Newsline — Tuesday, April 8, 2014 13:00
Study of Mental Health Risk in Army Personnel Releases Findings
Brain Circuits Multitask to Discriminate Sensory Input
Tuesday, April 8, 2014 9:00
Research recently published in the journal Neuron found that the neural circuits in the brain rapidly multitask between detecting and discriminating sensory input, such as determining whether or not headlights from a vehicle in the distance are from a car or a motorcycle. The distance at which a person can discern two headlights from a single light is controlled by the acuity of the brain’s sensory pathway. Previously, neuroscientists assumed that the level of one’s acuity is controlled by the distance between areas in the brain that are triggered by the sensory input. It was believed that if these two areas of the brain closely overlap, then two sensory inputs (two headlights in the distance) will appear as one. During the study, for the first time, researchers used animal models and optical imaging to directly assess how acuity is controlled in the brain, as well as how acuity can adapt to the task at hand. The results from the mouse study found that pathways in the brain have the ability to switch between doing different kinds…
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Pre-hospital Alerts Allow Stroke Patients to Skip Emergency Room
Monday, April 7, 2014 13:00
According to a recent report published in the journal Neurosurgery, pre-hospital stroke alerts given by emergency medical services (EMS) personnel can shorten the time stroke patients wait for treatment with clot-busting drugs, allowing them to bypass the emergency room and undergo immediate computed tomography (CT) scanning. In this new approach, specialists gave EMS personnel special training in identifying stroke patients, allowing them to later send a pre-notification to the hospital letting the team know that a potential stroke patient would be arriving. The EMS personnel would then bring the patient directly to the CT suite (skipping the emergency room altogether), who would be met by the neurological emergency team. A quick assessment and CT scan of the brain could confirm a stroke which would allow for clot-busting drugs to be administered immediately, given the appropriate time frame. During the study, on average, CT scans were performed about 12 minutes after the patient arrived at the hospital — compared to 35 minutes without the pre-alert system. To read more about this study, click here.
Blasts May Cause Brain Injury Even Without Symptoms
Monday, April 7, 2014 9:00
According to research from Duke Medicine and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, veterans exposed to explosions who do not report symptoms of traumatic brain injury (TBI) may still have damage to their brain’s white matter, comparable to those with TBI. The findings, published in the Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation, suggest that a lack of clear TBI symptoms following an explosion may not accurately reflect the extent of the brain injury. Similar to sports injuries, if individuals don’t exhibit clear symptoms — such as losing consciousness, blurred vision, or headaches — they assume that they haven’t suffered an injury to the brain. However, evidence is building, particularly revolving around professional athletes, that sub-concussive events also have an effect on the brain. After evaluating 45 veterans who were split into three groups consisting of various blast-exposure levels, results showed that the groups of veterans who were near an explosion (regardless of whether they had TBI symptoms), showed a significant amount of injury compared to the veterans not exposed to a blast. The findings suggest that…
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Brain Research Tracks Internet Safety Performance, Identifies Traits of Those at Risk
Friday, April 4, 2014 13:00
New research from the University of Alabama at Birmingham suggests that users pay more attention to Internet safety than previously assumed. Researchers used a novel methodology to gain new neurological insights into how users face security questions and how their personalities might affect their performance. Many computer-based lab studies focused on user-centered security have concluded that users do not pay attention to security warnings and can be careless when it comes to security endeavors. The research team used functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, to discover what’s happening inside the brains of users as they encounter security questions. Users were given two tasks involving identifying fraudulent replications of popular websites and reading pop-ups that contained either benign information or warnings about malware. Results showed activation in areas of the brain associated with attention, decision-making and problem solving. For both tasks, brain activity was seen, suggesting the participants were not being careless. Additionally, when they were subject to malware warnings, participants took extra effort to make decisions, showing activity in language comprehension areas. However, only about…
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Guideline: Irregular Heartbeats Should be Treated with Blood Thinners
Friday, April 4, 2014 9:00
An updated guideline from the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) recommends that individuals with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation (irregular heartbeat) take anticoagulants (a type of blood thinning pill) to prevent stroke. The World Stroke Organization has endorsed the update, citing that atrial fibrillation is nearing epidemic proportions, with 0.5 percent of the population affected worldwide. Research shows that about one in 20 people with untreated atrial fibrillation will likely have a stroke in the next year. Several new anticoagulant pills have been developed since the AAN’s last guideline, published in 1998, and have been determined to be as effective, if not more effective, than the established treatments. However, doctors will need to consider the individual patient’s situation when making the decision to use anticoagulants, as the risks and benefits can vary for each person. To read more about this study, click here.
Smart Technology Helps Doctors Spot Autism Earlier
Thursday, April 3, 2014 13:00
In an ongoing study, researchers at Florida State University are spearheading a project that will screen infants for autism biomarkers using smart technology (smart phone, tablet, computer, etc.), that can search simultaneously for both autism and communication delays. The project will establish a network of doctors who will ask the parents of every infant they examine to answer 10 online questions designed to identify delays in communication skills. The answers will automatically trigger as many as 20 additional autism-specific questions, which are designed to instantly indicate whether or not the child is at risk so that early intervention can begin as soon as possible. Infants will be screened at 12 months, get an automatic reminder at 18 months, and again at 24 months. Rescreening is necessary because the early signs of autism unfold gradually between nine to 18 months, and screening too early could mean a missed opportunity for early intervention. To read more about this study, click here.
Prenatal Nicotine Exposure May Lead to ADHD in Future Generations
Thursday, April 3, 2014 9:00
According to a new study conducted by researchers at Florida State University College of Medicine, prenatal exposure to nicotine could manifest itself as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children born a generation later. The findings of the study, published in The Journal of Neuroscience, showed how a child’s ADHD could be due to an environmentally-induced health condition inherited from a grandmother who may have smoked cigarettes during pregnancy — even if the child’s mother never smoked. The research suggests that changes in a mother’s genome — whether induced by drugs or by experience — may be permanent and can be transmitted to offspring. ADHD, a neurobehavioral disorder, affects about 10 percent of children and 5 percent of adults in the U.S., and researchers have struggled to produce a definitive scientific explanation for the spike in ADHD diagnoses in the last few decades. Some reports show up to a 40-percent increase in cases of ADHD in one generation. One possible contributing factor, although unproven, is that the spike can be attributed to the large number…
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Do Obesity, Birth Control Pills Raise Risk for Multiple Sclerosis?
Wednesday, April 2, 2014 13:00
The role of the “obesity hormone,” leptin, and hormones used for birth control are examined in relation to the development of multiple sclerosis (MS) in two new studies to be presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 2014 annual meeting. During the obesity study, the body mass index (BMI) was calculated for 210 people with MS and 210 people of the same age and sex who did not have MS, between the ages of 15-20. Researchers found that people who are obese at age 20 are twice as likely to develop MS later in life compared to non-obese people. The study also found that people with high BMI levels also had higher levels of leptin, which promotes inflammatory responses in the body, and could potentially explain the link between obesity and MS. During the birth control hormone study, researchers identified 305 women who had been diagnosed with MS (during a three-year period) and compared them to 3,050 women who did not have MS. A total of 29 percent of the women with MS, and 24…
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Study Examines How Brains Process and Recall Sounds
Wednesday, April 2, 2014 9:00
Researchers at the University of Iowa have found that when it comes to memory, humans don’t remember the things we hear as well as the things we see or touch. Their findings indicate that the human brain may use separate pathways to process information, and that the parts of our brain wired for memory are not completely integrated like we tend to think. Furthermore, the study suggests that the brain may process auditory information differently than visual and tactile information. Results from the study found that when 100 students were exposed to a variety of sounds, visuals and tactile objects, the students were least likely to remember the sounds they had heard. In a second experiment, participants’ memories were tested using things they might encounter on an everyday basis. Students listened to audio recordings of a dog barking, watched silent videos of a basketball game, and touched/held common objects away from view, such as a coffee mug. The researchers found that between one hour and one week later, students were least likely to remember the…
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