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Mild Brain Cooling after Head Injury Prevents Epileptic Seizures in Lab Study

By Guest PostDecember 25, 2012Healthannals of neurology, antiepileptic drugs, brain, brain damage, chronic, epilepsy, epileptic seizures, genetics, hallmark of epilepsy, head injury, inflammation, intracranial eeg, jeffrey g ojemann, john w miller, matthew d smyth, mechanisms, mild cooling, mock cooling, nancy r temkin, neuronal activity, peltier cells, raimondo d ambrosio, recurrent seizures, refrigeration, rodent model, spontaneous, steven m rothman, traumatic head injury

Mild cooling of the brain after a head injury prevents the later development of epileptic seizures, according to an animal study reported this month in the Annals of Neurology.

Epilepsy can result from genetics or brain damage. Traumatic head injury is the leading cause of acquired epilepsy in young adults. It is often difficult to manage with antiepileptic drugs. The mechanisms behind the onset of epileptic seizures after brain injury are not known . There is currently no treatment to cure it, prevent it, or even limit its severity. (more…)

Countering Brain Chemical Could Prevent Suicides

By Guest PostDecember 14, 2012Healthamino acid, anesthetic ketamine, anti glutamate drugs, anti inflammatory drugs, brain, causes of depression, chemical, glutamate, glutamate activity, glutamate signaling, grand rapids, immune response, inflammation, inhibit, lena brundin, mechanism of disease, michigan state university, nerve cells, neurotransmitter, preventing suicide, quinolinic acid, risk factor, serotonin, signals, spinal fluid, suicidal behavior

Researchers have found the first proof that a chemical in the brain called glutamate is linked to suicidal behavior, offering new hope for efforts to prevent people from taking their own lives.

Writing in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology, Michigan State University’s Lena Brundin and an international team of co-investigators present the first evidence that glutamate is more active in the brains of people who attempt suicide. Glutamate is an amino acid that sends signals between nerve cells and has long been a suspect in the search for chemical causes of depression. (more…)

Moths Wired Two Ways to Take Advantage of Floral Potluck

By Guest PostDecember 9, 2012Naturearizona, behavior, brain, brain activity, bright green, buffet, caterpillar, channels, chemical composition, favored blossoms, floral environment, flower, hong lei, humans, insects, jeffrey riffell, john hildebrand, leif abrell, manduca sexta, mechanism, moth, naive moths, neural pathways, neurobiology, north, olfactory information, oxygenated aromatic compounds, pollinator, process, scent samples, science express, scientist, sources of nectar, south america, soybean, tobacco hornworms, university, Washington

Moths are able to enjoy a pollinator’s buffet of flowers – in spite of being among the insect world’s picky eaters – because of two distinct “channels” in their brains, scientists at the University of Washington and University of Arizona have discovered.

One olfactory channel governs innate preferences of the palm-sized hawk moths that were studied – insects capable of traveling miles in a single night in search of favored blossoms. The other allows them to learn about alternate sources of nectar when their first choices are not available.

For moths, the ability to seek and remember alternate sources of food helps them survive harsh, food-deprived conditions. Scientists knew bees could learn, but this is the first proof that moths can too. (more…)

Moral Evaluations of Harm are Instant and Emotional, Brain Study Shows

By Guest PostDecember 2, 2012Scienceaccidental, age, amygdala, brain, brain activity, callous unemotional traits, Chicago, data, emotion, empathy, evolutionary heritage, humans, hurtful action, intentional, jean decety, milliseconds, moral computations, moral response, morality, mri scans, posterior, psychopaths, split second, step, stephanie cacioppo, sulcus, superior, temporal, tpj area, university, ventromedial prefrontal cortex

People are able to detect, within a split second, if a hurtful action they are witnessing is intentional or accidental, new research on the brain at the University of Chicago shows.

The study is the first to explain how the brain is hard-wired to recognize when another person is being intentionally harmed. It also provides new insights into how such recognition is connected with emotion and morality, said lead author Jean Decety, the Irving B. Harris Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at UChicago. (more…)

The Placebo Effect Goes Beyond Humans, UF Researchers Find

By Guest PostDecember 1, 2012Health, Sciencebrain, common, drug abuse, ethical issues, florida, humans, jianguo cheng, john neubert, niall murphy, novel treatment, orthodontics, pain relief, pain specialist, placebo, placebo effects, placebo response, preclinical model, rats, therapeutic targets, university

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Rats and humans have at least one thing in common: They both react the same way to a placebo, according to a new University of Florida study.

“That was the big finding — that the animals that expected pain relief actually got pain relief when you gave them an inert substance,” said co-author John Neubert, a pain specialist and an associate professor with the UF College of Dentistry department of orthodontics. “It helps validate our model that what we do in the rats, we believe, is a good representation of what’s being seen in humans.”

The investigation of placebo effects might lead to the identification of new therapeutic targets in the brain and of novel treatment strategies for a variety of health conditions. (more…)

Researchers Report Potential New Treatment to Stop Alzheimer’s Disease

By Guest PostNovember 16, 2012Health, Sciencealzheimer, amyloid beta, blood brain barrier, brain, brain pathology, cell, clr01, disease, disorders, gal bitan, inhibitor, mammalian animal model, memory, molecular compound, molecular tweezer, mouse model, neuron, parkinsons disease, pathologic feature, process specific, radioactive label, tau, toxic protein, ucla

Molecular ‘tweezers’ break up toxic aggregations of proteins in mouse model

Last March, researchers at UCLA reported the development of a molecular compound called CLR01 that prevented toxic proteins associated with Parkinson’s disease from binding together and killing the brain’s neurons.

Building on those findings, they have now turned their attention to Alzheimer’s disease, which is thought to be caused by a similar toxic aggregation or clumping, but with different proteins, especially amyloid-beta and tau. (more…)

Reading the Classics: It’s More than Just for Fun

By Guest PostSeptember 16, 2012Health, Scienceblood flow, brain, classic novel, cognitive complexity, critical way, english, Environment, executive function, jane austen, michigan, mri machine, natalie phillips, prejudice, pride, reading, scanner, state university, total cacophony

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Reading a classic novel such as “Pride and Prejudice” can be entertaining, but, according to new research by a Michigan State University professor, it also can provide many other benefits beyond that.

Natalie Phillips, an MSU assistant professor of English, and her team placed study participants in an MRI machine and monitored their brain flow while reading the works of Jane Austen. (more…)

Scientists from UCLA, Israel’s Technion Uncover Brain’s Code for Pronouncing Vowels

By Guest PostAugust 23, 2012Health, Scienceariel tankus, brain, brain cell, device, disease, electrode, frontal lobe, injury, institute of technology, Israel, itzhak fried, nature communication, neuro prosthetic, neurons, paralyze, single cell, speech, technion, temporal gyrus, ucla, unspoken word, vowel, vowel articulation

Discovery may hold key to restoring speech after paralysis

Diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease at 21, British physicist Stephen Hawking, now 70, relies on a computerized device to speak. Engineers are investigating the use of brainwaves to create a new form of communication for Hawking and other people suffering from paralysis.

—Daily Mail (U.K.)

Scientists at UCLA and the Technion, Israel’s Institute of Technology, have unraveled how our brain cells encode the pronunciation of individual vowels in speech.

Published in the Aug. 21 edition of the journal Nature Communications, the discovery could lead to new technology that verbalizes the unspoken words of people paralyzed by injury or disease. (more…)

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