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Nerve stimulation for severe depression changes brain function

For nearly a decade, doctors have used an implanted electronic stimulator to treat severe depression in people who don't respond to standard antidepressant therapy.

Psychology & Psychiatry created May 07, 2013 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Fighting disease deep inside the brain

Some 90,000 patients per year are treated for Parkinson's disease, a number that is expected to rise by 25 percent annually. Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS), which consists of electrically stimulating the central or peripheral ...

Parkinson's & Movement disorders created Feb 18, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0

Our primitive reflexes may be more sophisticated than they appear, study shows

Supposedly 'primitive' reflexes may involve more sophisticated brain function than previously thought, according to researchers at Imperial College London.

Neuroscience created Feb 14, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Realizing the potential of stem cell therapy

New animal studies provide additional support for investigating stem cell treatments for Parkinson's disease, head trauma, and dangerous heart problems that accompany spinal cord injury, according to research findings released ...

Neuroscience created Oct 15, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Two bionic ears are better than the sum of their parts

Cochlear implants—electronic devices surgically implanted in the ear to help provide a sense of sound—have been successfully used since the late 1980's. But questions remain as to whether bilateral cochlear ...

Medical research created Sep 20, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Hormone research could have hopeful implications for both underweight and overweight people

The appetite is controlled via a complex system that involves the hypothalamus, the brainstem and the cerebral cortex. Hormones also have an important role to play in this system. Researchers from the Clinical ...

Overweight and Obesity created Sep 13, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Master gene affects neurons that govern breathing at birth and in adulthood

When mice are born lacking the master gene Atoh1, none breathe well and all die in the newborn period. Why and how this occurs could provide new answers about sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), but the solution has remained ...

Neuroscience created Sep 06, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

'Mad cow disease' in cattle can spread widely in ANS before detectable in CNS

Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, or "mad cow disease") is a fatal disease in cattle that causes portions of the brain to turn sponge-like. This transmissible disease is caused by the propagation of a misfolded form ...

Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes created Jul 09, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Out of the shadows: Freeing families from mitochondrial inherited disease

(Medical Xpress) -- Mitochondrial inherited diseases (MIDs) can devastate families, but there is hope in the form of new techniques to prevent them passing from mother to child. Anjana Ahuja speaks to the ...

Medical research created Jun 12, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Study finds mutations tied to aggressive childhood brain tumors

Researchers studying a rare, lethal childhood tumor of the brainstem discovered that nearly 80 percent of the tumors have mutations in genes not previously tied to cancer. Early evidence suggests the alterations play a unique ...

Genetics created Jan 29, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Key regulatory genes often amplified in aggressive childhood tumor of the brainstem

The largest study ever of a rare childhood brain tumor found more than half the tumors carried extra copies of specific genes linked to cancer growth, according to research led by St. Jude Children's Research Hospital investigators.

Cancer created Sep 19, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast

A mutation in a protein-sorting gene is linked with Parkinson's disease

Parkinson disease (PD) is a devastating incurable disease in which degeneration of dopamine neurons in the brainstem leads to tremors and problems with movement and coordination. An increasing proportion of patients appear ...

Genetics created Jul 14, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Brainstem

In vertebrate anatomy the brainstem (or brain stem) is the posterior part of the brain, adjoining and structurally continuous with the spinal cord. The brain stem provides the main motor and sensory innervation to the face and neck via the cranial nerves. Though small, this is an extremely important part of the brain as the nerve connections of the motor and sensory systems from the main part of the brain to the rest of the body pass through the brain stem. This includes the corticospinal tract (motor), the posterior column-medial lemniscus pathway (fine touch, vibration sensation and proprioception) and the spinothalamic tract (pain, temperature, itch and crude touch). The brain stem also plays an important role in the regulation of cardiac and respiratory function. It also regulates the central nervous system, and is pivotal in maintaining consciousness and regulating the sleep cycle.

It is usually described as including the medulla oblongata (myelencephalon), pons (part of metencephalon), and midbrain (mesencephalon). Less frequently, parts of the diencephalon are included.

For more information about Brainstem, read the full article at Wikipedia.
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