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Research Sheds New Light on Body Parts’ Sensitivity to Environmental Changes

By Guest PostNovember 23, 2011Sciencealexander shingleton, beacon, blood sugar levels, body parts, brain, changes in nutrition, energy, evolution in action consortium, fruit flies, glucose, humans, insulin, malnutrition, michigan state university, nongenetic, normal size, sensitive to environmental change, sensitivity to environmental issues, type 2 diabetes, variety of diseases, zeroing, zoology

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Research by a team of Michigan State University scientists has shed new light on why some body parts are more sensitive to environmental change than others, work that could someday lead to better ways of treating a variety of diseases, including Type-2 diabetes.

The research, led by assistant zoology professor Alexander Shingleton, is detailed in the recent issue of the Proceedings of the Library of Science Genetics. (more…)

At a Loss for Words

By Guest PostNovember 20, 2011Health, Scienceaphasia, aphasia research project, biological and cognitive processes, brain, brain damage, brain impairs, bullet, celeste barajas, communication impairments, gabrielle giffords, human communication problems, inability to speak or write, language and hearing sciences, language impairment, language recovery, loss of phonology, magnetic resonance imaging, mechanisms of recovery, mri, national institutes of health, network of brain regions, neuroimaging, pelagie beeson, pima county, rehabilitation, scanner, speech, speech language pathology, steven rapcsak, stroke, traumatic brain injury, university of arizona

*Research into aphasia – the inability to speak or write well-formulated sentences and words – is strong at the UA. Researchers have received $2 million toward the study of the condition.*

The National Institutes of Health have awarded the University of Arizona’s Aphasia Research Project in the department of speech, language and hearing sciences a $2 million grant to research communication impairments in adults who have suffered brain injury.

Aphasia – the inability to speak or write well-formulated sentences and words – is a common result of a stroke or a traumatic brain injury such as the one suffered by Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in the head earlier this year. The bullet damaged regions of the brain that are critical for language and control of the right side of the body. (more…)

How the Brain Makes Memories: Rhythmically!

By Guest PostOctober 9, 2011Health, Sciencearvind kumar, brain, brain mechanisms of learning, brain rhythms, connections between neurons, conventional wisdom, detuning process, einstein, experimental data, frequency, mayank r mehta, memory disorders, mozart, neural signals, neuro physicists, optimal brain rhythm, optimal learning, spike trains, stimuli, synapses, synaptic plasticity, synaptic strength

The brain learns through changes in the strength of its synapses — the connections between neurons — in response to stimuli.

Now, in a discovery that challenges conventional wisdom on the brain mechanisms of learning, UCLA neuro-physicists have found there is an optimal brain “rhythm,” or frequency, for changing synaptic strength. And further, like stations on a radio dial, each synapse is tuned to a different optimal frequency for learning.

The findings, which provide a grand-unified theory of the mechanisms that underlie learning in the brain, may lead to possible new therapies for treating learning disabilities. (more…)

To Ditch Dessert, Feed the Brain

By Guest PostSeptember 22, 2011Sciencebrain, brain imaging scans, fmri scans, glucose, glucose levels, high calorie food, hypothalamus, kathleen page, low calorie food, prefrontal cortex, rajita sinha, regulating impulses, striatum, twinkies, yale university

If the brain goes hungry, Twinkies look a lot better, a study led by researchers at Yale University and the University of Southern California has found.

Brain imaging scans show that when glucose levels drop, an area of the brain known to regulate emotions and impulses loses the ability to dampen desire for high-calorie food, according to the study published online September 19 in The Journal of Clinical Investigation. (more…)

Brain’s Map of Space Falls Flat When It Comes to Altitude

By Guest PostAugust 8, 2011Scienceanimal brain, brain, brain map of space, complex environments, grid cells, hippocampus, hotspots, kate jeffery, map of space, nature neuroscience, neurons, place cells, Space, third dimension, ucl psychology and language sciences, wellcome trust

Animal’s brains are only roughly aware of how high-up they are in space, meaning that in terms of altitude the brain’s ‘map’ of space is surprisingly flat, according to new research.

In a study published online in Nature Neuroscience, scientists studied cells in or near a part of the brain called the hippocampus, which forms the brain’s map of space, to see whether they were activated when rats climbed upwards. (more…)

Neurosurgeon’s Rare Skills Saved a Haitian Priest’s Life

By Guest PostJuly 20, 2011Healthaneurysm, brain, catheter, endovascular surgery, femoral artery, haiti, ketan bulsara, neuroendovascular and skull-based surgery, neurosurgeons, norbert tibeau, optic nerve, pituitary gland, priesthood, skull based cerebrovascular microsurgery, state of the art technology, yale medical group, yale new haven hospital

On April 26, Dr. Ketan Bulsara, using state-of-the-art technology, threaded a catheter less than one centimeter in width from the femoral artery in Norbert Tibeau’s thigh into an aneurysm in his brain. The aneurysm had grown to a diameter of two centimeters and bordered on such critical structures as the optic nerve and pituitary gland. If left untreated chances were high that within five years it would either kill Tibeau or devastate him neurologically. (more…)

Crossing Your Arms Relieves Pain

By Guest PostJune 8, 2011Healthbrain, centre of the body, clinical therapies, crossed hands, eeg, electroencephalography, external space, giandomenico iannetti, hand, intensity of pain, laser, neuroscience, pain, painful stimulus, phenomenon, sensory stimuli, ucl

Crossing your arms reduces the intensity of pain you feel when receiving a painful stimulus on the hand, according to research by scientists at UCL.

Published in the current issue of the journal PAIN, the research shows that crossing your arms over the midline (an imaginary line running vertically down the centre of the body) confuses the brain and reduces the intensity of the pain sensation. (more…)

New Study Suggests Link Between Estrogen, Blood Pressure

By Guest PostMay 28, 2011Healthanti oxidant resveratrol, blood pressure, brain, carrie northcutt, chronic exposure, effects of menopause, estrogen only hrt, hannah garver, heart failure, high blood pressure, hormone, huawei zhao, hypertension, joseph haywood, long term exposure to estrogen, madhan subramanian, michigan state university, mohankumar, p s mohankumar, priya balasubramanian, rostral ventrolateral medulla, stress in the body, superoxide, women

EAST LANSING, Mich. — While recent studies have shown long-term exposure to estrogen can be a danger to women – overturning physicians’ long-held beliefs that the hormone was good for their patients’ hearts – the process by which estrogen induces high blood pressure was unclear.

In a new study, Michigan State University researchers found long-term estrogen exposure generates excessive levels of the compound superoxide, which causes stress in the body. The buildup of this compound occurs in an area of the brain that is crucial to regulating blood pressure, suggesting that the estrogen-induced buildup causes increased blood pressure. (more…)

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