Tag: brain

Kendra Jackson was in a traumatic car accident back in 2013—and for years afterward, the Nebraska woman experienced a near-constant runny nose, along with coughing and sneezing, she told local news station KETV. Doctors diagnosed her with allergies, a winter cold, and head congestion, but nothing helped. “Everywhere I went I always had a box of Puffs,

Poor protein in a mother’s diet in early pregnancy, around the time of conception, can have a lasting effect on brain development, according to research recently published by University of Southampton academics. The project, led by Dr. Sandrine Willaime-Morawek, in collaboration with Professor Tom Fleming, is the first to clearly demonstrate that poor maternal nutrition

We have a ‘thirst for knowledge’ but sometime ‘ignorance is bliss’, so how do we choose between these two mind states at any given time? UCL psychologists have discovered our brains use the same algorithm and neural architecture to evaluate the opportunity to gain information, as it does to evaluate rewards like food or money.

The disappearance of an entire brain region should be cause for concern. Yet, for decades scientists have calmly maintained that one brain area, the subplate, simply vanishes during the course of human development. Recently, however, research has revealed genetic similarities between cells in the subplate and neurons implicated in autism—leading a team of Rockefeller scientists to

Up to eight out of 10 people living with a brain disorder remain untreated or inadequately treated, even though effective therapies exist. What are the barriers to optimal treatment? Is it really unaffordable to grant people with brain disorders access to the best medical and psychosocial care? These questions were at the heart of the

Stress experienced in early life affects the parts of the brain that control emotions. A new study published this week in the journal Scientific Reports looked at the effects of stress on the development of the brain, and particularly on how fast the brain matures during two crucial stages in life, early childhood and adolescence.

Your brain has a clock counting down the seconds until it’s time to go to sleep Proteins in the brain track synaptic activity, acting like a count down clock Chemical tags gather on these proteins throughout the day and fall off at night Researchers at the University of Texas say that these maintain wake-sleep balance

The waste-management system of the cell appears to play an important role in the spread of Alzheimer’s disease in the brain. A new study has focused on small, membrane-covered droplets known as exosomes. It was long believed that the main task of exosomes was to rid the cell of waste products. However, the understanding of

Blood flow changes in the brains of children, adolescents and young adults with chronic kidney disease may explain why many face a higher risk of cognitive impairment, according to a study published online in the journal Radiology. Prior research has linked chronic kidney disease, a condition characterized by the loss of kidney function over time,

Immunization with beneficial bacteria can have long-lasting anti-inflammatory effects on the brain, making it more resilient to the physical and behavioral effects of stress, according to new research by University of Colorado Boulder scientists. The findings, if replicated in clinical trials could ultimately lead to new probiotic-based immunizations to protect against posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

Boozing may lead to Alzheimer’s: Alcohol stops the brain from clearing away toxic clumps that lead to the memory-robbing disease, reveals study Large quantities of alcohol could make the brain less able to repair itself  Protein clumps could build up more in drinkers’ brains, leading to Alzheimer’s  Alzheimer’s is the leading cause of dementia, which

Preschool irritability and concurrent irritability were uniquely associated with aberrant patterns of reward-related brain connectivity, highlighting the importance of developmental timing of irritability for brain function, finds a study published in the June 2018 issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (JAACAP). “Irritability is one of the most frequent

Yale scientists have identified a possible neurobiological home for the spiritual experience—the sense of connection to something greater than oneself. Activity in the parietal cortex, an area of the brain involved in awareness of self and others as well as attention processing, seems to be a common element among individuals who have experienced a variety

Some human brains are nearly twice the size of others—but how might that matter? Researchers at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and their NIH grant-funded colleagues have discovered that these differences in size are related to the brain’s shape and the way it is organized. The bigger the brain, the more its additional

Detecting patterns is an important part of how humans learn and make decisions. Now, researchers have seen what is happening in people’s brains as they first find patterns in information they are presented. Findings showed that the brain processes pattern learning in a different way from another common way that people learn, called probabilistic learning.

Researchers in the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering are combining audio and art to provide better, standardized ways of simulating and understanding medical imaging of brain aneurysms. Currently, if a patient comes into a medical clinic with an unruptured brain aneurysm, a clinician’s decision to operate or leave it depends on

Grouchy teenagers are actually losing brain matter and should be left alone, rather than disciplined, by parents, claims top neuroscientist Top neuroscientist says parents should be sympathetic of teenagers’ bad habits Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, professor of neuroscience, was speaking at Hay festival Grouchy teenagers are the result of their brains changing and maturing, she says She

Scientists report they have uncovered a previously overlooked connection between neurons in two distinct areas of the mammalian brain. The neurons, they say, control the sense of touch, and their experiments in mice offer insights into mapping brain circuitry that is responsible for normal and abnormal perception and movements linked to touch. Results of the

Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine (WFIRM) scientists have developed a 3-D brain organoid that could have potential applications in drug discovery and disease modeling. This is the first engineered tissue equivalent to closely resemble normal human brain anatomy, containing all six major cell types found in normal organs including, neurons and immune cells. In

Early-life seizures prematurely switch on key synapses in the brain that may contribute to further neurodevelopmental delay in children with autism and other intellectual disabilities, suggests a new study from researchers at Penn Medicine published online in Cell Reports. Importantly, the study shows that an existing targeted therapy may keep those synapses “silent” after seizures