Newsline — Thursday, January 10, 2013 13:00
Taking Beta Blocker Blood Pressure Drugs May Reduce Risk of Dementia
Scientists Examine Effects of ‘Your Brain on Big Bird’
Thursday, January 10, 2013 8:00
In examining brain scans of children and adults watching the popular PBS show “Sesame Street,” cognitive scientists are learning how the brain changes as people develop intellectual abilities such as reading and math. The novel use of brain imaging during everyday activities like watching TV, the scientists say, opens the door to studying other thought processes in naturalistic settings and may one day help to diagnose and treat learning disabilities. For more information, click here to read the full release.
American Medical Society for Sports Medicine Releases Position Statement on Sport-Related Concussions
Wednesday, January 9, 2013 13:00
Athletes with concussions must be held out of practice or play until all symptoms have resolved in order to avoid risk of further injury during the vulnerable period before the brain has recovered — That’s one of the key recommendations of the new American Medical Society for Sports Medicine (AMSSM) position statement on concussions in sports, which appears in the January issue of the Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine. At a time of increased concern over concussions at all levels of competition — from youth sports to professional leagues — the position statement “provides an evidence-based, best practices summary to assist physicians with the evaluation and management of sports concussion,” according to the AMSSM. For more information, click here to read the full release.
Study Finds No Evidence of Cognitive Impairment in Most Former NFL Players
Wednesday, January 9, 2013 8:00
A study led by the Center for BrainHealth at The University of Texas at Dallas examining the neuropsychological status of former National Football League (NFL) players has found that cognitive deficits and depression are more common among retired players than in the general population. However, researchers from both the Center for BrainHealth and The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center say that their study, available online in JAMA Neurology, also is significant for what it did not find: evidence of cognitive impairment in the majority of ex-players. Many former NFL players who took part in our study, even those with extensive concussion histories, are healthy and cognitively normal,” according to John Hart Jr. MD, medical science director at the Center for BrainHealth and director of the BrainHealth Institute for Athletes that was created to address the long-term effects of sports-related traumatic brain injuries. “In 60 percent of our participants — most of whom had sustained prior concussions — we found no cognitive problems, no mood problems and no structural brain abnormalities. Many former NFL players…
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Genes Linked to Alzheimer’s, Mental Illness Found in Newborn Brain Scans
Tuesday, January 8, 2013 13:00
Some brain changes found in adults with common gene variants linked to disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia, and autism also can be seen in the brain scans of newborns. “These results suggest that prenatal brain development may be a very important influence on psychiatric risk later in life,” says Rebecca C. Knickmeyer, PhD, lead author of the study and assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. Research results were published in the Jan. 3, 2013, edition of the journal Cerebral Cortex. For more information, click here to read the full release.
Johns Hopkins Research Refutes Old Model of Long-Term Memory Formation
Tuesday, January 8, 2013 9:11
A study by Johns Hopkins researchers has shown that a widely accepted model of long-term memory formation hinging on a single enzyme in the brain is flawed. The new study, published in the Jan. 2, 2013, issue of Nature, found that mice lacking the enzyme that purportedly builds memory were still able to form long-term memories, just as well as normal mice could. “The prevailing theory is that when you learn something, you strengthen connections between your brain cells called synapses,” explains Richard Huganir, PhD., a professor and director of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine’s Department of Neuroscience. “The question is, how exactly does this strengthening happen?” For more information, click here to read the full release.
Rainfall Linked to Brain Infection in Sub-Saharan Africa
Monday, January 7, 2013 13:00
The amount of rainfall affects the number of infant infections leading to hydrocephalus in Uganda, Africa, according to a team of researchers who are the first to demonstrate that these brain infections are linked to climate. Hydrocephalus — which translates, literally, as “water on the brain” — is characterized by the build-up of the fluid that normally is found within and surrounding the brain, leading to brain swelling. The swelling will cause brain damage or death if not treated. Even if treated, there is only a one-third chance of a child maintaining a normal life after post-infectious hydrocephalus develops, and that chance is dependent on whether the child has received the best treatment possible. “The most common need for a child to require neurosurgery around the world is hydrocephalus,” says research team member Steven J. Schiff, the Brush Chair Professor of Engineering and director of the Penn State Center for Neural Engineering. In sub-Saharan Africa, upward of 100,000 cases of post-infectious hydrocephalus a year are estimated to occur. The majority of these cases happen after a newborn…
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Electrical Stimulation of Brain Releases Powerful, Opiate-Like Painkiller
Monday, January 7, 2013 8:00
Researchers have used electricity on certain regions in the brain of a patient with chronic, severe facial pain to release an opiate-like substance that’s considered one of the body’s most powerful painkillers. Their findings expand on prior work done at the University of Michigan, Harvard University and the City University of New York, where researchers delivered electricity through sensors on the skulls of chronic migraine patients, and found a decrease in the intensity and pain of their headache attacks. However, they couldn’t completely explain how or why. The current study helps explain what happens in the brain that decreases pain during the brief sessions of electricity, according to Alexandre DaSilva, assistant professor of biologic and materials sciences at the U-M School of Dentistry and director of the school’s Headache & Orofacial Pain Effort Lab. For more information, click here to read the full release.
American Medical Association Warns Doctors about ‘Divided Loyalty’
Friday, January 4, 2013 12:21
With hospitals buying up medical practices around the country and seeking to make the most of their investment, the American Medical Association (AMA) reached out to doctors in December to remind them that patient welfare must always come first and not be overridden by the economic interests of hospitals that now employ doctors in ever-growing numbers, according to The New York Times. “In any situation where the economic or other interests of the employer are in conflict with patient welfare, patient welfare must take priority,” says a policy statement adopted by the association. “A physician’s paramount responsibility is to his or her patients,” the association said. At the same time, it added, a doctor “owes a duty of loyalty to his or her employer,” and “this divided loyalty can create conflicts of interest, such as financial incentives to over- or under-treat patients.” For more information, click here to read the full article.
Study Shows Early Cognitive Problems in Eventual Alzheimer’s Patients
Friday, January 4, 2013 8:00
Researchers who study or treat Alzheimer’s disease and its earliest clinical stage, mild cognitive impairment (MCI), have focused attention on the obvious short-term memory problems. However, a new study suggests that people on the road to Alzheimer’s actually may have problems early on in processing semantic or knowledge-based information, which could have much broader implications for how patients function in their lives. Terry Goldberg, PhD, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral science at the Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine and director of neurocognition at the Litwin Zucker Center for Research in Alzheimer’s Disease and Memory Disorders at The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research in Manhasset, NY, says that clinicians have observed other types of cognitive problems in MCI patients, but no one had ever studied it in a systematic way. Many experts had taken note of individuals who seemed perplexed by even the simplest task. In this latest study, which appears in this month’s issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry, investigators used a clever series of tests to measure a person’s ability to…
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