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New Noninvasive Tool Helps Target Parkinson’s Disease

By Guest PostNovember 22, 2012Healthbrain, chemical, control, detection methodology, diagnosing, disease, disorder, dopamine, early detection, early symptom, early testing, jaw, method, movement pattern, muscle function, muscle movement, nerve cells, neurological disorder, noninvasive, parkinsons disease, progression, rahul shrivastav, speech patterns, telemedicine application, tongue, treatment, united states

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Health professionals may soon have a new method of diagnosing Parkinson’s disease, one that is noninvasive and inexpensive, and, in early testing, has proved to be effective more than 90 percent of the time.

In addition, this new method has the potential to track the progression of Parkinson’s, as well as measure the effectiveness of treatments for the disorder, said Rahul Shrivastav, professor and chairperson of Michigan State University’s Department of Communicative Sciences and Disorders and a member of the team developing the new method.

It involves monitoring a patient’s speech patterns – specifically, movement patterns of the tongue and jaw. (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…)

Yale Team Discovers How Stress and Depression Can Shrink the Brain

By Guest PostAugust 20, 2012Health, Scienceanimal model, antidepressant therapy, ashley lepack, bhavya voleti, brain, brain cell, brain mass, brain volume, chronic stress, cognitive impairment, depression, emotional, gata1, gene, gene activation, genetic switch, h j kang, mounira banasr, pattern, pawel licznerski, prefrontal cortex, ronald duman, shrink, stress, symptoms of depression, synaptic connection, transcription factor, yale

Major depression or chronic stress can cause the loss of brain volume, a condition that contributes to both emotional and cognitive impairment. Now a team of researchers led by Yale scientists has discovered one reason why this occurs — a single genetic switch that triggers loss of brain connections in humans and depression in animal models.

The findings, reported in the Aug. 12 issue of the journal Nature Medicine, show that the genetic switch known as a transcription factor represses the expression of several genes that are necessary for the formation of synaptic connections between brain cells, which in turn could contribute to loss of brain mass in the prefrontal cortex. (more…)

Common Parasite May Trigger Suicide Attempts

By Guest PostAugust 18, 2012Health, Scienceamerica, biological change, biological mechanism, brain, brain cell, damage, depression, harmless, infection, inflammation, lena brundin, parasite, parkinsons disease, suicide attempt, symptom, t gondii, teodor postolache, toxoplasma gondii, united states

EAST LANSING, Mich. — A parasite thought to be harmless and found in many people may actually be causing subtle changes in the brain, leading to suicide attempts.

New research appearing in the August issue of The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry adds to the growing work linking an infection caused by the Toxoplasma gondii parasite to suicide attempts. Michigan State University’s Lena Brundin was one of the lead researchers on the team.

About 10-20 percent of people in the United States have Toxoplasma gondii, or T. gondii, in their bodies, but in most it was thought to lie dormant, said Brundin, an associate professor of experimental psychiatry in MSU’s College of Human Medicine. In fact, it appears the parasite can cause inflammation over time, which produces harmful metabolites that can damage brain cells. (more…)

Meditation Reduces Loneliness

By Guest PostAugust 15, 2012Health, Sciencealzheimer's disease, brain, chronic inflammation, crp, david creswell, depression, expression, heart disease, helen lavretsky, immune system, infection, inflammation, inflammatory gene, loneliness, mbsr, meditation, meditative technique, michael irwin, mindfulness, natural component, nf kb, pro inflammatory gene, protein marker, risk, tai chi, yoga

UCLA study also finds that mindfulness technique benefits immune system

Many elderly people spend their last years alone. Spouses pass and children scatter. But being lonely is much more than a silent house and a lack of companionship. Over time, loneliness not only takes a toll on the psyche but can have a serious physical impact as well.

Feeling lonely has been linked to an increased risk of heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease, depression and even premature death. Developing effective treatments to reduce loneliness in older adults is essential, but previous treatment efforts have had limited success. (more…)

Concussions and Head Impacts May Accelerate Brain Aging

By Guest PostAugust 3, 2012Sciencealzheimer, balance, brain, brain aging, brain injury, cognitive decline, concussions, electrical activity, gait, head impacts, kinesiology, lifestyle choice, natural aging, natural deterioration, pothole, signaling pathway, steven broglio, subconcussive impact

ANN ARBOR, Mich.— Concussions and even lesser head impacts may speed up the brain’s natural aging process by causing signaling pathways in the brain to break down more quickly than they would in someone who has never suffered a brain injury or concussion.

Researchers from the University of Michigan School of Kinesiology and the U-M Health System looked at college students with and without a history of concussion and found changes in gait, balance and in the brain’s electrical activity, specifically attention and impulse control, said Steven Broglio, assistant professor of kinesiology and director of the Neurotrauma Research Laboratory. (more…)

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