Brain News and Research

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The human brain is the center of the human nervous system and is a highly complex organ. Enclosed in the cranium, it has the same general structure as the brains of other mammals, but is over three times as large as the brain of a typical mammal with an equivalent body size.

Abused or neglected children are more likely to develop heart disease as adults

The study is the first to suggest that ischemic heart disease in adulthood may be a possible long-term consequence of childhood trauma.

22 Sep 2004

Whooping cough at highest levels since 1997 in Western Australia

Western Australia is experiencing the highest level of whooping cough (pertussis) notifications since 1997, when more than 1200 cases were notified.

22 Sep 2004

Experimental drug PKC412 may be the key to treating myeloproliferative disease

Scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women's Hospital have prolonged the lives of mice with a rare blood disorder by using an experimental drug that blocks signals promoting runaway growth of blood cells.

21 Sep 2004

New gene therapy technique may help treat Alzheimer's disease

Investigators at Rush University Medical Center have successfully initiated a new technique that uses gene therapy to deliver nerve growth factor into regions of the brain where neurons are degenerating, in order to prevent cell death and reverse cell atrophy, two hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease.

21 Sep 2004

Walking helps elderly men stave off dementia and Alzheimer's disease

Elderly men who are sedentary or walk less than a quarter of a mile per day are nearly twice as likely to develop dementia and Alzheimer's disease compared to men who walk more than two miles per day, according to a study of over 2,200 Japanese-American men in Hawaii.

21 Sep 2004

Evidence pointing to chronic cellular inflammation as the precursor of heart disease and diabetes

Endocrinologists from the University at Buffalo are providing one more link in the growing chain of evidence pointing to chronic cellular inflammation as the precursor of heart disease and diabetes.

21 Sep 2004

World's most powerful magnetic resonance imaging machine for human studies

The University of Illinois at Chicago unveiled today the world's most powerful magnetic resonance imaging machine for human studies, capable of imaging not just the anatomy but metabolism within the brain.

21 Sep 2004

Salt Association hits back at “Sid the Slug” campaign

The Salt Manufacturers Association has lodged a complaint with the Advertising Standards Authority over the use of a cartoon slug to front a new £4 million salt restriction campaign.

20 Sep 2004

New imaging analysis techniques to probe causes of dyslexia

Using sophisticated new software that integrates a variety of imaging methods, Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center researchers will probe the mystery of what causes dyslexia with a four-year, $2.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health.

20 Sep 2004

Certain cancers might one day be cured without the use of toxic chemotherapy and radiation

The eradication of brain tumors in mice following treatment with a novel drug suggests that certain cancers might one day be cured without the use of toxic chemotherapy and radiation.

20 Sep 2004

Research may provide a better understanding of the mental retardation observed in Cri-du-Chat Syndrome

By specifically deleting the adhesion protein d-catenin, which is found exclusively in the brain, researchers at UCLA have found evidence that loss of d-catenin produces severe cognitive and synaptic dysfunction.

20 Sep 2004

Link between mother’s stress levels during pregnancy and the effect on the brain of her unborn baby

An intriguing link between a mother’s stress levels during pregnancy and the effect on the brain of her unborn baby is revealed in a new study of children born in Bristol, England.

20 Sep 2004

Discovery of dopamine terminal injury in brains of people with HIV dementia

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory have discovered a key mechanism in the brains of people with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) dementia.

20 Sep 2004

Non-human primates should never be considered as source animals for any future clinical trials of animal-to-human transplantation

Australia’s leading health advisory body, the National Health and Medical Research Council, says there should be a five-year moratorium on any clinical research into animal-to-human whole organ transplants in Australia.

20 Sep 2004

Breakthrough in spinal regeneration research

University of Queensland researchers are claiming a breakthrough in spinal regeneration research with the discovery of a molecule that blocks regrowth of damaged nerve processes.

20 Sep 2004

Immunoglobulins may help patients with Alzheimer’s

Immunoglobulins which are already being used to treat multiple sclerosis may also be able to help patients with Alzheimer’s. This, at least, is the finding of a pilot study on five patients at the University of Bonn.

20 Sep 2004

40 percent of women of childbearing age take folic acid

A record 40 percent of American women of childbearing age reported taking a daily multivitamin containing folic acid in 2004, up from 32 percent last year and the highest level since the March of Dimes began surveying women in the 1990s, according to the organization's latest survey, which was published today in Morbidity & Mortality Weekly Report.

18 Sep 2004

New culprit behind the brain injury suffered by stroke victims

Researchers have uncovered a new culprit behind the brain injury suffered by stroke victims. Their new study, published in the Sept. 17 issue of Cell, links brain cell damage to a rise in brain acidity following the oxygen depletion, or ischemia, characteristic of stroke.

18 Sep 2004

Nicaraguan deaf children create a new sign language entirely their own

At a school in Managua, Nicaragua, deaf children are speaking a new language entirely their own, which nonetheless has remarkable similarities to the world's other languages. Researchers studying these similarities suggest this week in Science that, in fact, children give language its most fundamental, universal features just by the way they learn it.

18 Sep 2004