Newsline — Tuesday, January 7, 2014 13:00
Study: Concussion Tests’ Marketing Outpaces Scientific Evidence
Shingles Increases Risk of Stroke in Young Adults
Tuesday, January 7, 2014 10:26
According to a new study recently published in an online issue of Neurology, having shingles at a young age may increase the risk of having a stroke years later. People age 18 to 40 who had shingles were more likely to have a stroke, heart attack or transient ischemic attack years later than people who had not had shingles, and in fact, people under 40 years old were 74 percent more likely to have a stroke if they had had shingles, after adjusting for other stroke risk factors. While the numbers were not as large in people over 40, “anyone with shingles, and especially younger people, should be screened for stroke risk factors,” study author Judith Breuer, MD, of University College London. Click here to read the full article.
Human Stem Cells Predict Efficacy of Alzheimer Drugs
Monday, January 6, 2014 9:00
Why do certain Alzheimer medications work in animal models but not in clinical trials in humans? In the brains of Alzheimer patients, deposits form that consist essentially of beta-amyloids and are harmful to nerve cells. Scientists are searching for pharmaceutical compounds that prevent their formation. In animal models, certain non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) were found to reduce formation of harmful beta-amyloid variants; however, in subsequent clinical studies, these NSAIDs failed to elicit any beneficial effects. Using reprogrammed patient neurons for drug testing, researchers found that “[in] order to predict the efficacy of Alzheimer drugs, such tests have to be performed directly on the affected human nerve cells,” concludes Dr. Philipp Koch of the University of Bonn, who led the study. Click here to read the full article.
Laughing Gas Studied as Depression Treatment
Sunday, January 5, 2014 13:00
Researchers have published a study in the journal Biological Psychiatry, reporting a successful attempt at treating depression using nitrous oxide. Researchers administered both standard doses of nitrous oxide and a placebo gas to 20 participants with treatment-resistant depression, who then were screened for severity of symptoms two hours after treatment, with a follow-up screening the next day. Two-thirds of those treated with nitrous oxide reported relieved symptoms, in some anecdotal cases this effect lasted over a week. Comparatively, one-third of those given the placebo gas reported improved symptoms. “Although some patients also reported feeling better after breathing the placebo gas, it was clear that the overall pattern observed was that nitrous oxide improved depression above and beyond the placebo. Most patients who improved reported that they felt better only two hours after treatment with nitrous oxide. That compares with at least two weeks for typical oral antidepressants to exert their beneficial, antidepressant effects,” said the lead researcher. To learn more about this study, click here.
Study Provides Insight Into How the Brain Processes Shape and Color
Friday, January 3, 2014 13:21
A new study comparing brain responses to faces and objects with responses to colors reveals new information about how the brain’s inferior temporal cortex processes information. The study used non-invasive fMRI to measure responses across the brains of rhesus monkeys to a range of different stimuli and obtained responses to images of objects, faces, places and colored stripes. “Shape and color are both properties of objects and are processed by the parts of the brain known to be important for detecting and discriminating objects. However, the way this part of brain is organized has not been clear … ,” Bevil Conway, Wellesley Associate Professor of Neuroscience and one of the paper’s authors, said. “Our work showed that, to a large extent, color and faces are handled by separate, parallel streams, and that these pieces of information are processed by connected, serial stages.” Click here to read the full article.
Brain Connections May Explain Why Girls Mature Faster
Friday, January 3, 2014 9:10
As the brain reorganizes connections throughout its life, the process begins earlier in girls, scientists at Newcastle University have found, which may explain why girls mature faster. Studying people up to the age of 40, the researchers discovered that while overall connections in the brain get streamlined, long-distance connections crucial for integrating information are preserved. This newly-discovered selective process might explain why brain function does not deteriorate -– and instead improves –- during this reorganization. Interestingly, the scientists also found that these changes occurred earlier in females than in males. Click here to read the full article.
Discovery About Brain Protein Could Impact Treatment for Anxiety, Trauma
Thursday, January 2, 2014 14:17
Researchers have found that the protein PC7 plays a critical role in specific areas of the brain, such as the hippocampus and amygdala, and affects certain types of cognitive performance, such as anxiety, learning and emotional memory. Testing on mice lacking PC7 revealed that although spatial memory remained intact, episodic and emotional memories were severely impaired, and that they also had lower levels of the protein BDNF. The study further showed that a lack of PC7 creates an excess of dopamine in the brain, which ultimately means that “[this] discovery could be very significant for a number of conditions related to anxiety and trauma, such as bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder.” Click here to read the full article.
Even Without a Concussion, Blows to Head May Affect Brain
Thursday, January 2, 2014 9:00
New research reported in a recent online issue of Neurology suggests that even in the absence of a concussion, blows to the head during a single season of football or ice hockey may affect the brain’s white matter and cognition. The concussion-free contact and non-contact sport athletes involved in the study were assessed before and shortly after the season with brain scans and learning and memory tests. “We found differences in the white matter of the brain in these college contact sport athletes compared to non-contact sport varsity athletes,” said study author Thomas W. McAllister, MD. Click here to read the full article.
Heavy Marijuana Users Have Abnormal Brain Structure
Monday, December 30, 2013 9:00
Abusing marijuana appears to foster brain changes that resemble schizophrenia, according to a recent Northwestern Medicine study. Teens who were heavy marijuana users — smoking it daily for about three years — had abnormal changes in their brain structures related to working memory and performed poorly on memory tasks, the report revealed. Published in Schizophrenia Bulletin, the study noted that the brain abnormalities and memory problems were observed two years after the individuals had stopped smoking marijuana, indicating the possible long-term effects of chronic use, and that marijuana-related brain abnormalities look similar to schizophrenia-related brain abnormalities. Moreover, the younger the individuals were when they started chronically using marijuana, the more abnormally their brain regions were shaped. “This paper is among the first to reveal that the use of marijuana may contribute to the changes in brain structure that have been associated with having schizophrenia,” said co-senior study author John Csernansky, MD. Click here to read the full article.
Poverty Influences Early Brain Development
Friday, December 27, 2013 13:00
Published in PLOS ONE, a recent study from the University of Wisconsin–Madison has shown that poverty impacts children’s early brain development. By age 4, children in families living with incomes under 200 percent of the federal poverty line have less gray matter than kids growing up in families with higher incomes. Researchers used brain scans every few months from shortly after birth until age 4 to assess development; the scans revealed developmental lags in the parietal and frontal regions in children from poor families. “This is an important link between poverty and biology. We’re watching how poverty gets under the skin,” says Barbara Wolfe, professor of economics, population health sciences and public affairs and one of the authors of the study. Click here to read the full article.