Nervous System News and Research

Latest Nervous System News and Research

Weaker association between brain activity and cerebrospinal fluid flow increases the likelihood of Alzheimer's disease

New imaging research shows that brain activity during sleep was less connected with cerebrospinal fluid flow in patients with Alzheimer's disease.

1 Jun 2021

Little-known illnesses turning up in Covid long-haulers

The day Dr. Elizabeth Dawson was diagnosed with covid-19 in October, she awoke feeling as if she had a bad hangover. Four months later she tested negative for the virus, but her symptoms have only worsened.

1 Jun 2021

Cognitive reappraisal may reduce compulsive drug-seeking behavior in cocaine-addicted individuals

An emotion regulation strategy known as cognitive reappraisal helped reduce the typically heightened and habitual attention to drug-related cues and contexts in cocaine-addicted individuals, a study by Mount Sinai researchers has found.

31 May 2021

Researchers discover a new and unique form of ALS

In a study of 11 medical-mystery patients, an international team of researchers led by scientists at the National Institutes of Health and the Uniformed Services University discovered a new and unique form of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

31 May 2021

Inflammatory brain injury higher in men with acute COVID-19, finds study

The COVID-19 pandemic has been associated with both short- and long-term neurologic complications, including stroke, brain fog and persistent tiredness. A new study concludes that the effects of SARS-CoV-2 on the central nervous system (CNS) are due to the endothelial injury and inflammation that this produces in the brain.

31 May 2021

UVA researchers shed new light on brain development

University of Virginia School of Medicine researchers have shed new light on how our brains develop, revealing that the very last step in cell division is crucial for the brain to reach its proper size and function.

31 May 2021

Neuropathology of COVID-19 patients caused by infection of brain pericytes

Recently, researchers from the UK and Sweden used highly sensitive multiplexed immunohistochemistry to study the brain tissue of COVID-19 patients and controls to analyze ACE2 expression in brain pericytes of patients with neurological symptoms. They also used spatial immunophenotyping to assess inflammation in brain tissue of COVID-19 patients.

31 May 2021

Study sheds new light on human brain development

29 May 2021

Vagus nerve stimulation may be a potential adjunct therapy for COVID-19

COVID-19 was initially described as lung inflammation, or pneumonia, in older adults. However, we now know that SARS-CoV-2 infections can cause a wide range of symptoms in people of all ages, ranging from no symptoms at all to systemic inflammation and even death.

27 May 2021

Neurocognitive symptoms persist 6 months post-infection with long COVID

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), COVID-19 long-haulers are people who experience symptoms such as body ache, fatigue, shortness of breath, headache, difficulty concentrating, loss of taste or smell, or other health issues long after they test negative for the virus. It can be defined as having serious and prolonged symptoms three months after severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection.

26 May 2021

Researchers to conduct Phase 1 gene therapy trial to treat Alzheimer's disease

The National Institute on Aging (NIA), part of the National Institutes of Health, has awarded a $5 million grant to researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine to conduct a first-in-human Phase 1 clinical trial of a gene therapy for treating Alzheimer's disease (AD) or Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), a condition that often precedes full-blown dementia.

26 May 2021

Kennedy Krieger Institute researcher wins NIH award for movement learning study

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) recently awarded Amy Bastian, Ph.D., PT, chief science officer and director of the Motion Analysis Lab at Kennedy Krieger Institute, with an eight-year, $4.7 million National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) Research Program Award (N35) to support a study examining movement learning mechanisms and how this process is affected by brain damage.

26 May 2021

Newly identified small molecule can be used to rejuvenate the brain, counteract memory loss

Alzheimer's disease is the main cause of dementia and current therapeutic strategies cannot prevent, slow down or cure the pathology.

25 May 2021

New technology makes it easier to diagnose neurodegenerative diseases

A new combination of optical coherence tomography (OCT), adaptive optics and deep neural networks should enable better diagnosis and monitoring for neuron-damaging eye and brain diseases like glaucoma.

25 May 2021

Researchers uncover differences in itch mechanisms

Chronic skin itching drives more people to the dermatologist than any other condition. In fact, the latest science literature finds that 7% of U.S. adults, and between 10 and 20% of people in developed countries, suffer from dermatitis, a common skin inflammatory condition that causes itching.

21 May 2021

University of Freiburg professor honored for groundbreaking results on the brain’s immune system

The blood-brain barrier is an impenetrable barrier between the circulating blood and the brain established before birth that prevents immune cells from entering the brain from the body's immune system. Thus, the brain has its own immune system with a key actor called microglia.

21 May 2021

Facets of SARS-CoV-2 infection and animal models

A new study in the journal Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology discusses the ribonucleic acid (RNA) genome of the virus, and the mechanisms by which it establishes infection within the host cell. The researchers also summarize the development of animal models of COVID-19, which will both help understand the clinical features of the illness, and indicate new approaches for the treatment of the infection.

21 May 2021

Study analyzes the risk of other medical conditions after recovery from COVID-19

Researchers analyzed data from a large insurance company in the United States. They found an increased risk of other medical conditions after recovering from COVID-19 irrespective of pre-existing conditions or age.

21 May 2021

Are COVID-19-related complications in children explained by abnormal immune responses?

A common theme in reports on COVID-19 around the world has been the large number of children who have not been infected or shown signs of disease. However, though the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) causes less acute infection in this age group, it is associated with a severe immune-mediated multisystemic illness called multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C).

20 May 2021