http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. New research shows that craving drugs such as nicotine can be visualized in specific regions of the brain that are implicated in determining the value of actions, in planning actions and in motivation. Dr. Alain Dagher, from McGill University, suggests abnormal interactions between these decision-making brain regions could underlie addiction. These results were presented at the 2013 Canadian Neuroscience Meeting, the annual meeting of the Canadian Association for Neuroscience - Association Canadienne des Neurosciences (CAN-ACN). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-addiction-disorder-decision-making.html Neuroscience Wed, 22 May 2013 09:51:13 EST news288435064 Cigarette smoking is the leading cause of preventable deaths globally. Unfortunately smoking cessation is difficult, with more than 90% of attempts to quit resulting in relapse. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-brain-blunts-cigarette-craving.html Psychology & Psychiatry Tue, 16 Apr 2013 07:52:35 EST news285317548 Tiina Näsi, a researcher of biomedical engineering at Aalto University, studied in her doctoral thesis the use of light in measuring the brain's blood circulation. This optical measurement may in the future help discover the cause of sleep disorders as well as their close connection with cardiovascular diseases. The method is currently being tested in a hospital. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-doctoral-dissertation-cerebral-circulation.html Medical research Fri, 12 Apr 2013 06:16:32 EST news284966182 Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is being increasingly explored as a therapeutic tool for movement disorders associated with deficient inhibition throughout the central nervous system. This includes treatment of focal hand dystonia (FHD), characterized by involuntary movement of the fingers either curling into the palm or extending outward. A new study published in Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience reports short-term changes in behavioral, physiologic, and clinical measures that support further research into the therapeutic potential of rTMS. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-short-term-benefits-repetitive-transcranial-magnetic.html Neuroscience Tue, 09 Apr 2013 13:28:25 EST news284732815 By stimulating one part of the brain with laser light, researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center at UC San Francisco (UCSF) have shown that they can wipe away addictive behavior in rats – or conversely turn non-addicted rats into compulsive cocaine seekers. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-laser-zaps-cocaine-addiction.html Neuroscience Wed, 03 Apr 2013 13:24:07 EST news284214213 Cognitive impairments are disabling for individuals with schizophrenia, and no satisfactory treatments currently exist. These impairments affect a wide range of cognition, including memory, attention, verbal and motor skills, and IQ. They appear in the earliest stages of the disease and disrupt or even prevent normal day-to-day functioning. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-brain-magnetic-memory-schizophrenia.html Psychology & Psychiatry Tue, 12 Mar 2013 12:03:32 EST news282308606 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 By using noninvasive stimulation, researchers were able to temporarily improve the ability of people with spinal cord injuries to use their hands. The findings, reported on November 29th in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, hold promise in treating thousands of people in the United States alone who are partially paralyzed due to spinal cord injury. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-spinal-cord-injury-noninvasive.html Neuroscience Thu, 29 Nov 2012 12:59:22 EST news273416324 (HealthDay)—Only a few physical therapy (PT) interventions are effective for knee pain secondary to osteoarthritis, specifically exercise and ultrasonography, according to a review published in the Nov. 6 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-pt-interventions-effective-knee-osteoarthritis.html Arthritis & Rheumatism Tue, 06 Nov 2012 16:17:42 EST news271441055 While powerful magnetic stimulation of the frontal lobe of the brain can alleviate symptoms of depression, those receiving the treatment did not report effects on sleep or arousal commonly seen with antidepressant medications, researchers say. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-magnetic-brain-depression-independent-effect.html Neuroscience Fri, 26 Oct 2012 11:30:01 EST news270469517 (Medical Xpress)—Scientists have known for many years that human beings, as a general rule, are an overly optimistic bunch. We close our eyes to statistics suggesting our eating habits may be killing us, ignore warnings about texting while driving and almost always believe things will come out all right in the end if we'll just hang in there, despite sometimes obvious indications to the contrary. Research has suggested that two specific symmetrically opposite parts of the brain influence our optimism or pessimism, but until now haven't been able to offer direct proof. Now however, new research by a group of neuroscientists has found, as they describe in their paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, that turning off one of these areas via magnetic pulses dramatically reduces overly optimistic tendencies. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-magnetic-pulses-brain-overly-optimistic.html Neuroscience Tue, 25 Sep 2012 06:15:06 EST news267772489 Kangaroo Mother Care—a technique in which a breastfed premature infant remains in skin-to-skin contact with the parent's chest rather than being placed in an incubator—has lasting positive impact on brain development, revealed Université Laval researchers in the October issue of Acta Paediatrica. Very premature infants who benefited from this technique had better brain functioning in adolescence—comparable to that of adolescents born at term—than did premature infants placed in incubators. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-preemies-brains-reap-long-term-benefits.html Pediatrics Wed, 19 Sep 2012 11:11:15 EST news267271836 Loyola University Medical Center is studying whether a new form of non-invasive magnetic therapy can help people who suffer debilitating tinnitus (ringing in the ears). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-magnetic-therapy-effective-tinnitus.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Tue, 18 Sep 2012 17:51:03 EST news267209457 In one of the first studies to look at transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) in real-world clinical practice settings, researchers at Butler Hospital, along with colleagues across the U.S., confirmed that TMS is an effective treatment for patients with depression who are unable to find symptom relief through antidepressant medications. The study findings are published online in the June 11, 2012 edition of Depression and Anxiety in the Wiley Online Library. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-efficacy-transcranial-magnetic-depression.html Psychology & Psychiatry Thu, 26 Jul 2012 16:14:39 EST news262537986 (Medical Xpress) -- New research developed by The University of Queensland is set to change the future treatment of speech problems associated with stroke and Parkinson's disease. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-treatment-news-parkinson-patients.html Parkinson's & Movement disorders Wed, 11 Jul 2012 04:32:55 EST news261199935 (Medical Xpress) -- Using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), an international team led by French researchers from the Centre de Recherche de l'Institut du Cerveau (CNRS) has succeeded in enhancing the visual abilities of a group of healthy subjects. Following stimulation of an area of the brain's right hemisphere involved in perceptual awareness and in orienting spatial attention, the subjects appeared more likely to perceive a target appearing on a screen. This work, published in the journal PLoS ONE, could lead to the development of novel rehabilitation techniques for certain visual disorders. In addition, it could help improve the performance of individuals whose tasks require very high precision. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-magnetic-visual-perception.html Neuroscience Tue, 05 Jun 2012 06:23:49 EST news258096222 The United States military and intelligence communities have developed a close relationship with the scientific establishment. In particular, they fund and utilize an array of neuroscience applications, generating profound ethical issues. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-ethical-considerations-military-funded-neuroscience.html Other Tue, 20 Mar 2012 17:00:13 EST news251480970 Impaired social function is a cardinal symptom of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). One of the brain circuits that enable us to relate to other people is the "mirror neuron" system. This brain circuit is activated when we watch other people, and allows our brains to represent the actions of others, influencing our ability to learn new tasks and to understand the intentions and experiences of other people. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-mirror-brain-autism.html Autism spectrum disorders Fri, 02 Mar 2012 12:06:37 EST news249912274 (Medical Xpress) -- A new magnetic therapy that treats major depression recently received a major boost when the government announced Medicare will cover the procedure in Illinois. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-magnetic-therapy-popular-depression.html Psychology & Psychiatry Mon, 06 Feb 2012 06:40:01 EST news247731078 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 Imagine waking up and being unable to see or recognize anything on the left side of your body. This condition, called hemispatial neglect, is common after a stroke that occurs on the right side of the brain. The current treatment of attention and concentration training using computer and pencil-and-paper tasks is inadequate. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-magnetic-brain-patients-recover.html Neuroscience Wed, 14 Dec 2011 16:38:23 EST news243103092 Someone with the condition known as grapheme-color synesthesia might experience the number 2 in turquoise or the letter S in magenta. Now, researchers reporting their findings online in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on November 17 have shown that those individuals also show heightened activity in a brain region responsible for vision. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-brain-explores-collide.html Neuroscience Thu, 17 Nov 2011 15:50:01 EST news240765263 (Medical Xpress) -- Magnetic stimulation of the brain could help improve language skills of stroke survivors with aphasia, according to research by The University of Queensland. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-magnetic-treatment-patients-ability.html Neuroscience Tue, 15 Nov 2011 12:00:02 EST news240579236 Targeted brain stimulation increases cigarette cravings, a new study in Biological Psychiatry has found, which may ultimately lead to new treatments that reverse these effects. Cues associated with cigarette smoking, such as watching someone else smoke, elicit craving and may provoke relapse when smokers are attempting to quit. There are many methods that smokers use in an attempt to reduce their craving for cigarettes, including efficacious pharmacologic treatments such as nicotine patches, and alternative approaches such as hypnosis and acupuncture. Scientists have long suspected that these diverse approaches might work through a common mechanism -- the reduction of activity in a brain circuit that is responsible for cigarette craving. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-craving-cigarettes-brain.html Psychology & Psychiatry Mon, 31 Oct 2011 10:36:18 EST news239276169 (Medical Xpress) -- Historically, perceptual and response rates when multitasking have been interpreted as being limited by independent bottlenecks. While a more recent view suggests that a common bottleneck might be the cause, experimental evidence for its existence have not been determinative. Recently, however, researchers at Vanderbilt University used time-resolved functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) – where both the topography and temporal sequence of cortical activation across brain regions is examined – to identify a unified attentional bottleneck – a network of regions that apparently limits the speeds at which perceptual encoding and decision-making can occur. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-fast-thought-perception-limited-neocortical.html Neuroscience Wed, 24 Aug 2011 08:59:42 EST news233395134 Hearing Beethoven while reciting Shakespeare can suppress even a King's stutter, as recently illustrated in the movie "The King's Speech". This dramatic but short-lived effect of hiding the sound of one's own speech indicates that the integration of hearing and motor functions plays some role in the fluency (or dysfluency) of speech. New research has shown that in adults who have stuttered since childhood the processes of auditory-motor integration are indeed located in a different part of the brain to those in adults who do not stutter. The findings are reported in the September 2011 issue of Elsevier's Cortex. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-profound-brains-adults-stutter.html Neuroscience Mon, 15 Aug 2011 10:46:19 EST news232623957 As any student who's had to study for multiple exams can tell you, trying to learn two different sets of facts one after another is challenging. As you study for the physics exam, almost inevitably some of the information for the history exam is forgotten. It's been widely believed that this interference between memories develops because the brain simply doesn't have the capacity necessary to process both memories in quick succession. But is this truly the case? http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-memory-.html Neuroscience Fri, 08 Jul 2011 13:36:11 EST news229350874