http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. (Medical Xpress)—Scientists from the United States and Australia have advanced our understanding of brain plasticity by showing that the brain forms complex new circuits after damage, often far from the damaged site, to compensate for lost function. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-evidence-brains-re-wire-injury.html Neuroscience Wed, 15 May 2013 09:30:06 EST news287827520 Congenital amusia is a disorder characterized by impaired musical skills, which can extend to an inability to recognize very familiar tunes. The neural bases of this deficit are now being deciphered. According to a study conducted by researchers from CNRS and Inserm at the Centre de Recherche en Neurosciences de Lyon, amusics exhibit altered processing of musical information in two regions of the brain: the auditory cortex and the frontal cortex, particularly in the right cerebral hemisphere. These alterations seem to be linked to anatomical anomalies in these same cortices. This work, published in May in the journal Brain, adds invaluable information to our understanding of amusia and, more generally, of the "musical brain", in other words the cerebral networks involved in the processing of music. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-musical-memory-deficits-auditory-cortex.html Neuroscience Wed, 01 May 2013 08:30:36 EST news286615829 (Medical Xpress)—The ability to short-circuit debilitating tremors in disease states with implantable stimulators is nothing short of remarkable. The same can be said for cochlear prosthetics which restore hearing, and more recently, retinal implants which give some rudimentary light-sensing capability to the blind. The logical extension of these sensorimotor restorative devices converges upon something a bit more extravagant—a purely cognitive implant—namely, the memory prosthetic. At the present time, there is only one researcher that has consistently demonstrated command of the technologies which would make such a device possible. Ted Berger, and his group from the University of Southern California, have recently extended their initial efforts to develop hippocampal memory devices in mice, to create full frontal cortex implants for primates. Berger published the initial results of these studies last September, in the Journal of Neural Engineering. This June, he will be a featured speaker at the Global Futures 2045 International Congress in New York, which will spot several visionaries in neuroscience and AI. Before he runs away with the show, it important to take a closer look at the exact methods he is using, and also the assumptions about possible neural codes upon which they are built. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-neural-codes-memory-implants.html Neuroscience Wed, 24 Apr 2013 11:38:48 EST news286022299 (Medical Xpress)—The existential psychologist Rollo May wrote that "depression is the inability to construct a future"1 while Lionel Tiger stated that "optimism has been central to the process of human evolution"2. These deceptively simple phrases are remarkable in their depth and the connections they form between philosophy, psychology and neuroscience. Both capture the essence of human nature by articulating their insight that our ability to imagine and plan for the future is not only one of the most striking aspects of our species, but also that the inability to exercise this faculty is profoundly damaging to our happiness and sense of self. Two concepts related to these observations are depressive realism – the assertion that people with depression actually have a more accurate perception of reality, and moreover are less affected by its counterpoint, the superiority illusion. The superiority illusion is a cognitive bias by which individuals, relative to others, overestimate their positive qualities and abilities (such as intelligence, cognitive ability, and desirable traits) and underestimate their negative qualities. (Other cognitive biases include optimism bias and illusion of control.) While mathematically flawed – given a normal population distribution, most people are not above average – the superiority illusion is a positive belief that promotes mental health. Recently, scientists at the National Institute of Radiological Sciences (Chiba, Japan), the Japan Science and Technology Agency (Saitama), and Stanford University School of Medicine used resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and positron emission tomography (PET) to study the default states of neural and molecular systems that generate the superiority illusion. They showed that resting-state functional connectivity between the frontal cortex and striatum regulated by inhibitory dopaminergic neurotransmission determines individual levels of the superiority illusion. The scientists state that their findings help clarify how the superiority illusion is biologically determined and identify potential molecular and neural targets for treating depressive realism. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-neuromolecular-foundations-superiority-illusion.html Neuroscience Tue, 02 Apr 2013 09:49:17 EST news284114918 Short bouts of moderately intense exercise seem to boost self control, indicates an analysis of the published evidence in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-short-bouts-boost.html Health Wed, 06 Mar 2013 18:30:03 EST news281808893 Addiction may result from abnormal brain circuitry in the frontal cortex, the part of the brain that controls decision-making. Researchers from the RIKEN Center for Molecular Imaging Science in Japan collaborating with colleagues from the Montreal Neurological Institute of McGill University in Canada report today that the lateral and orbital regions of the frontal cortex interact during the response to a drug-related cue and that aberrant interaction between the two frontal regions may underlie addiction. Their results are published today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-fmri-uncovers-neural-mechanism-underlying.html Neuroscience Mon, 28 Jan 2013 15:00:12 EST news278590198 Humans and other animals learn by making mistakes. They can also learn from observing the mistakes of others. The brain processes self-generated errors in a region called the medial frontal cortex (MFC) but little is known about how it processes the observed errors of others. A Japanese research team led by Masaki Isoda and Atsushi Iriki of the RIKEN Brain Science Institute has now demonstrated that the MFC is also involved in processing observed errors. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-brain-monkeys.html Neuroscience Fri, 11 Jan 2013 07:13:19 EST news277110790 Seniors who have spoken two languages since childhood are faster than single-language speakers at switching from one task to another, according to a study published in the January 9 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience. Compared to their monolingual peers, lifelong bilinguals also show different patterns of brain activity when making the switch, the study found. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-cognitive-benefit-lifelong-bilingualism.html Neuroscience Tue, 08 Jan 2013 17:00:01 EST news276874813 A monkey would probably never agree that it is better to give than to receive, but they do apparently get some reward from giving to another monkey. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-decision-group-effort-brain.html Neuroscience Sun, 23 Dec 2012 13:00:30 EST news275488984 A new study published November 20 in the open-access journal PLOS Biology has identified hundreds of small regions of the genome that appear to be uniquely regulated in human neurons. These regulatory differences distinguish us from other primates, including monkeys and apes, and as neurons are at the core of our unique cognitive abilities, these features may ultimately hold the key to our intellectual prowess (and also to our potential vulnerability to a wide range of 'human-specific' diseases from autism to Alzheimer's). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-evolution-human-intellect-human-specific-neuronal.html Genetics Tue, 20 Nov 2012 17:00:03 EST news272647874 Neuroscientists studying the link between poor sleep and schizophrenia have found that irregular sleep patterns and desynchronised brain activity during sleep could trigger some of the disease's symptoms. The findings, published in the journal Neuron, suggest that these prolonged disturbances might be a cause and not just a consequence of the disorder's debilitating effects. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-poor-contribute-symptoms-schizophrenia.html Neuroscience Wed, 14 Nov 2012 13:30:55 EST news272122233 Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) investigators have led the first genome-wide evaluation of genetic variants associated with Parkinson's disease (PD). The study, which is published online in PLOS ONE, points to the involvement of specific genes and alterations in their expression as influencing the risk for developing PD. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-genetic-variants-role-parkinson-disease.html Parkinson's & Movement disorders Sat, 06 Oct 2012 07:37:34 EST news268727820 (Medical Xpress) -- While most of us have been wrapped up in the competitive spirit of the Olympic Games, two University of Otago researchers have been busy teasing out what exactly in the brain drives competitive behaviour. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-glimpse-competitive-brain.html Neuroscience Mon, 13 Aug 2012 04:00:58 EST news264049224 Has a summer cold or mold allergy stuffed up your nose and dampened your sense of smell? We take it for granted that once our nostrils clear, our sniffers will dependably rebound and alert us to a lurking neighborhood skunk or a caramel corn shop ahead. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-skunk-cold-brain-stuffed-nose.html Neuroscience Sun, 12 Aug 2012 13:00:17 EST news263919216 Raising levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine in the frontal cortex of the brain significantly decreased impulsivity in healthy adults, in a study conducted by researchers at the Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center at the University of California, San Francisco. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-dopamine-brain-frontal-cortex-decreases.html Neuroscience Wed, 25 Jul 2012 12:38:41 EST news262438701 Treatment of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in children normalizes disturbances in the neuronal network responsible for attention and executive function, according to a new study. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-treatment-childhood-obstructive-apnea-reverses.html Sleep apnea Sun, 20 May 2012 13:31:15 EST news256739462 Scientists at Queen Mary, University of London have shown that zebrafish could be used to study the underlying causes of psychiatric disorders. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-zebrafish-key-psychiatric-disorders.html Neuroscience Thu, 17 May 2012 10:20:02 EST news256467189 (Medical Xpress) -- Poor Phineas Gage. In 1848, the supervisor for the Rutland and Burlington Railroad in Vermont was using a 13-pound, 3-foot-7-inch rod to pack blasting powder into a rock when he triggered an explosion that drove the rod through his left cheek and out of the top of his head. As reported at the time, the rod was later found, "smeared with blood and brains." http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-neurological-traumatic-brain-injury-survivor.html Neuroscience Thu, 17 May 2012 06:52:26 EST news256406147 Alcohol abuse and dependence are common problems in the United States due to a number of factors, two of which may be social drinking by college students and young adults, and risk taking that may lead to heavier drinking later in life. A study of the neural underpinnings of risk-taking in young, non-dependent social drinkers has found that the caudate nucleus and frontal cortex regions of the brain show less activation in people who drink more heavily. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-brain-caudate-nucleus-frontal-cortex.html Health Wed, 15 Feb 2012 16:00:02 EST news248541315 Life shrouds most choices in mystery. Some people inch toward a comfortable enough spot and stick close to that rewarding status quo. Out to dinner, they order the usual. Others consider their options systematically or randomly. But many choose to grapple with the uncertainty head on. "Explorers" order the special because they aren't sure they'll like it. It's a strategy of maximizing rewards by discovering whether as yet unexplored options might yield better returns. In a new study, Brown University researchers show that such explorers use a specific part of their brain to calculate the relative uncertainty of their choices, while non-explorers do not. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-explorers-embrace-uncertainty-choices-specific.html Neuroscience Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:00:05 EST news247918484 French scientists said on Tuesday that lack of a key brain protein was linked to Alzheimer's, a finding that threw up a tempting target for drugs to fight the disease. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-alzheimer-french-scientists-focus-key.html Neuroscience Tue, 24 Jan 2012 11:24:45 EST news246626648 In a new study scientists at NYU Langone Medical Center have shown that the sense of smell can be improved. The new findings, published online November 20, 2011, in Nature Neuroscience, suggest possible ways to reverse the loss of smell due to aging or disease. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-reversed.html Neuroscience Sun, 20 Nov 2011 13:00:02 EST news241014119 Researchers at Barrow Neurological Institute at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center have identified a new pathway of stem cell activity in the brain that represents potential targets of brain injuries affecting newborns. The recent study, which raises new questions of how the brain evolves, is published in the current issue of Nature, one of the world's most cited scientific journals. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-scientists-stem-cell-human-brain.html Medical research Wed, 28 Sep 2011 14:47:59 EST news236440069 (Medical Xpress) -- A region at the front of the brain 'lights up' when we experience beauty in a piece of art or a musical excerpt, according to new research funded by the Wellcome Trust. The study, published today in the open access journal PLoS One, suggests that the one characteristic that all works of art, whatever their nature, have in common is that they lead to activity in that same region of the brain, and goes some way to supporting the views of David Hume and others that beauty lies in the beholder rather than in the object. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-beauty-medial-orbito-frontal-cortex.html Neuroscience Wed, 06 Jul 2011 17:35:58 EST news229192522 People with primary insomnia may be able to find relief by wearing a cap that cools the brain during sleep, suggests a research abstract that will be presented Monday, June 13, in Minneapolis, Minn., at SLEEP 2011, the 25th Anniversary Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies LLC (APSS). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-06-cooling-brain-natural-effective-treatment.html Health Mon, 13 Jun 2011 09:50:01 EST news227176375 Neuroeconomic research at the University of Pennsylvania has conclusively identified a part of the brain that is necessary for making everyday decisions about value. Previous functional magnetic imaging studies, during which researchers use a powerful magnet to determine which parts of a subjects brain are most active while doing a task, have suggested that the ventromedial frontal cortex, or VMF, plays an evaluative role during decision making. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-region-brain-decisions-economic.html Neuroscience Wed, 18 May 2011 09:38:23 EST news224930251 (PhysOrg.com) -- In a new study published in Science, researchers from the University of Liege in Belgium, led by Dr. Melanie Boly, share the discovery of a new test that could aid physicians in differentiating between vegetative and minimally conscious states in patients with brain damage. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-distinguish-vegetative-minimally-conscious-state.html Neuroscience Fri, 13 May 2011 13:19:15 EST news224511523