Posts Tagged ‘brain research’
DNA Test that Identifies Down Syndrome in Pregnancy Can Also Detect Trisomy 18 and Trisomy 13
A newly available DNA-based prenatal blood test that can identify a pregnancy with Down syndrome can also identify two additional chromosome abnormalities: trisomy 18 (Edwards syndrome) and trisomy 13 (Patau syndrome).The test for all three defects can be offered as early [Read More]
Patients’ Brains May Adapt to ADHD Medication
New research reveals how the brain appears to adapt to compensate for the effects of long-term ADHD medication, suggesting why ADHD medication is more effective short-term than it is long-term. The study, from the Institute of Psychiatry (IoP) at King’s College London is [Read More]
Gene Regulator in Brain’s Executive Hub Tracked Across Lifespan
Mental illness suspect genes are among the most environmentally responsive. For the first time, scientists have tracked the activity, across the lifespan, of an environmentally responsive regulatory mechanism that turns genes on and off in the brain’s executive hub. [Read More]
Same Genes Linked to Early- and Late-Onset Alzheimer’s Disease
The same gene mutations linked to inherited, early-onset Alzheimer’s disease have been found in people with the more common late-onset form of the illness. The discovery by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis may lead doctors and [Read More]
Obesity Reduces the Size of Your Brain
New research from Uppsala University shows that a specific brain region linked to appetite regulation is reduced in elderly people who are obese. Poor eating habits over a lifetime may therefore weaken brain function that helps us to control our desire to eat. The findings [Read More]
Scientists Turn Skin Cells Into Neural Precursors, Bypassing Stem Cell Stage
Mouse skin cells can be converted directly into cells that become the three main parts of the nervous system, according to researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine. The finding is an extension of a previous study by the same group showing that mouse and [Read More]
Scientists Decode Brain Waves to Eavesdrop on What We Hear
Neuroscientists may one day be able to hear the imagined speech of a patient unable to speak due to stroke or paralysis, according to University of California, Berkeley, researchers. These scientists have succeeded in decoding electrical activity in the brain’s temporal [Read More]
Gene Mutation in Autism Found to Cause Hyperconnectivity in Brain’s Hearing Center
Hyperconnectivity triggered by loss of PTEN gene can be blocked by treatment with rapamycin. New research from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) might help explain how a gene mutation found in some autistic individuals leads to difficulties in processing auditory cues [Read More]
Short-term Memory is Based on Synchronized Brain Oscillations
Scientists have now discovered how different brain regions cooperate during short-term memory. Holding information within one’s memory for a short while is a seemingly simple and everyday task. We use our short-term memory when remembering a new telephone number if there [Read More]
Mom’s Love Good for Child’s Brain
School-age children whose mothers nurtured them early in life have brains with a larger hippocampus, a key structure important to learning, memory and response to stress. The new research, by child psychiatrists and neuroscientists at Washington University School of [Read More]
