Nervous System News and Research

Latest Nervous System News and Research

Similar mechanisms drive changes in puberty

It's one of life's special moments: a child finds a fat caterpillar, puts it in a jar with a twig and a few leaves, and awakens one day to find the caterpillar has disappeared and an elegant but apparently lifeless case now hangs from the twig.

1 Mar 2012

CNS invites press to annual meeting in Chicago

The Cognitive Neuroscience Society (CNS) invites members of the press to attend its annual meeting, March 31- April 3, 2012, in Chicago at the Palmer House Hotel. See the latest scientific research in perception, action, memory, language - including the connections between sleep and memory, the neurological processes that govern our eating habits, and how we interpret and understand events in our lives.

1 Mar 2012

Aspirin may help postmenopausal women reduce risk of trans fat-related stroke

New research shows an increased risk of ischemic stroke in postmenopausal women who consume higher amounts of trans fatty acids, commonly found in baked goods, fried foods, and packaged products. Study findings now available in Annals of Neurology, a journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the American Neurological Association and Child Neurology Society, suggest aspirin use may moderate the stroke risk caused by a diet high in trans fats.

1 Mar 2012

Alzheimer's disease drugs may act like a bad electrician

Alzheimer's disease drugs now being tested in clinical trials may have potentially adverse side effects, according to new Northwestern Medicine research. A study with mice suggests the drugs could act like a bad electrician, causing neurons to be miswired and interfering with their ability to send messages to the brain.

29 Feb 2012

AAN, ALS Association announce creation of Richard Olney Clinician Scientist Development Award

The American Academy of Neurology Foundation and The ALS Association are announcing the creation of the Richard Olney Clinician Scientist Development Award in ALS, named after Richard K. Olney, MD, a leading neurologist and pioneer in clinical ALS research who died late last month of ALS, also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease.

29 Feb 2012

Ipsen total revenues increase 5.5% to €1,234.9M for the full year 2011

The Board of Directors of Ipsen, chaired by Marc de Garidel, met on 28 February 2012 to review the Group's results for 2011, published today.

29 Feb 2012

Cannabinoids may be a target for new strategies in cancer treatment

Cannabis-like substances that are produced by the body have both therapeutic and harmful properties, besides their well-known intoxicating effects, and the body's cannabinoid system may be a target for new strategies in cancer treatment.

29 Feb 2012

New research shows how motor neurones are produced

The quest for treatments for motor neurone disease, spinal cord injury and strokes could be helped by new research that shows how key cells are produced.

28 Feb 2012

Gedeon Richter and Forest Labs' cariprazine Phase III trials on schizophrenia meet primary endpoint

Forest Laboratories, Inc. and Gedeon Richter Plc. today announced positive top-line results in 2 Phase III clinical trials of cariprazine (RGH-188) for the treatment of acute exacerbation of schizophrenia.

28 Feb 2012

Diets low in omega-3 fatty acids linked with memory problems

A diet lacking in omega-3 fatty acids, nutrients commonly found in fish, may cause your brain to age faster and lose some of its memory and thinking abilities, according to a study published in the February 28, 2012, print issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

28 Feb 2012

GSK, Angiochem to develop and commercialize LSD treatments

Angiochem announced today a global collaboration with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) to discover, develop and commercialize treatments for lysosomal storage diseases.

27 Feb 2012

Montefiore director to host Twitter chat about neuroendocrine tumors on Feb. 29

On February 29, which is Rare Disease Day, Steven Libutti, MD, Vice Chairman of Surgery and Director of the Montefiore Einstein Center for Cancer Care will host a Twitter chat about the signs and symptoms, diagnosis and treatment of neuroendocrine tumors, or NETs, a rare form of cancer.

27 Feb 2012

Rosemary aroma may improve cognitive performance

Hailed since ancient times for its medicinal properties, we still have a lot to learn about the effects of rosemary. Now researchers writing in Therapeutic Advances in Psychopharmacology, published by SAGE, have shown for the first time that blood levels of a rosemary oil component correlate with improved cognitive performance.

26 Feb 2012

Forest Laboratories' Colobreathe dry powder inhaler receives EMA approval

Forest Laboratories, Inc., an international pharmaceutical manufacturer and marketer, today announced that it has been granted European Medicines Agency (EMA) approval to market Colobreathe dry powder colistimethate sodium for inhalation for treating cystic fibrosis patients aged 6 years and older with chronic lung infection caused by P. aeruginosa.

24 Feb 2012

UBC develops algorithm to predict how and when proteins misfold

Several neurodegenerative diseases - including Alzheimer's and ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) - are caused when the body's own proteins fold incorrectly, recruit and convert healthy proteins to the misfolded form, and aggregate in large clumps that gum up the works of the nervous system. "For Star Trek fans, this is like the Borg, a fictional race of cyborgs that abduct and assimilate humans and other species," says Steven Plotkin, a biophysicist at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver who studies the process of protein misfolding.

24 Feb 2012

UA researchers identify the likely culprit of epilepsy

Only 10 years ago, deciphering the genetic information from one individual in a matter of weeks to find a certain disease-causing genetic mutation would have been written off as science fiction. It was the time of the Human Genome Project, and it had taken armies of sequencing robots working around the clock for almost a decade to unravel the complete sequence of the human genetic code - referred to as the genome - by churning out the DNA alphabet letter by letter.

24 Feb 2012

Computer-assisted cognitive rehabilitation benefits patients with relapsing-remitting MS

In a new study published in the March issue of Radiology, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) shows that cognitive rehabilitation changes brain function and improves cognitive performance in patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (MS).

23 Feb 2012