http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. (Medical Xpress) -- Neuroscientists are exploring the structural changes in the brain’s white and grey matter that underlie learning. Understanding the precise cellular nature of those changes may improve diagnosis of brain damage and therapeutic interventions in stroke. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-brain.html Neuroscience Tue, 06 Dec 2011 08:20:03 EST news242381100 Using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to study the effects of soccer 'heading,' researchers have found that players who head the ball with high frequency have brain abnormalities similar to those found in traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients. Results of their study were presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-soccer-ball-brain-injury.html Health Tue, 29 Nov 2011 01:46:55 EST news241753597 (Medical Xpress) -- Distinct neural pathways are important for different aspects of language processing, researchers have discovered, studying patients with language impairments caused by neurodegenerative diseases. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-brain-words-sentences.html Neuroscience Thu, 24 Nov 2011 07:58:12 EST news241343822 Images of prisoners' brains show important differences between those who are diagnosed as psychopaths and those who aren't, according to a new study led by University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-psychopaths-brains-differences-function.html Neuroscience Tue, 22 Nov 2011 17:23:14 EST news241204985 Pediatric neuroscientists at Oregon Health & Science University Doernbecher Children's Hospital are the first to use high magnetic field strength MRI to reveal tiny white matter injuries in the developing brain previously undetectable using standard MRI. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-high-field-mri-brain-reveals-previously.html Neuroscience Mon, 07 Nov 2011 13:16:19 EST news239894161 Researchers from the Department of Neurology at NYU Langone Medical Center identified for the first time that changes in the tissue located at the junction between the outer and inner layers of the brain, called "blurring", may be an important, non-invasive biomarker for earlier diagnosis and the development of new therapies for degenerative brain conditions, such as multiple sclerosis. The study was published in the Oct. 26th issue of the Journal of Neuroscience. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-neurologists-potential-biomarker-cognitive-decline.html Neuroscience Mon, 31 Oct 2011 17:27:12 EST news239300820 Researchers at UCLA have found a possible explanation for why autistic children act and think differently than their peers. For the first time, they've shown that the connections between brain regions that are important for language and social skills grow much more slowly in boys with autism than in non-autistic children. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-autistic-brains-slowly-healthy.html Neuroscience Thu, 20 Oct 2011 14:02:36 EST news238338147 Differentiating between the various forms of dementia is crucial for initiating appropriate treatment. Researchers at the Sahlgrenska Academy have discovered that the underlying diseases leave different "fingerprints" in the cerebrospinal fluid, paving the way for more reliable diagnoses. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-biological-fingerprints-diagnosis-dementia.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Tue, 04 Oct 2011 15:36:25 EST news236961372 Through the identification of a gene's impact on a signaling pathway, scientists at Children's National Medical Center continue to make progress in understanding the mechanics of a key brain developmental process: growth and repair of white matter, known as myelination. The study, published online in the September 2011 online edition of The Journal of Neuroscience, identified Sox17 as the gene that helps regulate the Wnt/beta-catenin signaling pathway during the transition of oligodendrocyte progenitor cells, or immature brain cells, to a more mature, differentiated state where they generate myelin. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-breakthrough-white.html Neuroscience Thu, 29 Sep 2011 13:50:01 EST news236521706 The human brain doesn't stop developing at adolescence, but continues well into our 20s, demonstrates recent research from the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry at the University of Alberta. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-brain-20s.html Neuroscience Thu, 22 Sep 2011 13:00:05 EST news235914438 A Montreal-led international team has identified the mutated gene responsible for three forms of leukodystrophies, a group of childhood-onset neurodegenerative disorders. Mutations in this gene were identified in individuals from around the world but one mutation occurs more frequently in French-Canadian patients from Quebec. Published in the September issue of the American Journal of Human Genetics and selected for the Editors' Corner of the journal, the findings are crucial to the development of diagnostic tests and genetic counseling for families, and provide insights into a new mechanism for these disorders of the brain. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-gene-responsible-childhood-neurodegenerative-diseases.html Genetics Mon, 12 Sep 2011 16:13:43 EST news235062764 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 (Medical Xpress) -- In a new study published in Nature Neuroscience, a team of researchers revealed the discovery of a key protein necessary for nerve repair and could lead to the development of a treatment for brain injuries due to a lack of oxygen, such a cerebral palsy, as well as multiple sclerosis, an autoimmune disease that affects adults all over the world. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-06-infant-brain-injuries-cerebral-palsy.html Neuroscience Mon, 27 Jun 2011 06:20:01 EST news228366899 (PhysOrg.com) -- Obesity is today one of the most prevalent medical conditions, and has a major impact on health. Recent studies have also shown a relationship between weight and brain structure. Obesity has been associated with a reduced total brain volume and diminished gray matter density. The research team at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig, together with the Department of Endocrinology, University Clinic Leipzig, Integrated Research and Treatment Center Adiposity Diseases Leipzig and the University College London have shown a gender-dependent relationship between being overweight and brain structure in the brain’s white matter. (PLoS ONE, April 11, 2011.) http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-04-effects-obesity-brain-evidence-sex-related.html Neuroscience Tue, 19 Apr 2011 06:29:29 EST news222413335