Brain | Page 282 | Science Codex

Study finds addiction associated with poor awareness of others

Developmental psychologist Maria Pagano, PhD, found adolescents with severe alcohol and other drug (AOD) problems have a low regard for others, as indicated by higher rates of driving under the influence and having unprotected sex with a history of sexually transmitted disease. The findings also showed that they are less likely to volunteer their time helping others, an activity that she has been shown to help adult alcoholics stay sober.

The study was published in the Journal of Child and Adolescent Substance Abuse.

New recommendations link better sleep to improved concussion outcomes

BALTIMORE - March 31, 2016. A national group of sleep and brain injury specialists recommends specific steps to test and develop sleep-related treatments to improve the outcome of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). The recommendations, developed by a University of Maryland School of Medicine sleep specialist, along with experts from medicine, the military and private industry, appear online ahead of print in the journal Neurotherapeutics.

Remote eye gaze tracking as a marker for autism

Washington, D.C., March 31, 2016 - A study to be published in the April 2016 issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (JAACAP) reports that eye tracking can differentiate children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) from children without ASD but with other developmental problems (non-ASD).

Study: Is your political ideology in your head?

Lincoln, Nebraska, March 31, 2016 -- Conservatives and liberals know there is a chasm between their policy and social ideals. But a new study shows that their differences may be psychologically fundamental.

The research, led by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's Mark Mills, revealed that negativity bias -- where greater weight in our cognitive processes is given to negative information over positive or neutral information -- is stronger in political conservatives and that the negativity bias transfers to how well they remember stimuli.

Imitating movements could help Alzheimer's patients

Alzheimer's disease is the sixth leading cause of death in the U.S., according to the Alzheimer's Association. There is no cure and no way to slow or prevent the illness. But, patients can still benefit from both physical and cognitive rehabilitation, and researchers are learning that mimicry may be a useful tool to help them regain lost abilities.

Could a new class of fungicides play a role in autism, neurodegenerative diseases?

CHAPEL HILL, NC - Scientists at the UNC School of Medicine have found a class of commonly used fungicides that produce gene expression changes similar to those in people with autism and neurodegenerative conditions, including Alzheimer's disease and Huntington's disease.

The study, published today in the journal Nature Communications, describes a new way to home in on chemicals that have the potential to affect brain functions.

Naltrexone is alternative treatment for opioid addiction, Penn-led study finds

PHILADELPHIA--The once-a-month drug naltrexone was more effective at preventing drug relapse in ex-prisoners addicted to heroin and other opioids compared to the usual treatment modalities, including counseling and community treatment programs, according to results from a multisite, randomized trial led by researchers at the Center for Studies of Addiction at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and published online today in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Finnish study confirms link between Zika virus and fetal brain damage

A study led by Olli Vapalahti, professor of zoonotic virology at the University of Helsinki, Finland, has found that small amounts of genetic material from the Zika virus can be detected from a blood sample taken from a pregnant woman even weeks after the acute rash caused by the infection has passed, when the development of brain damage in the fetus is underway. Severe brain abnormalities can be detected through neuroimaging already at this early stage, even before the development of the intracranial calcifications and microcephaly previously associated with Zika virus infections.

Long-acting treatment for opioid addiction reduced risk of relapse

NEW YORK, NY (March 30, 2016) -- In a multicenter, randomized clinical trial, ex-prisoners who received six monthly injections of naltrexone--a long-acting medication that blocks opioid receptors in the brain--were significantly less likely to resume opioid use than those who received counseling and referrals to community treatment centers without naltrexone.

The study was published online today in New England Journal of Medicine.

Right brain may help predict recovery of language after stroke

MINNEAPOLIS - New research suggests that looking at structures in the right side of the brain may help predict who will better recover from language problems after a stroke, according to a study published in Neurology®, a medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

The brain is divided into two hemispheres, the right and the left. The left side is dominant in language and speech-motor functions in most people, so when it is damaged by stroke, it can lead to aphasia. Aphasia is difficulty speaking, naming, repeating, and understanding language.

Seventh-graders learn astrophysics through mixed-reality computer simulation

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Had the "learn'd astronomer's" charts and theorems inspired the 19th century writer Walt Whitman as much as strolling under the nighttime sky, Whitman might have become an astrophysicist instead of a stargazing poet.

Researchers at the University of Illinois hope to inspire greater numbers of young people to become astronomers - or at least to embrace learning science - with a new computer simulation that engages children's bodies as well as their minds in learning about how objects move in space.

Penn study describes the molecular cause of common cerebrovascular disease

PHILADELPHIA - Cerebral cavernous malformations (CCMs) are clusters of dilated, thin-walled blood vessels in the brain that can cause stroke and seizures, yet exactly how they form is somewhat of a mystery. Now, a team from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania has discovered the molecular mechanism that underlies this common cerebrovascular disease. They published their results this week online ahead of print in Nature.

Spinal cord regeneration might actually be helped by glial scar tissue

Neuroscientists have long believed that scar tissue formed by glial cells -- the cells that surround neurons in the central nervous system -- impedes damaged nerve cells from regrowing after a brain or spinal cord injury. So it's no wonder that researchers have assumed that if they could find a way to remove or counteract that scar tissue, injured neurons might spontaneously repair themselves.

A new study by UCLA scientists now shows that this assumption might have been impeding research on repairing spinal cord injuries.

Even seizure-free, children with epilepsy can face social problems as adults

Learning difficulties and behavioral problems during childhood can lead to suboptimal social and educational outcomes among young adults with childhood epilepsy even when their seizures are well under control and their disease in remission, according to findings from a study led by researchers at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago.

Why neural stem cells may be vulnerable to Zika infection

Zika's hypothesized attraction to human neural stem cells may come from its ability to hijack a protein found on the surface of these cells, using it as an entryway to infection. In Cell Stem Cell on March 30, researchers at the University of California, San Francisco show that the AXL surface receptor, normally involved in cell division, is highly abundant on the surface of neural stem cells, but not on neurons in the developing brain.