely to develop an abnormality known as heterotopic ossification. In this condition, bone forms within the soft tissues, such as muscle located near a fracture or other bone injury. New research conducted at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, MD, is helping to pave the way for a better understanding of the mechanisms of the condition, and better courses of prevention and treatment.

Decrease in sense of smell seen in lupus patients

The sense of smell is a complex process of the central nervous system that involves specific areas of the brain. In fact, olfactory dysfunction is seen in various central nervous system disorders that involve immune-mediated mechanisms, such as Parkinson's disease, schizophrenia, Alzheimer's disease and multiple sclerosis. Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease that sometimes involves the central nervous system in a condition known as neuropsychiatric SLE (NPSLE).

Caltech researchers pinpoint the mechanisms of self-control in the brain

PASADENA, Calif.--When you're on a diet, deciding to skip your favorite calorie-laden foods and eat something healthier takes a whole lot of self-control--an ability that seems to come easier to some of us than others. Now, scientists from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have uncovered differences in the brains of people who are able to exercise self-control versus those who find it almost impossible.

Genetic variant impairs communication within the brain

For some time now it has been known that certain hereditary factors enhance the risk of schizophrenia or a manic-depressive disorder. However, just how this occurs had remained obscure. Researchers at the Zentralinstitut für Seelische Gesundheit in Mannheim, Heidelberg University and Bonn University are now able to answer this question, at least for one common genetic variant: this impairs the interoperation of certain regions of the brain. The study is to appear on 1st May in the prestigious scientific journal Science.