Brain | Page 313 | Science Codex

Eye movement affected in former childhood cancer patients

Nowadays, the lives of the majority of all children with cancer can be spared. However, the cure for the disease comes with a price: some of the survivors will suffer long-term injury from the treatment. A study from Lund University in Sweden now shows that commonly used chemo toxins impair the eyesight in childhood cancer survivors in a way that indicates an impact on the central nervous system.

It was not the former patients' visual acuity that had been damaged; rather their eye motor skills - the eyes' ability to follow moving objects.

How a waste product of exercise protects neurons from trauma damage

Researchers led by EPFL have found how lactate, a waste product of glucose metabolism can protect neurons from damage following acute trauma such as stroke or spinal cord injury.

Antibody provide a more exact Alzheimer's diagnosis radioactive tracers

For the first time, researchers have succeeded in passing an antibody through the blood-brain barrier to act as a tracer for PET imaging of the brain. This resulted in more precise information being obtained than with regular radioactive tracers. The study provides hope for more effective diagnosis of early onset Alzheimer's disease and improvements in monitoring the effects of medication.

Clot-busting drug reduces death risk in hemorrhagic stroke patients

Reporting on the results of a phase III international clinical trial, Johns Hopkins Medicine physicians say use of a cardiac clot-busting drug to treat strokes that cause brain bleeding safely decreased the death rate in patients by 10 percent, compared to a control group receiving saline.

Penn research: An FDA-approved Alzheimer's drug could help smokers quit

Despite several safe drug therapies available to help smokers quit, three-quarters report relapsing within six months of a quit attempt. University of Pennsylvania researchers Rebecca Ashare and Heath Schmidt saw potential for a permanent cessation solution in a class of FDA-approved medications used to improve cognitive impairments from Alzheimer's disease.

Experimental drug may limit harmful effects of traumatic brain injury

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Feb. 19, 2016) -- A new report by University of Kentucky researcher Linda Van Eldik, PhD, describes an experimental drug candidate that may aid patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI).

The article appeared this week in the journal PLoS One, the world's largest biology journal.

Study unveils new therapeutic target for spinal muscular atrophy

Neuroscientists have discovered a specific enzyme that plays a critical role in spinal muscular atrophy, and that suppressing this enzyme's activity, could markedly reduce the disease's severity and improve patients' lifestyles.

Spinal muscular atrophy is a debilitating disease that causes weakness and wasting of the muscles. The disease ranges in severity with patients experiencing different symptoms, from the inability to sit up and stand, to trouble walking. In its severest form, the disease results in difficulty breathing and leads to death.

Memories and sensations: The rhythm that unites them

Regions of the brain can "dance" on their own but when they work together they fall in step to a well-timed choreography: according to a study just published in PLOS Biology, when a rat is engaged in a sensory recognition task and needs to make a spatial choice based on previous knowledge, the sensory, motor, and memory regions of the animal's brain (but similar mechanisms are also likely to exist in the human brain), make the rhythms of electrical activity coherent with each other.

The brain gives up more secrets

Montreal, Feb. 18, 2016 - A research team, led by the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC) in Montreal, has broken new ground in our understanding of the complex functioning of the brain. The research, published in the current issue of the journal Science, demonstrates that brain cells, known as astrocytes, which play fundamental roles in nearly all aspects of brain function, can be adjusted by neurons in response to injury and disease.

Clot-busting therapy reduces mortality in deadliest form of stroke

The use of clot-busting drugs to clear blood from the brain's ventricles may be the first effective strategy to decrease mortality for a type of catastrophic bleeding stroke, according to phase-3 clinical trial results announced Thursday at the International Stroke Conference in Los Angeles. The treatment also significantly reduced post-stroke disability in a subset of patients, according to data presented by trial leaders from Johns Hopkins University and the University of Chicago.

It's easy to get people to do bad things -- this might be why

In the 1960s, psychologist Stanley Milgram famously conducted experiments in a Yale University basement showing that people will apparently inflict pain on another person simply because someone in a position of authority told them to. Now, researchers reporting in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on Feb. 18, 2016 have taken those classic experiments one step further, providing new evidence that might help to explain why people are so easily coerced.

Scientists eliminate core symptom of schizophrenia in mice

NEW YORK--Researchers have successfully disrupted a genetic chain of events in a mouse model of schizophrenia and reversed memory deficits, one of the disorder's most difficult-to-treat symptoms. This discovery--which builds upon decades of early-stage research--could lead to more effective therapies for the cognitive symptoms of schizophrenia, a psychiatric disorder that affects more than 21 million people worldwide.

Breast milk sugars promote healthy infant growth through gut microbiome

Bacteria that live in the gut interact with dietary components to affect health and wellness. In a study published February 18 in Cell, a team led by Jeffrey Gordon at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis now finds key components in breast milk that promote healthy infant growth and how interactions with the gut bacteria drive this process.

Scientists question a popular theory about how the nervous system trims its branches

As tiny embryos in the womb, we start out with a lot more neuronal material than we actually need. During development, the body drastically prunes back the excess--cutting the branches from nerve cell bodies, known as axons, as well as entire neurons.

Stemming the flow: Stem cell study reveals how Parkinson's spreads

Stem cell research published today offers up new clues as to how Parkinson's spreads from cell to cell, a process which has evaded researchers for decades.

The research, published in Stem Cell Reports, is the first to link the release of alpha synuclein, a naturally occurring protein that plays a central role in the development of Parkinson's, with its most common genetic risk factor - GBA-1 - shedding new light on its role in the progression of the devastating neurological condition and its symptoms.