Newsline — Thursday, July 31, 2014 13:19
Antipsychotic Drugs Linked to Slight Decrease in Brain Volume
High School Lacrosse Players at Risk for Concussions, Other Injuries
Wednesday, July 30, 2014 16:30
According to a new study recently published online by The American Journal of Sports Medicine, researchers found that high school players experienced 1,406 injuries over the 2008-2012 academic years, with an overall injury rate of 20 per 10,000 lacrosse competitions and practices. More than 22 percent of those injuries were concussions. The study is the first to use a large national sample of United States high schools to compare lacrosse injuries by type of athletic activity and gender. The researchers found that while the rules for girls’ lacrosse largely prohibit person-to-person contact, almost 25 percent of concussions in girls’ lacrosse were a result of that kind of contact. Another 63 percent of concussions resulted from being struck by lacrosse sticks or balls. Moreover, most high school girls’ lacrosse players are only required to use protective eyewear and mouth guards, not helmets boys are required to wear. Boys sustained 67 percent of the total injuries, and boys had a higher overall injury rate than girls; about 22 percent of boys’ injuries were concussions. Person-to-person contact, which…
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Study: Potential Genetic Link Between Epilepsy, Neurodegenerative Disorders
Wednesday, July 30, 2014 13:41
A recent scientific discovery showed that mutations in prickle genes cause epilepsy; however, the mechanism responsible for generating prickle-associated seizures was unknown. A new University of Iowa study, recently published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, identified the basic cellular mechanism that goes awry in prickle mutant flies, leading to the epilepsy-like seizures. Researchers showed that seizure-prone prickle mutant flies have behavioral defects and electrophysiological defects similar to other fly mutants used to study seizures. The researchers also demonstrated that altering the balance of two forms of the prickle gene disrupts neural information flow and causes epilepsy. Further, they demonstrate that reducing either of two motor proteins responsible for directional movement of vesicles along tracks of structural proteins in axons can suppress the seizures. “This is to our knowledge the first direct genetic evidence demonstrating that mutations in the fly version of a known human epilepsy gene produce seizures through altered vesicle transport,” says senior author John Manak. This new epilepsy pathway was previously shown to be involved in neurodegenerative diseases,…
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Stress Hormones Promote Brain’s Building of Negative Memories
Tuesday, July 29, 2014 13:00
When a person experiences a devastating loss or tragic event, why does every detail seem burned into memory; whereas, a host of positive experiences simply fade away? According to a study recently published in Neuroscience, it’s a bit more complicated than scientists originally thought. When people experience a traumatic event, the body releases two major stress hormones: norepinephrine and cortisol. In the brain, norepinephrine functions as a powerful neurotransmitter that can enhance memory, while research on cortisol has demonstrated that it can also have a powerful effect on strengthening memories. However, studies in humans up until now have been inconclusive – with cortisol sometimes enhancing memory while at other times having no effect. A key factor in whether cortisol has an effect on strengthening certain memories may rely on activation of norepinephrine during learning, a finding previously reported in studies with rats. This study demonstrated that human memory enhancement functions in a similar way. What researchers found was that “negative experiences are more readily remembered when an event is traumatic enough to release cortisol after…
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Many of Ontario’s Female Prisoners Enter Correctional System with TBI
Tuesday, July 29, 2014 9:00
A study recently published the Journal of Correctional Health Care found that almost 40 percent of Ontario female prisoners have a history of traumatic brain injury (TBI). Unlike the men participating in the study, half of these women sustained a TBI before committing their first crime. “We observed a striking gender difference. Female inmates with a TBI, compared to males, were much more likely to have suffered physical or sexual abuse as children,” said Dr. Angela Colantonio, Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Research Chair in Gender, Work, and Health, University of Toronto. “Our research suggests the need to screen offenders and others with a history of abuse for TBI.” To learn more about the study, click here.
Monitoring Pulse After Stroke May Prevent a Second Stroke
Monday, July 28, 2014 16:30
New research suggests that regularly monitoring your pulse after a stroke may be a simple, effective first step in detecting irregular heartbeat. For the study, recently published online in Neurology, 256 people who had experienced acute ischemic stroke and their relatives were given instructions on measuring the pulse to detect irregular heartbeat. The measurements taken from the participants and health care professionals were then compared to a recording of electrical activity in the heart, which showed that 57 of the participants had irregular heartbeats. The study found that pulse measurement taken by health care professionals had a sensitivity of nearly 97 percent and a specificity of 94 percent in detecting irregular heartbeats. For patients’ relatives, the sensitivity was 77 percent and the specificity was 93 percent, while for patients taking their own measurements, 89 percent performed reliable measurements with a sensitivity of 54 percent and specificity of 96 percent. To learn more about the study, click here.
Novel Technologies Advance Brain Surgery
Monday, July 28, 2014 13:44
Neurosurgeons at University of California (UC) San Diego Health System have integrated advanced 3D imaging, computer simulation and next-generation surgical tools to perform a highly complex brain surgery through a small incision to remove deep-seated tumors. Describing the preparation for this minimally invasive approach, Clark C. Chen, MD, PhD, FAANS, UC San Diego Health System, said, “We visualized [the neural] fibers with restriction spectrum imaging, a proprietary technology developed at UC San Diego. Color-coded visualization of the tracts allows us to plot the safest path to the tumor.” After surgery planning, a 2-inch incision was made near the patient’s hairline, followed by a quarter-sized hole in the skull. The surgery was carried out through a thin tube-like retractor that created a narrow path to the tumor. Aided by a robotic arm and high-resolution cameras, the team was able to safely remove two tumors within millimeter precision. “What we are seeing is a new wave of advances in minimally invasive surgery for patients with brain cancer,” said Bob Carter, MD, PhD, FAANS, professor and chief of…
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Genetic Dysfunction Connected to Hydrocephalus Discovered
Friday, July 25, 2014 16:30
A study, recently published online in the journal Neuron, demonstrated how the domino effect of one genetic error can contribute to hydrocephalus. “Most of the time, hydrocephalus is caused by some sort of physical blockage of the flow of cerebrospinal fluid … We demonstrated instead that malfunction of specific genes — the Dishevelleds (Dvl genes) — triggered hydrocephalus in our mouse models. These genes regulate the precise placement and alignment of cilia within ependymal cells that move cerebrospinal fluid throughout the brain,” said Wynshaw-Boris, MD, PhD, of Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. The work in mice demonstrated how normal versus Dvl-deficient mice fared in terms of cilia function: The Dvl-deficient mice featured cilia that were disorganized and placed incorrectly and because their polarity was disrupted, and in turn, smooth fluid flow was missing. The organization of ependymal cells, the numbers of basal bodies and cilia, and the frequency of cilia movement were normal in these Dvl-deficient mice, but the polarities in the arrangement of cilia within and between ependymal cells were defective, due…
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Hidden Variations in Neural Circuits May Explain Differences in TBI Outcomes
Friday, July 25, 2014 13:00
A team of researchers at the Neuroscience Institute at Georgia State University has discovered that hidden differences in the properties of neural circuits can account for whether animals are behaviorally susceptible to brain injury. The researchers used a unique research animal, a sea slug called Tritonia diomedea, for the study because unlike humans, it has a small number of neurons and its behavior is simple. Yet, despite this simplicity, the animals varied in how neurons were connected. Under normal conditions, this variability did not matter to the animals’ behavior, but when a major pathway in the brain was severed, some of the animals showed little behavioral deficit, while others could not produce the behavior being studied. Moreover, the researchers could artificially rewire the neural circuit using computer-generated connections and make animals susceptible or invulnerable to the injury. To learn more about this study, recently published in eLife, click here.
Biomarker Predicts Effectiveness of Brain Cancer Treatment
Thursday, July 24, 2014 14:36
Findings from a recent study conducted by researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine identified a new biomarker that predicts whether glioblastoma will respond to chemotherapy. “Every patient diagnosed with glioblastoma is treated with a chemotherapy called temozolomide. About 15 percent of these patients derive long-lasting benefit,” said the study’s lead investigator. “All therapies involve risk and the possibility of side effects. Patients should not undergo therapies if there’s no likelihood of benefit.” To pinpoint which patients were most likely to respond to temozolomide, the researchers studied microRNAs that control the expression of a proteins called methyl-guanine-methyl-transferase, or MGMT, which dampens the cancer-killing effect of temozolomide. The study showed that a signature of the MGMT-regulating microRNAs predicted temozolomide response in a cohort of glioblastoma patients, establishing a foundation for microRNAs-based therapies to increase the efficacy of temozolomide. To read more about this study, click here.