http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. (Medical Xpress)—Deep brain stimulation (DBS) in a precise region of the brain appears to reduce caloric intake and prompt weight loss in obese animal models, according to a new study led by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania. The study, reported in the Journal of Neuroscience, reinforces the involvement of dopamine deficits in increasing obesity-related behaviors such as binge eating, and demonstrates that DBS can reverse this response via activation of the dopamine type-2 receptor. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-binge-curbed-deep-brain-animal.html Neuroscience Wed, 24 Apr 2013 08:57:42 EST news286012049 (Medical Xpress)—A study by researchers at the National Institutes of Health gives insight into changes in the reward circuitry of the brain that may provide resistance against cocaine addiction. Scientists found that strengthening signaling along a neural pathway that runs through the nucleus accumbens—a region of the brain involved in motivation, pleasure, and addiction—can reduce cocaine-seeking behavior in mice. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-pathway-cocaine-addiction.html Neuroscience Tue, 16 Apr 2013 05:53:06 EST news285310374 A new study reveals what happens in our brain when we decide to purchase a piece of music when we hear it for the first time. The study, conducted at the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital – The Neuro, McGill University and published in the journal Science on April 12, pinpoints the specific brain activity that makes new music rewarding and predicts the decision to purchase music. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-brain-music-rewarding.html Neuroscience Thu, 11 Apr 2013 14:55:26 EST news284910910 A drug widely used to treat Parkinson's Disease can help to reverse age-related impairments in decision making in some older people, a study from researchers at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging has shown. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-parkinsons-drug-older-people-decisions.html Neuroscience Sun, 24 Mar 2013 14:00:13 EST news283334994 Scientists have discovered a molecular process in the brain triggered by cocaine use that could provide a target for treatments to prevent or reverse addiction to the drug. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-discovery-yield-treatment-cocaine-addicts.html Neuroscience Fri, 15 Mar 2013 11:49:19 EST news282566950 (Medical Xpress)—Traditional methods of fMRI analysis systematically skew which regions of the brain appear to be activating, potentially invalidating hundreds of papers that use the technique. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-psychologists-uncover-brain-imaging-inaccuracies.html Neuroscience Fri, 08 Mar 2013 08:34:04 EST news281954033 (HealthDay)—Deep brain stimulation has helped people with severe obsessive-compulsive disorder, and new research begins to explain why. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-scientists-deep-brain-eases-ocd.html Neuroscience Sun, 24 Feb 2013 16:45:35 EST news280946727 Hunger, thirst, stress and drugs can create a change in the brain that transforms a repulsive feeling into a strong positive "wanting," a new University of Michigan study indicates. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-repulsive-desires.html Psychology & Psychiatry Wed, 06 Feb 2013 16:45:37 EST news279391526 (Medical Xpress)—Decreasing the level of a key brain protein led to significantly less drinking and alcohol-seeking behavior in rats and mice that had been trained to drink, according to a study by researchers at the Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center at UCSF. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-scientists-alcohol-abuse-medications.html Neuroscience Tue, 27 Nov 2012 06:19:02 EST news273219534 (Medical Xpress)—A new study by scientists in the US has found that the opiate morphine and the stimulant cocaine act on the reward centers in the brain in different ways, contradicting previous theories that these types of drugs acted in the same way. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-morphine-cocaine-affect-reward-sensation.html Medical research Fri, 05 Oct 2012 05:30:11 EST news268633788 (Medical Xpress)—Researchers working out of the University of Washington have found that a certain peptide normally involved in helping the brain experience pleasure is caused to switch when subjected to long term stress, leading to depression. The team in trying to understand why long term stress in people quite often leads to debilitating depression, ran some simple experiments in mice that showed, as they describe in their paper published in the journal Nature, that a peptide called corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF), normally involved in helping to release dopamine in a certain part of the brain, causing pleasurable feelings, switches to a non active state leading to symptoms of depression when the mice were exposed to a stress inducing environment. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-link-peptide-stress-depression.html Neuroscience Thu, 20 Sep 2012 06:29:33 EST news267341360 Washington State University researchers have found a cellular mechanism that contributes to the lack of motivation and negative emotions of a cocaine addict going through withdrawal. Their discovery, published in the latest Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, offers a deeper look into the cellular and behavioral implications of addiction. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-cocaine-emotional.html Medical research Mon, 10 Sep 2012 15:00:06 EST news266492009 Snack consumption and BMI are linked to both brain activity and self-control, new research has found. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-snacking-bmi-linked-effect-brain.html Neuroscience Mon, 23 Jul 2012 10:28:58 EST news262258133 Deep brain stimulation reduces binge eating in mice, suggesting that this surgery, which is approved for treatment of certain neurologic and psychiatric disorders, may also be an effective therapy for obesity. Presentation of the results will take place Sunday at The Endocrine Society's 94th Annual Meeting in Houston. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-binge-deep-brain-surgery.html Surgery Mon, 25 Jun 2012 13:40:01 EST news259848552 (Medical Xpress) -- Drinking alcohol leads to the release of endorphins in areas of the brain that produce feelings of pleasure and reward, according to a study led by researchers at the Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center at the University of California, San Francisco. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-clue-alcohol-addicting-brain-endorphins.html Neuroscience Wed, 11 Jan 2012 14:00:01 EST news245509528 Research published by Cell Press in the January 12 issue of the journal Neuron provides fascinating insight into a newly discovered brain mechanism that limits the rewarding impact of cocaine. The study describes protective delayed mechanism that turns off the genes that support the development of addiction-related behaviors. The findings may lead to a better understanding of vulnerability to addiction and as well as new strategies for treatment. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-brain-negative-impact-cocaine.html Neuroscience Wed, 11 Jan 2012 12:00:01 EST news245504340 (AP) -- Chennel King, a nurse from Norwalk, Conn., went Christmas shopping the other day with a new holiday companion: a budget. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-brain-strain-christmas-money-tight.html Psychology & Psychiatry Sun, 18 Dec 2011 12:26:55 EST news243433582 It is well established that a mood disorder can increase an individual's risk for substance abuse, but there is also evidence that the converse is true; substance abuse can increase a person's vulnerability to stress-related illnesses. Now, a new study finds that repeated cocaine use increases the severity of depressive-like responses in a mouse model of depression and identifies a mechanism that underlies this cocaine-induced vulnerability. The research, published by Cell Press in the August 25 issue of the journal Neuron, may guide development of new treatments for mood disorders associated with substance abuse. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-mechanism-links-substance-abuse-vulnerability.html Neuroscience Wed, 24 Aug 2011 13:10:21 EST news233410194 Research to be presented at the upcoming annual meeting of the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior (SSIB), the foremost society for research into all aspects of eating and drinking behavior, suggests that ghrelin, a naturally occurring gut hormone, increases our willingness to pay for food, while simultaneously decreasing our willingness to pay for non-food items. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-ghrelin-willingness-food.html Other Tue, 12 Jul 2011 05:22:29 EST news229666935 Long-term relationships make the commonly abused drug amphetamine less appealing, according to a new animal study in the June 1 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience. The findings suggest that social bonds formed during adulthood lead to changes in the brain that may protect against drug abuse. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-06-steady-relationships-amphetamine-rewarding-effects.html Neuroscience Wed, 01 Jun 2011 03:32:49 EST news226117831