50 years after valproate was first discovered, research published today in the journal Neurobiology of Disease, reports how the drug works to block seizure progression.
Valproate (variously labelled worldwide as Epilim, Depacon, Depakene, Depakote, Orlept, Episenta, Orfiril, and Convulex) is one of the world's most highly prescribed treatments for epilepsy. It was first discovered to be an effective treatment for epilepsy, by accident, in 1963 by a group of French scientists.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass-- After suffering a traumatic brain injury, patients are often placed in a coma to give the brain time to heal and allow dangerous swelling to dissipate. These comas, which are induced with anesthesia drugs, can last for days. During that time, nurses must closely monitor patients to make sure their brains are at the right level of sedation — a process that MIT's Emery Brown describes as "totally inefficient."
Putting patients with severe head injuries or persistent seizures into a medically induced coma currently requires that a nurse or other health professional constantly monitor the patient's brain activity and manually adjust drug infusion to maintain a deep state of anesthesia. Now a computer-controlled system developed by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators promises to automate the process, making it more precise and efficient and opening the door to more advanced control of anesthesia.
Many animals have highly developed senses, such as vision in carnivores, touch in mice, and hearing in bats. New research from the RIKEN Brain Science Institute has uncovered a brain molecule that can explain the existence of such finely-tuned sensory capabilities, revealing how brain cells responsible for specific senses are positioned to receive incoming sensory information.
In a new study, researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden show that the scar tissue formed by stem cells after a spinal cord injury does not impair recovery; in fact, stem cell scarring confines the damage. The findings, which are published in the scientific journal Science, indicate that scar tissue prevents the lesion from expanding and helps injured nerve cells survive.
Our vision depends on exquisitely organized layers of cells within the eye's retina, each with a distinct role in perception. Johns Hopkins researchers say they have taken an important step toward understanding how those cells are organized to produce what the brain "sees." Specifically, they report identification of a gene that guides the separation of two types of motion-sensing cells, offering insight into how cellular layering develops in the retina, with possible implications for the brain's cerebral cortex. A report on the discovery is published in the Nov.
Researchers at Johns Hopkins say they have found that a gene already implicated in human speech disorders and epilepsy is also needed for vocalizations and synapse formation in mice. The finding, they say, adds to scientific understanding of how language develops, as well as the way synapses — the connections among brain cells that enable us to think — are formed. A description of their experiments appears in Science Express on Oct. 31.
Irvine, Calif., Oct. 31, 2013 — As growing numbers of America's baby boomers reach retirement, neuroscientists are expanding their efforts to understand and treat one of the leading health issues affecting this population: age-related neurological deterioration, including stroke and dementia.
Véronique Bohbot, PhD, neuroscientist at the Douglas Mental Health University Institute, found that the region of the brain involved in stimulus-response learning is directly linked to the consumption of alcohol, tobacco and drugs. More specifically, she discovered that people who resorted to stimulus-response learning smoked more, had double the consumption of alcohol and were more likely to use cannabis. Her findings have been published in the most recent issue of Hippocampus.
Vallortigara doesn't think that the dogs are necessarily intending to communicate those emotions to other dogs. Rather, he says, the bias in tail wagging is likely the automatic byproduct of differential activation of the left versus the right side of the brain. But that's not to say that the bias in wagging and its response might not find practical uses; veterinarians and dog owners might do well to take note.
Real estate agents emphasize location, location, and – once more for good measure – location. It's the same in a developing brain, where billions of neurons vie for premium property to make connections. Neurons that stake out early claims often land the best value, even if they don't develop the property until later.
A study by researchers from the Universities of Liverpool and Manchester has identified ways to improve how older people and ethnic minority populations access mental health care services.
As part of the 'Improving Access to Mental Health in Primary Care' programme, researchers sought to identify why two underserved groups, in four areas of Liverpool and Manchester, had not been using mental health services and what measures could be taken to address this.
A patient in a seemingly vegetative state, unable to move or speak, showed signs of attentive awareness that had not been detected before, a new study reveals. This patient was able to focus on words signalled by the experimenters as auditory targets as successfully as healthy individuals. If this ability can be developed consistently in certain patients who are vegetative, it could open the door to specialised devices in the future and enable them to interact with the outside world.
A team of 22 scientists from 11 research institutes led by Professor Bazbek Davletov, now at the University of Sheffield, created and characterised a new molecule that was able to alleviate hypersensitivity to inflammatory pain.
The work is featured on the cover of the October 2013 issue of the scientific journal Bioconjugate Chemistry.
The incidence of shoulder pain post stroke was high. Thus, it is clinically significant to study the onset characteristics and pain management. Yi Zhu and colleagues from Nanjing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, China retrospectively investigated the characteristics of hemiplegic shoulder pain post stroke in patients from Nanjing, China, and discussed risk factors for hemiplegic shoulder pain post stroke and curative effects of different pain management treatment methods.