http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. You pick up your cell phone and dial the new number of a friend. Ten numbers. One. Number. At. A. Time. Because you haven't actually typed the number before, your brain handles each button press separately, as a sequence of distinct movements. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-psychologists-reveals-brain-motor-chunking.html Neuroscience Tue, 12 Jun 2012 13:55:45 EST news258728101 A genetically-modified version of the rabies virus is helping scientists at Harvard to trace neural pathways in the brain, a research effort that could one day lead to treatments for Parkinson's disease and addiction. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-rabies-virus-tracks-dopamine-neurons.html Neuroscience Wed, 06 Jun 2012 12:57:14 EST news258206224 Scientists at Weill Cornell Medical College have discovered that the single protein -- alpha 2 delta -- exerts a spigot-like function, controlling the volume of neurotransmitters and other chemicals that flow between the synapses of brain neurons. The study, published online in Nature, shows how brain cells talk to each other through these signals, relaying thoughts, feelings and action, and this powerful molecule plays a crucial role in regulating effective communication. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-powerful-function-alpha-delta-protein.html Medical research Sun, 13 May 2012 13:00:12 EST news256047339 Around 100 billion neurons in the human brain enable us to think, feel and act. They transmit electrical impulses to remote parts of the brain and body via long nerve fibres known as axons. This communication requires enormous amounts of energy, which the neurons are thought to generate from sugar. Axons are closely associated with glial cells which, on the one hand, surround them with an electrically insulating myelin sheath and, on the other hand support their long-term function. Klaus Armin and his research group from the Max Planck Institute of Experimental Medicine in Göttingen have now discovered a possible mechanisms by which these glial cells in the brain can support their associated axons and keep them alive in the long term. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-glial-cells-nerve-fibres-energy-rich.html Medical research Thu, 10 May 2012 07:20:02 EST news255851227 (Medical Xpress) -- Recent findings from the Laboratory of Neurobiology at Northeastern, led by biology professor and chair Günther Zupanc, and published online in the scientific journal Neuroscience, demonstrate the mechanism by which new neurons find their ultimate home — research that Zupanc hopes will offer insight into the regenerative potential of the human brain. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-humble-fish-brains.html Neuroscience Thu, 19 Apr 2012 08:16:50 EST news254042204 No matter what novel objects we come to behold, our brains effortlessly take us from an initial "What's that?" to "Oh, that old thing" after a few casual encounters. In research that helps shed light on the malleability of this recognition process, Brown University neuroscientists have teased apart the potentially different roles that two distinct cell types may play. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-distinct-brain-cells-sights.html Neuroscience Wed, 11 Apr 2012 12:00:07 EST news253363963 Researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center have revealed how a mutation in a single gene is responsible for the inability of neurons to effectively pass along appetite suppressing signals from the body to the right place in the brain. What results is obesity caused by a voracious appetite. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-reveal-gene-mutation-uncontrolled-obesity.html Genetics Sun, 18 Mar 2012 14:00:06 EST news251296225 Synaptic plasticity – the ability of the synaptic connections between the brain's neurons to change and modify over time -- has been shown to be a key to memory formation and the acquisition of new learning behaviors. Now research led by a scientific team at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) reveals that the neural circuits controlling hunger and eating behaviors are also controlled by plasticity. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-scientists-delve-brain-roots-hunger.html Neuroscience Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:00:11 EST news247918370 New research reveals a fascinating and unexpected molecular partnership within the brain neurons that regulate appetite. The study, published by Cell Press in the January 26 issue of the journal Neuron, resolves a paradox regarding a receptor without its hormone and may lead to more specific therapeutic interventions for obesity and disorders of dopamine signaling. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-appetite-accomplice-ghrelin-receptor-dopamine.html Neuroscience Wed, 25 Jan 2012 12:00:05 EST news246709320 (Medical Xpress) -- Scientists from the Medical Research Council (MRC) have discovered that a protein produced by blood vessels in the brain could be used to help the brain repair itself after injury or disease. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-naturally-protein-boost-brain.html Neuroscience Tue, 10 Jan 2012 06:48:27 EST news245400496 Results of a new study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill may help pave the way to a treatment for a neurogenetic disorder often misdiagnosed as cerebral palsy or autism. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-discovery-treatment-angelman-syndrome.html Genetics Wed, 21 Dec 2011 13:00:01 EST news243693945 (Medical Xpress) -- A team of Swiss researchers, led by Christian Lüscher of the University of Geneva, has found the first casual link between cocaine use and physical brain changes and in so doing, as they describe in their paper published in Nature, have also come up with a means to reverse it. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-team-optogenetics-reverse-effects-cocaine.html Medical research Thu, 08 Dec 2011 08:10:03 EST news242551056 A team of researchers at The University of Western Ontario has demonstrated that elimination of one of the neurotransmitters in the part of the brain associated with Parkinson's disease may improve brain function without major adverse effects. The research has been published in the November edition of the prestigious journal PLoS Biology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-brain-region-affected-parkinson.html Neuroscience Tue, 08 Nov 2011 18:00:07 EST news239997391 (Medical Xpress) -- A researcher at the University of Sydney has discovered how the increasingly common street drug mephedrone affects the brain, helping to explain why it is potentially such an addictive substance. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-party-drug-brain.html Medical research Mon, 31 Oct 2011 12:05:25 EST news239281517 (Medical Xpress) -- With specificity and precision, the brain's Visual Word Form Area, or VWFA, does exactly what its name implies. Every time we see something that looks like a word, it activates. The VWFA is so adept at packaging visual input for the brain's language centers that the task of word-recognition only takes a few tens of milliseconds. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-implications-disorders.html Neuroscience Thu, 15 Sep 2011 13:34:36 EST news235312444 Each taste, from sweet to salty, is sensed by a unique set of neurons in the brains of mice, new research reveals. The findings demonstrate that neurons that respond to specific tastes are arranged discretely in what the scientists call a "gustotopic map." This is the first map that shows how taste is represented in the mammalian brain. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-brain-tongue.html Neuroscience Thu, 01 Sep 2011 14:01:20 EST news234103898 A new clue to understanding one of the causes of Alzheimer's disease was unveiled in an article published Sunday (Aug. 14) in Nature Neuroscience online. Kara Pratt, a new faculty member in the University of Wyoming Neuroscience Center , is the study's lead investigator. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-link-alzheimer-lack-specific-protein.html Neuroscience Tue, 16 Aug 2011 10:39:09 EST news232709935 (Medical Xpress) -- Adult brains generate thousands of new brain cells called neurons each day; however only a small fraction of them survive. The rest die and are consumed by scavenger cells called phagocytes. Until now, scientists have not fully understood how this process works, which phagocytes are unique in the brain, and how the removal of dead neurons influences the production of new neurons. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-major-discovery-adult-brain-dead.html Neuroscience Wed, 10 Aug 2011 16:26:25 EST news232210644 The human brain is the most complex of all organs, containing billions of neurons with their corresponding projections, all woven together in a highly complex, three-dimensional web. To date, mapping this vast network posed a practically insurmountable challenge to scientists. Now, however, a research team from the Heidelberg-based Max Planck Institute for Medical Research has developed a method for tackling the mammoth task. Using two new computer programs, KNOSSOS and RESCOP, a group of over 70 students mapped a network of more than 100 neurons – and they did so faster and more accurately than with previous methods. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-brain-connectome-.html Neuroscience Thu, 28 Jul 2011 12:58:00 EST news231076666 Researchers at the Salk Institute have been able to genetically incorporate "unnatural" amino acids, such as those emitting green fluorescence, into neural stem cells, which then differentiate into brain neurons with the incandescent "tag" intact. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-unnatural-chemical-protein-action-brain.html Medical research Thu, 07 Jul 2011 14:31:22 EST news229267864 (Medical Xpress) -- University of Florida scientists have discovered a way to separate the neural wheat from the chaff during the process of generating brain cells for potential patient therapies. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-scientists-brain-cells-potential-transplants.html Medical research Thu, 07 Jul 2011 05:49:27 EST news229236492 Two studies featuring research from Weill Cornell Medical College have uncovered surprising details about the complex process that leads to the flow of neurotransmitters between brain neurons -- a dance of chemical messages so delicate that missteps often lead to neurological dysfunction. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-06-clock-brain.html Neuroscience Wed, 22 Jun 2011 13:44:39 EST news227969053 In a novel imaging study of sleeping toddlers, scientists at the University of California, San Diego Autism Center of Excellence report that a diminished ability of a young brain's hemispheres to "sync" with one another could be a powerful, new biological marker of autism, one that might enable an autism diagnosis at a very young age. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-06-weaker-brain-sync-early-autism.html Neuroscience Wed, 22 Jun 2011 12:35:12 EST news227964900 (Medical Xpress) -- Scientists at Karolinska Institutet have discovered that a gene linked to dyslexia has a surprising biological function: it controls cilia, the antenna-like projections that cells use to communicate. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-06-unexpected-function-dyslexia-gene.html Genetics Mon, 20 Jun 2011 05:09:41 EST news227765318 If you've ever lost your keys or stuck the milk in the cupboard and the cereal in the refrigerator, you may have been the victim of a tired brain region that was taking a quick nap. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-04-brain-regions-short-naps-errors.html Neuroscience Wed, 27 Apr 2011 13:00:01 EST news223122558 Using advanced imaging technology, scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute have identified a change in chemical influx into a specific set of neurons in the common fruit fly that is fundamental to long-term memory. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-04-scripps-scientists-mechanism-long-term-memory.html Neuroscience Wed, 13 Apr 2011 12:55:52 EST news221918126 (PhysOrg.com) -- The healthy brain has balance of excitatory and inhibitory signals that stimulate activity but also keep it under control. Some brain diseases, like autism and Down's syndrome, have too much inhibition, which impairs cognitive functions. Reducing inhibition appears to improve cognition, and it can restore juvenile plasticity in the adult brain, making it more adaptable. Scientists want to recapture this plasticity to enhance recovery from stroke or brain injury and to treat people suffering from developmental or degenerative brain disorders. Now, a new MIT study using a common antidepressant that coincidentally reduces neural inhibition shows how this "disinhibition" works in ways that might be used therapeutically. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-04-disinhibition-brain-plasticity.html Neuroscience Tue, 12 Apr 2011 07:14:10 EST news221811191 (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists have moved a step closer to being able to develop a computer model of the brain after developing a technique to map both the connections and functions of nerve cells in the brain together for the first time. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-04-brain-technique-poised-untangle-complexity.html Medical research Sun, 10 Apr 2011 13:05:10 EST news221659498 (PhysOrg.com) -- A study of the salamander brain has led researchers at Karolinska Institutet to discover a hitherto unknown function of the neurotransmitter dopamine. In an article published in the prestigious scientific journal Cell Stem Cell they show how in acting as a kind of switch for stem cells, dopamine controls the formation of new neurons in the adult brain. Their findings may one day contribute to new treatments for neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson's. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-04-dopamine-formation-brain-cells.html Medical research Fri, 08 Apr 2011 05:57:27 EST news221461029