Newsline — Friday, September 12, 2014 9:00
Neurological Basis Found for Honesty and Lying Tradeoff
Study Reveals How the Brain Processes Color and Motion
Thursday, September 11, 2014 13:00
In a recent study conducted by the University of Chicago, scientists have identified a brain region that appears central to perceiving the combination of color and motion. They discovered a unique population of neurons that shift in sensitivity toward different colors and directions depending on what is being attended — the red jersey of a football player headed toward an end zone, for example. The study sheds light on a fundamental neurological process that is a key step in the biology of attention. “Most of the objects in any given visual scene are not that important, so how does the brain select or attend to important ones?” said that study’s senior author. “We’ve zeroed in on an area of the brain that appears central to this process. It does this in a very flexible way, changing moment by moment depending on what is being looked for.” To investigate this process, the research team studied the response of individual neurons during a simple task, viewing a rapid series of images with different colors and dots moving…
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Study Finds Patients with A-fib at Higher Dementia Risk
Thursday, September 11, 2014 9:00
In a new study conducted by the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute in Salt Lake City, researchers found that atrial fibrillation patients who are on blood thinning medications are at higher risk of developing dementia if their doses are not in the optimal recommended range. The study of more than 2,600 A-fib patients found they are significantly more likely to develop dementia when using medicines to prevent blood clots, such as warfarin, when their dosing is too high or too low for an extended period of time. “Most patients who develop atrial fibrillation require the use of an anticoagulant to prevent a stroke. The most common anticoagulant used worldwide is warfarin, and we now know that if warfarin doses are consistently too high or too low, one of the long-term consequences can be brain damage,” said the director of electrophysiology research at Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute. “This points to the possibility that dementia in atrial fibrillation patients is partly due to small repetitive clots and/or bleeds in the brain.” To read more about this…
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Astrocytes Prepare the Brain to Shift Focus
Wednesday, September 10, 2014 13:00
In a new study conducted by Johns Hopkins University, researchers found that the star-shaped brain cells surrounding a mouse’s neurons (astrocytes) can monitor and respond to nearby neural activity, but only after being activated by the fight-or-flight chemical norepinephrine. Additionally, because astrocytes can alter the activity of neurons, the findings suggest that astrocytes may help control the brain’s ability to focus. “Astrocytes are among the most abundant cells in the brain, but we know very little about how they are controlled and how they contribute to brain function,” says the professor of neuroscience who led the study. “Since memory formation and other important functions of the brain require a state of attention, we’re interested in learning more about how astrocytes help create that state.” The ability to study astrocyte network activity in animals as they do different things will help to reveal how these cells contribute to brain function. To read more about this study, click here.
Kidney Stones Linked to Increased Risk of Stroke
Wednesday, September 10, 2014 9:00
In a recent study published in the American Journal of Kidney Disease, researchers found kidney stones were associated with a modestly elevated risk for coronary heart disease (CHD) and stroke, especially among women. A history of kidney stones was associated with a 19% greater risk for CHD across six cohort studies and a 40% greater risk for stroke across three cohorts. In pooled results, women showed a statistically significant increased risk for myocardial infarction, while men did not. “Our study suggests that kidney stones might be an important contributor to the risk of vascular events, the potential mechanisms for the findings may be related to metabolic disturbances,” researchers noted, adding that obesity, high blood sugar, high cholesterol and hypertension may contribute to a higher risk of uric acis and calcium stone formation. To read more about this study, click here.
Researchers Demonstrate Direct Brain-to-Brain Communication in Humans
Tuesday, September 9, 2014 14:23
In the first-of-its-kind study, an international team of neuroscientists and robotics engineers have demonstrated the viability of direct brain-to-brain communication in humans. The study, recently published in PLOS ONE, describes the findings from the successful transmission of information via the Internet between the intact scalps of two human subjects — located 5,000 miles apart. In the neuroscientific equivalent of instant messaging, the international research team successfully transmitted the words “hola” and “ciao” in a computer-mediated brain-to-brain transmission from a location in India to a location in France, using Internet-linked electroencephalogram (EEG) and robot-assisted and image-guided transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) technologies. Previous studies on EEG-base brain-computer interaction (BCI) have typically made use of communication between a human brain and computer. In this study, the researchers added a second human brain on the other end of the system. Using EEG, the research team first translated the greeting “hola” and “ciao” into binary code and then emailed the results from India to France. There, a computer-brain interface transmitted the message to the receiver’s brain through non-invasive brain stimulation….
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Potassium Tied to Lower Stroke Risk
Tuesday, September 9, 2014 9:00
A data analysis from the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) recently found an inverse relationship between self-reported dietary potassium intake and stroke in postmenopausal women. The results of the analysis showed that women who consumed the most potassium each day had a 12% lower overall risk of stroke and a 16% lower risk of ischemic stroke when compared with women consuming very little potassium. Additionally, among women without hypertension, those in the highest quartile of reported potassium consumption had a 27 percent lower risk of ischemic stroke than those in the lowest quartile. “Women with hypertension had a lower total mortality risk with higher potassium intake but no lowered risk of stroke, suggesting that higher potassium intake may be of more benefit before hypertension develops,” the researchers noted. “Health care providers, therefore, may wish to reinforce the importance of a potassium-rich diet especially among postmenopausal women.” To read more about this study, click here.
Noise Induced Hearing Loss Alters Brain Responses to Speech
Monday, September 8, 2014 13:00
In a recent study published in Ear and Hearing, researchers from the University of Texas at Dallas demonstrated how noise-induced hearing loss affects the brain’s recognition of speech. Exposure to intensely loud sounds leads to permanent damage of the hair cells, and once damaged, the hair cells do not grow back. “As we have made machine and electronic devices more powerful, the potential to cause permanent damage has grown tremendously,” said the study’s lead author. “Even the smaller MP3 players can reach volume levels that are highly damaging to the ear in a matter of minutes.” To simulate two types of noise trauma that clinical populations face, scientists exposed rats to moderate or intense levels of noise for an hour, with one noise frequency at 115 decibels — inducing moderate hearing loss —and the other at 124 decibels — causing severe hearing loss. Researchers observed how the two types of hearing loss affected speech sound processing in the rats by recording the neuronal response in the auditory cortex a month after noise exposure. In the…
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Gene Variants Increase Spontaneous Brain Bleed Risk
Monday, September 8, 2014 9:00
In a newly published study, researchers found the epsilon-2 and epsilon-4 variants in the gene apolipoprotein E (APOE) were strong risk factors for warfarin-induced intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), independent of the drug effect (used as a blood thinner). APOE is a protein coding gene and its alleles have been linked to several human diseases including hyperlipoproteinemia, Alzheimer’s disease and familial hypercholesterolemia. The epsilon variant within the APOE gene has been shown in earlier research to be an important genetic risk factor for spontaneous ICH. The researchers noted that identification of APOE variants as a risk factor for warfarin-related ICH could enhance existing risk stratification strategies that physicians use when deciding whether to starts patients on anticoagulation therapy. To read more about this study, click here.
Pro-Metastasis Protein Reveals Link to Neurodegeneration
Friday, September 5, 2014 13:00
In a recent study published in the journal Nature, researchers identified a protein that makes breast cancer cells more likely to metastasize. Additionally, the protein appears to trigger cancer’s spread, in part, by blocking two other proteins normally linked to neurodegeneration, a finding that links two of the most common diseases of old age. The protein appears to act as a “master regulator” by blocking tumor suppressor genes, helping to set metastasis in motion. The senior author of the study explained that although the research is in an early stage, learning more about how the process works may allow for new drug treatments that can block the triggering of metastatic disease. “This was a surprising finding, because these genes normally associated with neurodegeneration are now implicated in breast cancer metastasis and progression…It’s interesting that these totally disparate disease processes have a potential molecular link. We don’t know what the means yet,” said the study’s senior author. To read more about this study, click here.