http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. (Medical Xpress) -- Yale researchers studying epileptic seizures have shed new light on the neurological origins of consciousness. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-epileptic-seizures-neurology-consciousness.html Neuroscience Wed, 15 Aug 2012 04:35:50 EST news264224139 (HealthDay) -- Researchers report that they have created a device able to short-circuit epileptic seizures in rats. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-electrical-brain-curbs-epileptic-seizures.html Neuroscience Thu, 09 Aug 2012 15:33:11 EST news263745128 Fainting has a strong genetic predisposition, according to new research published in the August 7, 2012, print issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Fainting, also called vasovagal syncope, is a brief loss of consciousness when your body reacts to certain triggers, such as emotional distress or the sight of blood. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-fainting-family.html Neuroscience Mon, 06 Aug 2012 16:03:00 EST news263487682 New tools have confirmed high rates of misdiagnosis of patients with chronic disorders of consciousness, such as the vegetative state. An increasing number of patients' families wish to use these novel techniques for diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment. An international team of researchers, including Dr. Éric Racine, researcher at the IRCM, analyzed the clinical, social and ethical issues that clinicians are now facing. Their article is published in the August edition of The Lancet Neurology, a renowned journal in the field of clinical neurology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-disorders-consciousness-clinicians-therapeutic-interventions.html Neuroscience Thu, 02 Aug 2012 11:44:33 EST news263126663 Studies of lucid dreamers visualize which centers of the brain become active when we become aware of ourselves. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-seat-meta-consciousness-brain.html Neuroscience Fri, 27 Jul 2012 10:57:48 EST news262605426 A computer-software program more effectively controlled blood-sugar levels among critically ill patients than nurse-directed care did, according to the first large clinical trial of its kind. The results to be presented at The Endocrine Society's 94th Annual Meeting in Houston. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-aids-blood-sugar-critically-ill.html Diabetes Mon, 25 Jun 2012 15:07:30 EST news259855637 (Medical Xpress) -- Consciousness is a selective process that allows only a part of the sensory input to reach awareness. But up to today it has yet to be clarified which areas of the brain are responsible for the content of conscious perception. Theofanis Panagiotaropoulos and his colleagues - researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tübingen and University Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona - have now discovered that the content of consciousness is not localized in a unique cortical area, but is most likely an emergent property of global networks of neuronal populations. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-conscious-perception-global-neural-networks.html Neuroscience Wed, 13 Jun 2012 08:11:28 EST news258793878 Women with high family support and limited pressure to achieve the 'thin and beautiful' ideal have a more positive body image. That's according to a new study looking at five factors that may help young women to be more positive about their bodies, in the context of a society where discontent with appearance is common among women. The work by Dr. Shannon Snapp, from the University of Arizona in the US, and colleagues is published online in Springer's journal, Sex Roles. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-factors-positive-body-image-women.html Psychology & Psychiatry Wed, 09 May 2012 12:13:23 EST news255784378 Disorders of consciousness such as coma or a vegetative state caused by severe brain injury are poorly understood and their diagnosis has relied mainly on patient responses and measures of brain activity. However, new functional and imaging-based diagnostic tests that measure communication and signaling between different brain regions may provide valuable information about the potential for consciousness in patients unable to communicate. These innovative approaches are described and compared in a Review article in the groundbreaking neuroscience journal Brain Connectivity. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-diagnostic-approaches-brain-function-unconscious.html Neuroscience Wed, 09 May 2012 11:29:34 EST news255781705 A group of researchers from the IMIM (Hospital del Mar Research Institute) and from the INAD (Hospital del Mar Neuropsychiatry and Addictions Institute) has participated in an international study aiming to give a general overview at a chemical, pharmacological and behavioural level of a recently appeared new chemical compound, according to the Recreational Drugs European Network, as a new abused drug: methoxetamine (MXE). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-internet-drugs-health.html Health Tue, 08 May 2012 09:59:31 EST news255689950 (Medical Xpress) -- Researchers at the University of Sydney have thrown new light on the tricks the brain plays as it struggles to make sense of the visual and other sensory signals it constantly receives. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-eyes.html Neuroscience Tue, 24 Apr 2012 06:31:08 EST news254467843 An EU-funded project has developed an artificial hand that will revolutionise the lives of amputees. The so-called Smarthand has all the basic functions of its real counterpart including sensitivity and motor control. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-prosthetics.html Other Wed, 11 Apr 2012 07:53:45 EST news253349609 Awakening from anesthesia is often associated with an initial phase of delirious struggle before the full restoration of awareness and orientation to one's surroundings. Scientists now know why this may occur: primitive consciousness emerges first. Using brain imaging techniques in healthy volunteers, a team of scientists led by Adjunct Professor Harry Scheinin, M.D. from the University of Turku, Finland in collaboration with investigators from the University of California, Irvine, have now imaged the process of returning consciousness after general anesthesia. The emergence of consciousness was found to be associated with activations of deep, primitive brain structures rather than the evolutionary younger neocortex. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-primitive-consciousness-emerges-awaken-anesthesia.html Neuroscience Wed, 04 Apr 2012 09:48:01 EST news252751672 Synthetic marijuana, which is sold openly in shops and gives smokers a high, was banned Thursday across New York after being linked to serious health risks. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-york-law-stubs-synthetic-marijuana.html Health Thu, 29 Mar 2012 17:36:08 EST news252261356 An anecdotal observation of a possible link between sleep apnea and post-surgical delirium has been measured and confirmed by a team of researchers at the Duke University Medical Center. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-apnea-patients-delirium-surgery.html Sleep apnea Tue, 27 Mar 2012 13:37:54 EST news252074248 Findings from a first-of-its-kind study by Indiana University researchers confirm anecdotal evidence that exercise -- absent sex or fantasies -- can lead to female orgasm. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-female-orgasm-sexual-pleasure.html Other Mon, 19 Mar 2012 05:04:08 EST news251352224 From a purely intuitive point of view, it is easy to believe that our ability to actively pay attention to a target is inextricably connected with our capacity to consciously perceive it. However, this proposition remains the subject of extensive debate in the research community, and surprising new findings from a team of scientists in Japan and Europe promise to fuel the debate. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-conscious-perception-primary-visual-cortex.html Neuroscience Mon, 05 Mar 2012 08:59:31 EST news250160357 Dutch Prince Johan Friso, brain-damaged and in a coman after being caught by an avalanche in Austria last month, was transferred to a London hospital Thursday, the palace said. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-brain-damaged-dutch-prince-friso-hospital.html Other Thu, 01 Mar 2012 13:20:00 EST news249830394 A new study on the prevalence of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) among firefighters in Israel indicates that approximately 90 percent show some form of full or partial symptoms. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-percent-firefighters-symptoms-ptsd.html Psychology & Psychiatry Thu, 23 Feb 2012 10:41:00 EST news249216044 Concussions and the issues that can occur following one, continue to be a serious problem for football players. However, one simple game strategy: proper helmet fit, may be one of the easiest game winners for prevention, say researchers presenting their study at the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine's Specialty Day in San Francisco. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-helmet-critical-concussion.html Health Sat, 11 Feb 2012 09:28:25 EST news248174899 The combination of transcranial magnetic stimulation and electroencephalography constitutes a new method allowing the traces of conscious activity to be revealed in brain injured patients. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-combined-method-consciousness.html Neuroscience Mon, 09 Jan 2012 09:02:48 EST news245322160 Researchers at the University of Gothenburg's Sahlgrenska Academy have discovered a brand new tick-borne infection. Since the discovery, eight cases have been described around the world, three of them in the Gothenburg area, Sweden. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-tick-borne-disease-gothenburg.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Tue, 06 Dec 2011 13:39:45 EST news242401120 How does awareness influence information processing during decision making in the human brain? A new study led by Floris de Lange of the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour at Radboud University Nijmegen, offers new insight into this question, and is published November 22 in the online, open-access journal PLoS Biology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-awareness-biases.html Psychology & Psychiatry Tue, 22 Nov 2011 17:26:52 EST news241205200 Illegal gold mining has left at least 2,000 children with lead poisoning in several northern Nigerian villages, where 400 children have already died from contamination, an official said Friday. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-poisoning-children-north-nigeria.html Health Fri, 28 Oct 2011 13:21:16 EST news239026866 People who are able to cross their legs soon after having a severe stroke appear to be more likely to have a good recovery compared to people who can't cross their legs. That's according to new research published in the October 11, 2011, print issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-legs-severe-good-recovery.html Neuroscience Mon, 10 Oct 2011 16:00:08 EST news237465802 Hearts used in transplants can only be sourced from donors that are brain dead before circulation to their heart has ceased. Data from a study published in BioMed Central's open access journal Critical Care indicate that the time at which organ donation in brain dead donors is first discussed with family members could affect whether or not they consent to donation. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-crucial-family-consent-brain-dead.html Other Fri, 07 Oct 2011 04:17:53 EST news237179863 (Medical Xpress) -- Traumatic brain injury has entered the public's consciousness as the silent, signature wound brought back by many of our military warriors from Iraq and Afghanistan. But such injuries don't only happen in warfare, they happen to civilians too. Think car crashes, a slip and fall, two football players colliding helmet to helmet. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-traumatic-brain-injury-parkinson-disease.html Parkinson's & Movement disorders Mon, 22 Aug 2011 08:03:57 EST news233218995 The question of sleep in patients with seriously altered states of consciousness has rarely been studied. Do ‘vegetative' patients (now also called patients in a state of unresponsive wakefulness) or minimally conscious state patients experience normal sleep? Up until now the distinction between the two patient populations had not been taken into account by electrophysiological studies. Yet if the vegetative state opens no conscious door onto the external world, the state of minimal consciousness for its part assumes a residual consciousness of the environment, certainly fluctuating but real. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-patients-minimally-conscious-state-capable.html Neuroscience Tue, 16 Aug 2011 12:29:55 EST news232716572 A new study has found that patients with mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI) exhibit abnormal functional connectivity in the thalamus, a centrally located relay station for transmitting information throughout the brain. The results of the study appear online in the journal Radiology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-brain-disrupted-patients-post-concussive-syndrome.html Neuroscience Tue, 26 Jul 2011 03:43:42 EST news230870598 Brain damage can cause significant changes in behaviour, such as loss of cognitive skills, but also reveals much about how the nervous system deals with consciousness. New findings reported in the July 2011 issue of Elsevier's Cortex demonstrate how the unconscious brain continues to process information even when the conscious brain is incapacitated. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-brain-patient-doesnt.html Neuroscience Thu, 14 Jul 2011 09:54:51 EST news229856074