Brain | Page 560 | Science Codex

Study: Custom-made mouthguards reduce athletes' risk of concussion

CHICAGO (May 1, 2014)—When it comes to buying a mouthguard, parents who want to reduce their child's risk of a sports-related concussion should visit a dentist instead of a sporting goods store.

High school football players wearing store-bought, over-the-counter (OTC) mouthguards were more than twice as likely to suffer mild traumatic brain injures (MTBI)/concussions than those wearing custom-made, properly fitted mouthguards, reports a new study in the May/June 2014 issue of General Dentistry, the peer-reviewed clinical journal of the Academy of General Dentistry (AGD).

Researchers reveal new cause of epilepsy

A team of researchers from SUNY Downstate Medical Center (SUNY Downstate) and Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute (Sanford-Burnham) has found that deficiencies in hyaluronan, also known as hyaluronic acid or HA, can lead to spontaneous epileptic seizures. HA is a polysaccharide molecule widely distributed throughout connective, epithelial, and neural tissues, including the brain's extracellular space (ECS). Their findings, published on April 30 in The Journal of Neuroscience, equip scientists with key information that may lead to new therapeutic approaches to epilepsy.

Study: Low-fat diet helps fatigue in people with MS

PORTLAND, Ore. — People with multiple sclerosis who for one year followed a plant-based diet very low in saturated fat had much less MS-related fatigue at the end of that year — and significantly less fatigue than a control group of people with MS who didn't follow the diet, according to an Oregon Health & Science University study being presented today at the American Academy of Neurology's annual meeting in Philadelphia, Pa.

Human fat: A trojan horse to fight brain cancer?

Johns Hopkins researchers say they have successfully used stem cells derived from human body fat to deliver biological treatments directly to the brains of mice with the most common and aggressive form of brain tumor, significantly extending their lives.

Extreme sleep durations may affect brain health in later life

BOSTON, MA – A new research study led by Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) published in The Journal of the American Geriatrics Society in May, shows an association between midlife and later life sleeping habits with memory; and links extreme sleep durations to worse memory in later life. The study suggests that extreme changes in sleep duration from middle age to older age may also worsen memory function.

Stem cells from teeth can make brain-like cells

University of Adelaide researchers have discovered that stem cells taken from teeth can grow to resemble brain cells, suggesting they could one day be used in the brain as a therapy for stroke.

Dispatcher-assisted CPR increases survival among children

Children who suffer cardiac arrest outside the hospital are more likely to survive and have good brain function if dispatchers instruct bystanders on CPR, according to a large Japanese study published in Journal of the American Heart Association.

MS researchers find brain & cognitive reserve protect long-term against cognitive decline

West Orange, NJ. April 30, 2014. Multiple sclerosis researchers have found that brain reserve and cognitive reserve confer a long-term protective effect against cognitive decline: Sumowski JF, Rocca MA, Leavitt VM, Dackovic J, Mesaros S, Drulovic J, Deluca J, Filippi M. Brain reserve and cognitive reserve protect against cognitive decline over 4.5 years in MS. Neurology. 2014 Apr 18. doi: 10.1212/WNL.0000000000000433 [Epub ahead of print]. James Sumowski, PhD, lead author of the article, and John DeLuca, PhD, are at Kessler Foundation.

In recognizing speech sounds, the brain does not work the way a computer does

How does the brain decide whether or not something is correct? When it comes to the processing of spoken language – particularly whether or not certain sound combinations are allowed in a language – the common theory has been that the brain applies a set of rules to determine whether combinations are permissible. Now the work of a Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigator and his team supports a different explanation – that the brain decides whether or not a combination is allowable based on words that are already known.

Social media users need help to adjust to interface changes

Social media companies that give users a greater sense of control can ease them into interface changes, as well as curb defections to competitors, according to researchers.

"Several studies have looked into how social media companies have failed," said Pamela Wisniewski, a post-doctoral scholar in information sciences and technology, Penn State. "What we need to think about is how social media companies can be more adaptive and how they can improve the longevity of their sites.

Watch out: Children more prone to looking but not seeing

Children under 14 are more likely than adults to be 'blinded' to their surroundings when focusing on simple things, finds a new UCL study. It explains a somewhat frustrating experience familiar to many parents and carers: young children fail to notice their carer trying to get their attention because they have little capacity to spot things outside their area of focus.

Discovery of anti-appetite molecule released by fiber could help tackle obesity

New research has helped unpick a long-standing mystery about how dietary fibre supresses appetite.

In a study led by Imperial College London and the Medical Research Council (MRC), an international team of researchers identified an anti-appetite molecule called acetate that is naturally released when we digest fibre in the gut. Once released, the acetate is transported to the brain where it produces a signal to tell us to stop eating.

The Olig family affects central nervous system development and disease

The oligodendrocyte transcription family (Olig family) is widely expressed in the central nervous system of various mammals, and plays a critical role in central nervous system development by controlling differentiation and maturation of oligodendrocytes, motor neurons and astrocytes. Moreover, accumulating evidence demonstrates Olig family participation in many central nervous system diseases. Therefore, based on current literature, Dr.

7.0T NMR assesses changes in hippocampal neurons in animal models of Alzheimer's disease

Magnetic resonance spectroscopy can quantitatively analyze in vivo abnormalities of biochemical metabolism within brain tissue in a noninvasive and non-radioactive manner. Compared with 3.0T magnetic resonance spectroscopy, high-field magnetic resonance spectroscopy (≥ 7.0T) exhibits high spatial resolution and density resolution, microscopic imaging of the living body, and obtains both high scanning resolution and result precision within a shorter scan time, thus providing a higher value in clinical diagnosis. In a recent study reported in the Neural Regeneration Research (Vol.

Deep brain stimulation for obsessive-compulsive disorder releases dopamine in the brain

Philadelphia, PA, April 30, 2014 – Some have characterized dopamine as the elixir of pleasure because so many rewarding stimuli – food, drugs, sex, exercise – trigger its release in the brain. However, more than a decade of research indicates that when drug use becomes compulsive, the related dopamine release becomes deficient in the striatum, a brain region that is involved in reward and behavioral control.