Newsline — Friday, January 16, 2015 14:32
Neuron Network Tasked with Concentration Identified
Study Finds Key to Protecting Children from Head Trauma
Friday, January 16, 2015 9:00
Research recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine provides evidence that protecting children in advance from head injuries is the key to reducing their severity. The exhaustive analysis, collected from the data of more than 40,000 childhood brain-trauma cases, shows that the most common cause of brain injury among children younger than 12 is falling — typically from a moving bicycle, scooter or other wheeled device. Among U.S. adolescents, the three major causes of brain trauma are automobile accidents, assaults and sports-related injuries. “We studied a very large cohort of patients in our secondary analysis of this previously collected data,” said a professor of pediatrics and emergency medicine at the Wayne State School of Medicine. “The bottom line on this prospective study of more than 43,000 pediatric brain injuries is that it identifies falls — often from bicycles — as the major cause of trauma in children under age 12. Knowing that, we’re now better able to help education parents and policymakers alike about the great value of safety helmets for the population of kids.” To…
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Brain Activity During Epileptic Seizures Recorded
Thursday, January 15, 2015 14:20
A new procedure performed by the Loyola University Medical Center allows real-time imaging of the brain during epileptic seizures, allowing physicians to target the exact brain mechanisms affected and enhancing diagnosis and treatment options. Patients are connected with a continuous EEG until a seizure develops, at which point a technician quickly infuses a radiopharmaceutical to reveal blood flow activity within the brain. The brain is then scanned to determine the highest areas of blood flow during the seizure. This scan, known as an ictal single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), is then compared to a pre-seizure scan to triangulate the pressure points. “This is a very useful technique in cases in which seizures are difficult to localize with an electroencephalogram or in which a patient’s MRI is normal,” explained an epilepsy specialist. Three-dimensional scans are consulted to determine if surgery is an option for those not being relieved by medications or other treatments. To learn more about this study, click here.
Robots to Assist People with Disabilities
Thursday, January 15, 2015 9:00
New research in robotics may help stroke rehabilitation, guide wheelchairs and assist children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) through projects from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The NIH is in its third year of participating in the Interagency National Robotics Initiative (NRI) to support research to develop innovative co-robots — robots that work cooperatively with people. Recovering limb movement after a stroke can be difficult. Research suggests that repeatedly using the affected arm in goal-directed, purposeful movement can promote recovery. With wearable exoskeletons to induce function recovery, one research project hopes to extend therapy into the home, using a lightweight, robotic exoskeleton that can be placed on an affected arm and provide the kind of therapeutic guidance found at rehab centers. With a computer vision-based active learning co-robot wheelchair, this project hopes to provide a solution for elderly and disabled patients who have limited hand functionality and who rely on wheelchairs for mobility. Researchers hope to create a system that can be controlled by the user’s head movements and will adapt to the individual user….
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Primary Care Doctors Report Prescribing Fewer Opioids for Pain
Wednesday, January 14, 2015 13:48
A striking majority of primary-care physicians are hesitant to prescribe opioids for pain relief due to the ongoing concern over prescription drug abuse, according to a study by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, published in JAMA Internal Medicine. In a survey of 580 internists, family physicians and general practitioners, nine out of 10 reported their concerns of prescription abuse and half said they were now less likely to prescribe opioids than previous years. Eighty-five percent of those surveyed believed that opioids were being overused as treatment options, which may contribute to abuse rates. The lead researcher of the study stated, “Our findings suggest that primary care providers have become aware of the scope of the prescription opioid crisis and are responding in ways that are important, including reducing their overreliance on these medicines. The health care community has long been part of the problem and now they appear to be part of the solution to this complex epidemic.” Future research is targeting actual prescription rates to determine if opioid abuse is being…
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Intra-arterial Treatment for Clot Removal More Effective for Stroke Care
Wednesday, January 14, 2015 9:13
In a recent study published in The New England Journal of Medicine, researchers found that using intra-arterial treatment to remove a stroke-causing blood clot in a large vessel supplying blood to the brain provides better outcomes than trying to dissolve the clot using clot-busting drugs alone. Intra-arterial treatment could consist of IA lytics or mechanical treatment, however in the majority of the patients in the study a stent retriever was used. In this procedure, the stent retriever is inserted into the patient’s femoral artery starting in the leg and navigated to the site of the blood clot in the brain — once in place, the physician grabs the clot with the device and removes it. Results of the study showed that using the stent retrievers in conjunction with clot busting drugs, was almost twice as likely to result in a good outcome. “We now have proof that these treatments improve patient outcomes. This is remarkable for a disease that can kill up to 40 percent of patients left untreated,” said one of the study’s researchers. To…
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New Recommendations for Return to Activity After Concussion in Military Personnel
Tuesday, January 13, 2015 14:13
A research team established by the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center has proposed new traumatic brain injury evaluation and treatment protocols for military personnel. The proposed system was published in The Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation. Previous policies were based heavily on protocols followed for injured athletes, a decision which the researchers have argued against heavily. “Although service members share similarities with athletes, guidance for sports-related concussion is not always relevant to military contexts and does not incorporate the complexities of military demands, decision making under stressful conditions, and multitasking in extreme environments,” said the author. The new recommendations utilized a tiered level of recovery, beginning with a mandatory 24-hour resting period following any concussion featuring mild traumatic brain injury. Following this initial evaluation period, the patient will either return to duty if cleared, or will enter a six-step evaluation process in which they must accomplish progressively complex tasks without inhibited function or pain. Each stage lasts a minimum of 24 hours, and failing to complete a stage red flags the patient for treatment…
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Early Exposure to Antidepressants Affects Serotonin Transmission
Tuesday, January 13, 2015 9:00
About 15 percent of women in the U.S. suffer from anxiety disorders and depression during their pregnancies. However, little is known about how early exposure to antidepressant medications might affect their offspring as they mature into adults. About 200,000 babies born in the U.S. per year are exposed to antidepressants during gestation via transmission from their mothers. In a recent study published in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology, researchers from UCLA studied early developmental exposure to two different antidepressants, Prozac and Lexapro, in a mouse model that mimicked the medication exposure during a human third trimester. Researchers found that, although these serotonin-selective reuptake inhibiting antidepressants (SSRIs) were thought to work the same way, they did not produce the same long-term changes in anxiety behavior in the adult mice. The mice exposed to Lexapro had permanent changes in serotonin neurotransmission and were less anxious as adults than the mice exposed to Prozac. “This was quite surprising, since these medications belong to the same drug class and are believed to work by the same mechanism. The implications of these…
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New Technology Advances for Recovery from Brain Injury
Monday, January 12, 2015 15:00
Researchers from NYU Langone Medical Center have developed new technology that can assess the location and impact of a brain injury by tracking the eye movements of patients as they watch music videos for less than four minutes, according to a student recently published in the Journal of Neurosurgery. The study suggests that the use of eye-tracking technology may be a potential biological marker for assessing brain function and monitoring recovery for patients with brain injuries. Using a technology developed at NYU Langone, the researchers had the participants of the study watch a music video or television content for 220 seconds while they measured the ratio of horizontal to vertical eye movements. They discovered that in the neurologically healthy subjects, the ratios were close to one-to-one, with horizontal movements equaling vertical movements. But the 12 participants with nerve damage or swelling in the brain pressing on nerves all showed abnormal eye movement ratios correlating to the nerve that was affected. In every case where the abnormal eye movement was due to swelling in the brain,…
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Neuroscientists Identify Brain Mechanisms that Predict Generosity in Children
Monday, January 12, 2015 11:06
A paper published in the journal Current Biology, conducted by researchers from the University of Chicago, sheds new light on the neurological mechanisms of children as they learn the concept of generosity. Using EEG brain-wave analysis and eye tracking, 57 children from the ages of three to five were studied as they viewed animations of characters acting either kindly or cruelly to each other. The subjects were then given stickers and told that they may share with an unknown subject who would be appearing later in the day. This moment of considering generosity allowed researchers to compare neural activity, discovering that the subjects seemed naturally drawn towards morally-laden stimuli and seemed to replay these memories as they considered reenacting the actions. The author explained, “This is the first neuro-developmental study of moral sensitivity that directly links implicit moral evaluations and actual moral behavior, and identifies the specific neuro markers of each. These findings provide an interesting idea that by encouraging children to reflect upon the moral behavior of others, we may be able to foster sharing…
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