We're entering the era of big neuroscience. In a little over a year, the United States, Europe, Japan and Israel have launched brain research projects with big budgets and bold ambitions. Several other countries are expected to follow suit. But what has propelled neuroscience to the vanguard, and what impact will these initiatives have on the field?
Brain
For nearly three decades, researchers have pondered the Hispanic Mortality Paradox -- why Hispanics in the U.S. tend to outlive non-Hispanic whites by several years, despite having, in general, lower income and educational attainment levels that are associated with shorter lives.
Garcia-Munoz and Lopez-Huerta looked for the extrasynaptic receptors' purpose by first targeting slices of brain. The slices they used connected the striatum, part of the brain involved in movement, to the cortex, which they knew signals to the striatum. However, when they tried to provoke the striatum by stimulating the cortex, the striatal neurons were silent. Next, they added the neurotransmitter NMDA to the brain slice, where NMDA would interact with both synaptic and extrasynaptic receptors.
WASHINGTON (Nov. 16, 2014) -- New research points to malfunctioning tau, not amyloid-beta (Abeta) plaque, as the seminal event that spurs neuron death in disorders such as Alzheimer's disease. The lead Georgetown neuroscientist investigating the work explains the finding and the potential of an already approved drug in mediating the problem at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, Tuesday, Nov. 18, 8:15 a.m. in room WCC152A.
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Two or more serious hits to the head within days of each other can interfere with the brain's ability to use sugar - its primary energy source - to repair cells damaged by the injuries, new research suggests.
The brain's ability to use energy is critical after an injury. In animal studies, Ohio State University scientists have shown that brain cells ramp up their energy use six days after a concussion to recover from the damage. If a second injury occurs before that surge of energy use starts, the brain loses its best chance to recover.
Researchers working on artificial intelligence at Queen Mary University of London have taught a computer to create magic tricks.
The researchers gave a computer program the outline of how a magic jigsaw puzzle and a mind reading card trick work, as well the results of experiments into how humans understand magic tricks, and the system created completely new variants on those tricks which can be delivered by a magician.
Long-term overtreatment with the anti-clotting drug warfarin, combined with antiplatelet therapy with aspirin or clopidigrel to prevent stroke, may raise the risk of dementia in people with atrial fibrillation, according to research presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2014.
Atrial fibrillation is a common heart rhythm abnormality that raises the risk of stroke and all common forms of dementia. The mechanisms behind the association of atrial fibrillation and dementia are unknown.
WASHINGTON -- Neuroscientists at Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC) are zeroing in on brain factors and behaviors that put teens at risk of alcohol use and abuse even before they start drinking.
MIAMI -- A chemotherapy regimen consisting of procarbazine, CCNU, and vincristine (PCV) administered following radiation therapy improved progression-free survival and overall survival in adults with low-grade gliomas, a form of brain cancer, when compared to radiation therapy alone. The findings were part of the results of a Phase III clinical trial presented today at the Society for Neuro-Oncology's 19th Annual Meeting in Miami by the study's primary author Jan Buckner, M.D., deputy director, practice, at Mayo Clinic Cancer Center.
Baltimore, Md., November 14, 2014--Most research on spinal cord injuries has focused on effects due to spinal cord damage and scientists have neglected the effects on brain function. University of Maryland School of Medicine (UM SOM) researchers have found for the first time that spinal cord injuries (SCI) can cause widespread and sustained brain inflammation that leads to progressive loss of nerve cells, with associated cognitive problems and depression.
Devavrat Shah's group at MIT's Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems (LIDS) specializes in analyzing how social networks process information. In 2012, the group demonstrated algorithms that could predict what topics would trend on Twitter up to five hours in advance; this year, they used the same framework to predict fluctuations in the prices of the online currency known as Bitcoin.
This news release is available in German.
For their study, the scientists investigated diseased nerve cells using high precision methods and subsequently simulated their electrical properties on the computer. In their view, medical interventions that preserve the structural integrity of neurons may constitute an innovative strategy for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases.
LEXINGTON, Ky (Nov. 13, 2014) -- A multi-institutional study has defined and established criteria for a new neurological disease closely resembling Alzheimer's disease called primary age-related tauopathy (PART). Patients with PART develop cognitive impairment that can be indistinguishable from Alzheimer's disease, but they lack amyloid plaques. Awareness of this neurological disease will help doctors diagnose and develop more effective treatments for patients with different types of memory impairment.
Who would have thought a Sesame Street video starring the Cookie Monster, of all characters, could teach preschoolers self-control?
But that's exactly what Deborah Linebarger, an associate professor in Teacher and Learning at the University of Iowa, found when she studied a group of preschoolers who repeatedly watched videos of Cookie Monster practicing ways to control his desire to eat a bowl of chocolate chip cookies.
"Me want it," Cookie Monster sings in one video, "but me wait."