Neurology News and Research

Latest Neurology News and Research

Uncertainty can lead to significantly more stress, study finds

Knowing that there is a small chance of getting a painful electric shock can lead to significantly more stress than knowing that you will definitely be shocked, finds a new UCL study funded by the Medical Research Council .

30 Mar 2016

Clinical scores unreliable in minor stroke and TIA

Research shows that imaging findings, rather than clinical scores, are the best means of predicting recurrent events in patients with minor stroke or transient ischaemic attack.

30 Mar 2016

Researchers clarify potential transmissibility of Alzheimer's disease

MedUni Vienna researchers have published the results of a clarifying research study on the potential transmissibility of Alzheimer's disease. Although the protein associated with Alzheimer's disease, amyloid-β, might be transmissible under very unusual circumstances, this does not go along with a transmission of the clinical manifestation of Alzheimer's disease. The affected persons develop no clinical symptoms of the disease.

29 Mar 2016

Higher aortic stiffness associated with reduced white matter volume among young adults

A large, multi-center study led by the UC Davis School of Medicine for the first time has shown that people as young as their 40s have stiffening of the arteries that is associated with subtle structural damage to the brain that is implicated in cognitive decline and Alzheimer's disease later in life.

29 Mar 2016

Certain gut bacteria can influence the immune system to reduce severity of stroke

Certain types of bacteria in the gut can leverage the immune system to decrease the severity of stroke, according to new research from Weill Cornell Medicine. This finding can help mitigate stroke -- which is the second leading cause of death worldwide.

29 Mar 2016

Simple blood test can help detect evidence of concussions up to 7 days after injury

Researchers at Orlando Health detected evidence of concussions in patients up to 7 days after their injury using a simple blood test, according to a new study published in JAMA Neurology. The discovery could greatly expand the window for diagnosing concussions, especially in patients who experience a delayed onset of symptoms.

29 Mar 2016

Genetic syndrome may underlie some Parkinson's cases

Rare deletions at chromosome 22q11.2 are present at an increased rate in patients with Parkinson's disease, researchers report in The Lancet Neurology.

25 Mar 2016

Rosacea linked to Parkinson's disease risk

Data from a nationwide study show that people with the skin condition rosacea are at an increased risk of later developing Parkinson's disease.

25 Mar 2016

Children with cardiomyopathy may benefit from family-linked treatment

A newly published national study by the Children's Hospital of Michigan and Wayne State University School of Medicine researchers shows that "parental impact and family functioning" become increasingly abnormal when children with cardiomyopathy-related chronic heart disease are more severely ill than children less affected by the disease.

24 Mar 2016

Exercise slows down cognitive decline in older adults

Exercise in older people is associated with a slower rate of decline in thinking skills that occurs with aging. People who reported light to no exercise experienced a decline equal to 10 more years of aging as compared to people who reported moderate to intense exercise, according to a population-based observational study published in the March 23, 2016, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

24 Mar 2016

Retinal thickness points to disability worsening in MS patients

The thickness of the peripapillary retinal nerve fibre layer (pRNFL) may help to predict worsening disability in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), optical coherence tomography (OCT) ...

24 Mar 2016

Penn neurologists uncover new genetic cause of Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease

Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease (CMT) is a family of inherited disorders of the peripheral nervous system, affecting approximately one in 2,500 Americans. Its most common iteration, CMT1, comes in many forms, most of which have to date been linked to a small set of causative genes.

23 Mar 2016

Warning of increased mortality risk for PD patients taking antipsychotics

Researchers have found a more than twofold increase in the risk of death among patients with Parkinson's disease who take antipsychotics, particularly typical antipsychotics.

23 Mar 2016

Antipsychotic drugs may do significantly more harm to Parkinson's disease patients

At least half of Parkinson's disease patients experience psychosis at some point during the course of their illness, and physicians commonly prescribe antipsychotic drugs, such as quetiapine, to treat the condition. However, a new study by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Michigan Medical School, and the Philadelphia and Ann Arbor Veterans Affairs Medical Centers and suggests that these drugs may do significantly more harm in a subset of patients.

21 Mar 2016

Transcranial direct current stimulation assists chronic stroke rehabilitation

Adding ipsilesional anodal transcranial direct current stimulation to upper limb rehabilitation delivers motor improvements in chronic stroke patients that last for at least 3 months, a randomised trial shows.

18 Mar 2016

Brain's immune cells play direct role in development of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Cedars-Sinai research scientists have found that immune cells in the brain play a direct role in the development of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, offering hope for new therapies to target the neurodegenerative disease that gradually leads to paralysis and death.

18 Mar 2016

Harvard University launches iPhone research app to examine health and well-being football players

The Football Players Health Study at Harvard University--a series of studies that examine the health and well-being of former football players and aims to develop more effective diagnostic and therapeutic interventions--today launched TeamStudy, an iPhone research app built using ResearchKit, the open source software framework designed by Apple.

18 Mar 2016

Tests for Alzheimer’s detection in women may need improving

A new study has shown that women may have a better memory for words than men in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease, despite evidence of similar levels of shrinkage in the brain area responsible for verbal memory.

17 Mar 2016

Siemens Healthcare launches new MR applications to help hospitals reduce scan times in neurology

Siemens Healthcare has launched a range of new MR applications to help hospitals reduce the time needed for MR imaging within neurology. It is estimated that 20 to 25 per cent of all MR examinations are neurological, with the number expected to grow in 2016.

17 Mar 2016

Women's verbal memory advantage may mask cognitive decline

Women with amnestic mild cognitive impairment have better verbal memory skills than their male counterparts during the early stages of hippocampal decline.

17 Mar 2016