Newsline — Tuesday, February 24, 2015 13:00
Similar Outcomes with Surgical or Nonsurgical Treatment for Spinal Stenosis
Tackle Football Before Age 12 Increases Risk of Memory, Thinking Problems
Monday, February 23, 2015 13:00
According to a recent study published in the journal Neurology, former NFL players who participated in tackle football before the age of 12 were more likely to have memory and thinking problems in adulthood. During the study, researchers tested 42 former NFL players with an average age of 52, all of whom had experienced memory and thinking problems for at least six months. Half of the players participated in tackle football before the age of 12, and half did not. The number of concussions sustained was similar between the two groups. The results of the study found that compared with former NFL players who started football at age 12 or later, former players who started before age 12 performed significantly worse on all test measures, even after researchers took into account the total number of years of football played and the age of the players at the time of the tests. However, researchers were unable to assess the total number of head impacts. “Our study suggests that there may be a critical window of brain development during…
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Aspirin Overused for Primary Prevention of Stroke, Cardiovascular Events
Monday, February 23, 2015 9:00
According to a study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, aspirin is too often used to prevent stroke and other cardiovascular risks in people for whom guidelines suggest no benefit. The study, which examined a national registry of suggested cardiology practices, found 11.6 percent of aspirin use in primary prevention by cardiologists was among people below the recommended six to 10 percent-year baseline risk threshold. That rate ranged from as low as zero percent in some practices to as high at 71 percent in others. The variation across practices was so significant that a patient would be 63-percent more likely to get aspirin inappropriately at one randomly-selected office than an identical patient at another randomly-chosen practice. In patients with low cardiovascular disease risk and no prior events, aspirin use has not been associated with reduced cardiovascular events, noted one of the study’s editors. “In fact, in this primary prevention population, the increased risk of gastrointestinal bleeding and hemorrhagic stroke associate with aspirin use outweighs any potential benefit in cardiovascular risk reduction.” Notably,…
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Facial Motion Activates a Dedicated Network Within the Brain
Friday, February 20, 2015 13:00
Scientists know that two particularly social and visual creatures — humans and rhesus macaque monkeys — have a network of small areas within their brains that become active when shown still images of faces. However, it hasn’t been clear if the same areas are responsible for processing changing expressions and other facial movements. New research, built on the earlier work, found that these face-processing areas — which they call patches — within a macaque’s brain appear to respond selectively to the motion of faces, while reacting much less to other types of motion. “Based on input from the eyes, the brain’s visual system reconstructs reality, a process that starts out with attributes, such as form, motion and color, that the brain then integrates to build meaningful representations of the world,” said a lead researcher. “This work reveals how the macaque face processing system reunites two individual stream of visual information — face form and face motion — as it recreates the social reality of a face as a macaque sees it.” While the system for…
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Psychosis, Gray-matter Loss and the Inflamed Brain
Friday, February 20, 2015 9:00
A long-term MRE study of individuals showing gradual symptoms of psychosis has illustrated a peculiar loss of gray matter in the frontal lobe. This draws further questions regarding the origin of this condition, according to research conducted by Yale University, published in the journal Biological Psychiatry. Researchers recruited 274 individuals at high risk for psychosis, and were given a baseline MRI scan, followed by a follow-up scan either a year later or when full symptoms manifested. Compared to a similarly sized control group, those who developed full psychosis showed a distinct thinning in the prefrontal cortex. Upon further analysis, this condition could not be attributed to the use of antipsychotic drugs, implying that this thinning of the brain is associated directly with psychosis. The lead author of the study suggested, “The findings are also important in showing that markers of proinflammatory cytokines at the baseline assessment predicted the rate of gray matter loss among the individuals who converted to psychosis, suggesting that activation of microglia was involved in the tissue loss. This could mean that psychosis…
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Rheumatologic Diseases Initially Look Like Neurological Disorders
Thursday, February 19, 2015 13:00
According to a recent report published in the journal Current Neurology and Neuroscience Reports, lupus and other rheumatologic diseases can initially present as neurological disorders, such as headaches and seizures, thus delaying diagnosis for many months. Additionally, the research shows that treatments for rheumatologic disorders can cause adverse neurological effects. Lupus can cause heart problems that lead to strokes. More than half of lupus patients suffer headaches, and a third suffer migraines. About 1.5 percent experience “lupus headache,” defined as a persistent, severe and intractable headache that does not respond to narcotic medications. As many as 20 percent experience seizures, and a third experience cognitive dysfunction. As many as 20 percent of lupus patients experience mood disorders. Lupus psychosis, which can include paranoia and hearing voices, can be confused with schizophrenia. Medications for patients with rheumatic disorders include immune-suppressing drugs and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. New medications have expanded treatment options. “However, these treatments also carry a risk of adverse neurological effects,” the author of the study notes. “Therefore, familiarity with neurological manifestations of rheumatologic diseases,…
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Severe Depression Linked to Brain Inflammation
Thursday, February 19, 2015 9:00
According to a new study published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry, clinical depression is associated with a 30 percent increase of inflammation in the brain. The study set out to investigate whether inflammation is a driver of clinical depression independent of other physical illness. Researchers from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health’s (CAMH) Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute in Toronto used PET scans to analyze the brains of 20 participants with depression and 20 healthy control participants. The team closely measured the activation of microglia — immune cells that play a key role in the brain’s inflammatory response. The results of the study showed significant inflammation in the brains of people with depression — with inflammation most severe among the participants experiencing the most severe level of depression. The brains of people who were experiencing clinical depression exhibited an inflammatory increase of 30 percent. The discovery holds important implications for developing potential new treatments for a large number of people who suffer from depression. “It provides a potential new target to either reverse…
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New Eye-tracking Technology Detects Head-injury Severity
Wednesday, February 18, 2015 13:00
In a recent study published in the Journal of Neurotrauma, neuroscientists and concussion experts from NYU Langone Medical Center presented a unique, simple and objective diagnostic tool for concussion that can be utilized in the emergency room or, eventually, on the sidelines at sporting events. The study utilized a novel eye-tracking device to effectively measure the severity of concussion or brain injury in patients following head trauma. Current estimates by optometrists suggest that up to 90 percent of patients with concussions or blast injuries exhibit dysfunction in their eye movements. During the study, researchers compared 64 healthy control participants to 75 who had experienced head trauma that brought them into the emergency room. They tracked and compared the movements of participants’ pupils for over 200 seconds while watching a music video. The results showed that 13 trauma patients who had hit their heads and had CT scans showing new brain damage, as well as 39 trauma patients who had hit their heads and had normal CT scans, had significantly less ability to coordinate their eye…
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Rare Neurological Disease Shines Light on Health of Essential Cells
Wednesday, February 18, 2015 9:00
A veterinary medicine researcher from the University of Wisconsin-Madison has applied research on a genetic central nervous system disorder, Pelizaeus Merzbacher disease (PMD), towards aiding both canine and human patients. By tracking the progress of the disease, it was determined that the disease is characterized by a mutation which causes a lack of myelin within the brain, even if the spinal cord has a healthy supply. This evaded previous methods of testing which were based around the spine. “The brain is acting differently than the spinal cord. It’s striking, on day one there is no myelin. But after some months the spinal cord develops myelin and by two years it is almost normal, but the brain is not, and the lack of myelin is the cause of death.” As a genetic condition, corrective treatment for PMD will most likely require gene therapy targeted at increasing myelin within the brain through means yet to be determined. This discovery will augment treatment research for both human and canine patients of PMD. To learn more about this study,…
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Brain Pathway Offers Potential New Hypoglycemia Treatment
Tuesday, February 17, 2015 13:00
A team of scientists from the University of Michigan Comprehensive Diabetes Center has taken a step forward in understanding how the brain senses low glucose levels and triggers the body’s response, which may accelerate potential new treatments for the disease. During the study, researchers identified a new pathway buried deep within a region of the brain called the parabrachial nucleus, where the hormone cholecystokinin (CCK) acts as a crucial sensor of blood glucose levels. The hormone helps orchestrate responses throughout the body when levels drop too low. “It is remarkable to find that such an incredibly small set of cells in the brain play such an important role in maintaining normal glucose levels,” said the study’s lead author. It’s known that CCK cells in the brain modify things like appetite and anxiety, but they had been previously overlooked in relation to blood-sugar levels. The discovery offers the potential to develop drugs that can target the CCK system, in order to boost defenses against hypoglycemia. To read more about this study, click here.