Researchers Use Brain Injury Data to Map Intelligence in the Brain
Scientists report that they have mapped the physical architecture of intelligence in the brain. Theirs is one of the largest and most comprehensive analyses so far of the brain structures vital to general intelligence and to specific aspects of intellectual functioning, such as verbal comprehension and working memory. Their study, published in Brain: A Journal [...]
New Finding Offers Neurological Support for Adam Smith’s Theories of Morality
The part of the brain we use when engaging in egalitarian behavior may also be linked to a larger sense of morality, researchers have found. Their conclusions, which offer scientific support for Adam Smith’s theories of morality, are based on experimental research published in the latest issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of [...]
Researchers Partially Control a Memory
Scripps Research Institute Team Wrests Partial Control of a Memory The work advances understanding of how memories form and offers new insight into disorders such as schizophrenia and post traumatic stress disorder. Scripps Research Institute scientists and their colleagues have successfully harnessed neurons in mouse brains, allowing them to at least partially control a specific [...]
Genetic Manipulation Boosts Growth of Brain Cells Linked to Learning, Enhances Effects of Antidepressants
Southwestern Medical Center investigators have identified a genetic manipulation that increases the development of neurons in the brain during aging and enhances the effect of antidepressant drugs. The research finds that deleting the Nf1 gene in mice results in long-lasting improvements in neurogenesis, which in turn makes those in the test group more sensitive to the [...]
Brain Differences Seen at 6 Months in Infants Who Develop Autism
Researchers have found significant differences in brain development in infants as young as six months old who later develop autism, compared with babies who don’t develop the disorder. The study, by scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and other centers, involved infants considered [...]
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 published today in the American Journal of Psychiatry. Dr Paolo Fusar-Poli and [...]
Researchers Induce Alzheimer’s Neurons from Pluripotent Stem Cells
First-ever feat provides new method to understand cause of disease, develop drugs Led by researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, scientists have, for the first time, created stem cell-derived, in vitro models of sporadic and hereditary Alzheimer’s disease (AD), using induced pluripotent stem cells from patients with the much-dreaded neurodegenerative [...]
A First: Brain Support Cells from Umbilical Cord Stem Cells
For the first time ever, stem cells from umbilical cords have been converted into other types of cells, which may eventually lead to new treatment options for spinal cord injuries and multiple sclerosis, among other nervous system diseases. “This is the first time this has been done with non-embryonic stem cells,” says James Hickman, a [...]
Brain Function – A New Way to Measure the Burden of Aging Across Nations
Cognitive function may be a better indicator of the impact of aging on an economy than age-distribution, with chronological age imposing less of a social and economic burden if the population is “functionally” younger, according to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study finds that one standardized indicator [...]
IOM Report Recommends Stringent Limits On Use Of Chimpanzees in Biomedical and Behavioral Research
Given that chimpanzees are so closely related to humans and share similar behavioral traits, the National Institutes of Health should allow their use as subjects in biomedical research only under stringent conditions, including the absence of any other suitable model and inability to ethically perform the research on people, says a new report from the [...]
