of Neurosurgery. The authors evaluated leather and modern football helmets by performing a series of 20 drop tests that represent a variety of impacts that could occur during a football game.
Leather football helmets by Adam Bartsch Edward Benzel M d. Vincent Miele M d. and Vikas Prakash also published today online ahead of print in the Journal of Neurosurgery Bartsch
and his colleagues defend the study they published in the Journal of Neurosurgery in 2012 and state that differences in results between the two studies are based on the different testing methodologies used by the two groups of researchers
if it was all down to just these chemicals says Christopher Connolly a neuroscientist at the University of Dundee UK.
Pesticides not adequately testedconnolly exposed bee brains to these pesticides and organo-based pesticides andreported that the nerves spun into hyperactivity
As a neuroscientist it just seemed blindingly obvious. The biggest effect was hyperactivation of the major learning centre
Mood can have a huge influence on how the brain processes information. In humans for example it's well known that people in positive moods have an optimistic outlook on life
To evaluate the protective effects of berries on brain function specifically the ability of the brain to clear toxic accumulation researchers from the Human Nutrition Research center on Aging at Tufts University
and then looked at their brains after irradiation a model for accelerated aging. All of the rats were fed berries 2 months prior to radiation
The researchers looked at neurochemical changes in the brain in particular what is known as autophagy which can regulate the synthesis degradation and recycling of cellular components.
which the brain clears toxic accumulations. Most diseases of the brain such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's have shown an increased amount of toxic protein Berries seem to promote autophagy the brain's natural housekeeping mechanism thereby reducing the toxic accumulation said Poulose.
The researchers are currently conducting a human study in older people ages 60-75. We have a lot of animal work that suggests these compounds will protect the aged brain and reverse some of behavioral deficits.
We are hoping it will translate to human studies as well said Dr. Barbara Shukitt-Hale the lead investigator conducting the human study.
and research student Michael Yartsev of the Weizmann Institute's Neurobiology Department published today in Science reveals for the first time how three-dimensional volumetric space is perceived in mammalian brains.
which enabled the measurement of single brain cells during flight. The question of how animals orient themselves in space has been studied extensively
These have found for instance that orientation relies on place cells--neurons located in the hippocampus a part of the brain involved in memory especially spatial memory.
Ulanovsky in cooperation with a US commercial company created a wireless lightweight (12 g about 7%of the weight of the bat) device containing electrodes that measure the activity of individual neurons in the bat's brain.
Measuring the activity of hippocampus neurons in the bats'brains revealed that the representation of three-dimensional space is similar to that in two dimensions:
Does the brain perceive the three dimensions of space as equal that is does it sense the height axis in the same way as that of length or width?
The findings provide new insights into some basic functions of the brain: navigation spatial memory and spatial perception.
To a large extent this is due to the development of innovative technology that allowed the first glimpse into the brain of a flying animal.
Ulanovsky believes that this trend in which research is becoming more natural is the future wave of neuroscience.
Scientists then used high-tech magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) devices to peer into the rats'brains seeking differences in activity between the rats-on-chips and the rats-on-chow.
which send a pleasing message to the brain according to the team. In the study while rats also were fed the same mixture of fat
and carbohydrates found in the chips the animals'brains reacted much more positively to the chips.
The effect of potato chips on brain activity as well as feeding behavior can only partially be explained by its fat
Hoch explained that the team mapped the rats'brains using Manganese-Enhanced Magnetic resonance imaging (MEMRI) to monitor brain activity.
and addiction centers in the brain recorded the most activity. But the food intake sleep activity and motion areas also were stimulated significantly differently by eating the potato chips.
By contrast significant differences in the brain activity comparing the standard chow and the fat carbohydrate group only appeared to a minor degree
and matched only partly with the significant differences in the brain activities of the standard chow and potato chips group he added.
Since chips and other foods affect the reward center in the brain an explanation of why some people do not like snacks is that possibly the extent to
which the brain reward system is activated in different individuals can vary depending on individual taste preferences according to Hoch.
If scientists can pinpoint the molecular triggers in snacks that stimulate the reward center in the brain it may be possible to develop drugs
albeit rather unpopular foods like Brussels sprouts to affect the rewards center in the brain positively.
#Spring cleaning in your brains stem cells? Deep inside your brain a legion of stem cells lies ready to turn into new brain
and nerve cells whenever and wherever you need them most. While they wait they keep themselves in a state of perpetual readiness--poised to become any type of nerve cell you might need as your cells age
In a paper published online in Nature Neuroscience the U-M team shows that a particular protein called FIP200 governs this cleaning process in neural stem cells in mice.
The findings may help explain why aging brains and nervous systems are more prone to disease
The process of generating new neurons from neural stem cells and the importance of that process is understood pretty well
Through autophagy he says neural stem cells can regulate levels of reactive oxygen species--sometimes known as free radicals--that can build up in the low-oxygen environment of the brain regions where neural stem cells reside.
when an observant postdoctoral fellow noticed that the mice experienced rapid shrinkage of the brain regions where neural stem cells reside.
The new Nature Neuroscience paper's first author is postdoctoral fellow Chenran Wang Ph d. Co-authors include Richard Chun-Chi Liang Ph d. who is now a postdoctoral research fellow in the U
-M Department of Neurology research lab member Christine Bian and Yuan Zhu Ph d. an associate professor in Molecular Medicine & Genetics and Cell & Developmental Biology.
Professor David Nutt president of The british Neuroscience Association and Professor of Neuropsychopharmacology at Imperial College London (UK) will tell the BNA's Festival of Neuroscience today (Sunday) that
when healthy volunteers are injected with psilocybin the drug switched off a front part of the brain called the anterior cingulate cortex
We found that even in normal people the more that part of the brain was switched off under the influence of the drug the better they felt two weeks later.
So there was a relationship between that transient switching off of the brain circuit and their subsequent mood he will explain.
you want to switch off that overactive part of the brain. The other thing we discovered is that the major site of action of the magic mushrooms is to turn down a circuit in the brain called the'default mode network
'which the anterior cingulate cortex is part of. The default mode network is a part of the brain between the front and back.
It is active when you are thinking about you; it coordinates the thinking and emotional aspects of you.
The researchers discovered that the'default mode network'had the highest density of 5ht2a receptors in the brain.
These are known to be involved in depression and are the targets for a number of existing anti-depressive drugs that aim to improve levels of serotonin--the neurotransmitter 1 that gives people a sense of well-being and happiness.
Psilocybin also acts on these receptors. We have found that people with depression have overactive default mode networks
--so long as he can find a manufacturer for the drug. 1 Neurotransmitters are chemicals that transmit signals from neurons (nerve cells) to target cells. 2 Funding:
The above story is provided based on materials by British Neuroscience Association. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length h
while sea cauliflower tends to be smaller stiffer brain-like and dark brown; the researchers turned to microscopy
& Philosophy at the Massachusetts institute of technology for his long career and many academic achievements and contributions as a linguist philosopher cognitive scientist historian political critic activist and global champion of human rights.
Despite their tiny brains bees are smart enough to pick out the most attractive flowers by watching other bees and learning from their behaviour.
which occurs when a clot blocks a blood vessel to the brain. Three assessed hemorrhagic stroke
which occurs when a blood vessel bleeds into the brain or on its surface. Findings from the observational studies were combined
The researchers found that the pesticides used in the research at levels shown to occur in the wild could interfere with the learning circuits in the bee's brain.
and his team investigated the impact on bees'brains of two common pesticides: pesticides used on crops called neonicotinoid pesticides
The intact bees'brains were exposed to pesticides in the lab at levels predicted to occur following exposure in the wild
and brain activity was recorded. They found that both types of pesticide target the same area of the bee brain involved in learning causing a loss of function.
If both pesticides were used in combination the effect was greater. The study is the first to show that these pesticides have a direct impact on pollinator brain physiology.
It was prompted by the work of collaborators Dr Geraldine Wright and Dr Sally Williamson at Newcastle University who found that combinations of these same pesticides affected learning and memory in bees.
Together the researchers expressed concerns about the use of pesticides that target the same area of the brain of insects and the potential risk of toxicity to non-target insects.
We find that both have negative impact on honeybee brain function. Together these studies highlight potential dangers to pollinators of continued exposure to pesticides that target the insect nervous system and the importance of identifying combinations of pesticides that could profoundly impact pollinator survival.
At least one species--the grey mouse lemur (Microcebus murinus)--develops a neurological disease that is strikingly similar to human Alzheimer's so the animals are considered important models for understanding the aging brain.
The findings are published in the March 13 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience. Weiner who directs the Translational Studies on Early-Life Stress
and discovered that mice that showed robust locomotor sensitization had deficits in a form of brain neuroplasticity--how experiences reorganize neural pathways in the brain--that has been linked with cocaine addiction in other animal models.
We found that this loss of the ability of brain cells to change the way that they communicate with each other only occurred in the animals that showed the behavioral response to alcohol he said.
What this suggests for the first time in the alcohol addiction field is that this particular deficit may represent an important brain correlate of vulnerability to alcoholism.
#Toxicity map of brain may help protect cognition for cancer patientsnew research from Wake Forest Baptist Medical center is giving radiation oncologists who treat brain tumors a better understanding of how to preserve the brain's functions while still killing cancer.
Ann M. Peiffer Ph d. assistant professor of radiation oncology at Wake Forest Baptist and colleagues looked at how radiation treatment to different brain areas impacts function to help protect cognition
However the same isn't true for brain tissue so the researchers worked to develop a toxicity map of the brain to preserve function.
Peiffer said this is the first attempt to relate treatment dose to brain function as opposed to brain tissue death.
The issue is the toxicity to the brain and its function which is cognition or how you think
In one of those trials 57 brain cancer survivors returned six months or more after their radiation treatment to determine
By matching cognitive performance to these measurements we determined which area of the brain and
Peiffer said by looking at the irradiation dose received by specific brain areas important to different cognitive functions tolerance levels related to function can be established.
The exposed amount of these critical brain areas were then related to outcomes of specific tests used to assess cognition
The research findings were reported in the February issue of Neurology. The research was supported by grant R01nr009675 from NINR/NIH and U10ca 81851 from NCI/NIH.
because they suggest that at least in some cases these behaviours might be resistant to current behavioural intervention strategies says co-author Digby Elliott professor of motor control and behavioural neurosciences at Liverpool John Moores University and professor emeritus at Mcmaster.
#Pig brain models provide insights into human cognitive developmenta mutual curiosity about patterns of growth
and development in pig brains has brought two University of Illinois research groups together. Animal scientists Rod Johnson and Ryan Dilger have developed a model of the pig brain that they plan to use to answer important questions about human brain development.
It is important to characterize the normal brain growth trajectory from the neonatal period to sexual maturity said Johnson.
Until we know how the brain grows we don't know what is going to change added Dilger.
In cooperation with the Beckman Institute they performed MRI scans on the brains of 16 piglets starting at the age of 2 weeks then at 4 weeks and then at 4-week intervals up to 24 weeks.
We have world-class people at the Beckman Institute who are pushing and developing the next generation of neuroimaging technology
so we're able to connect with them and take advantage of their expertise said Johnson.
The software put the information together into a three-dimensional image of the pig brain. This is used to determine the volume of the different structures.
which shows how neural tracks develop allowing the exploration of brain complexity and of how neurons form.
It was also possible to measure neurochemicals including creatine and acetylcholine in the brain which provides a unique insight into brain metabolism.
The end result of this work is what they call the deformable pig brain atlas.
We are taking 16 pigs and averaging them so it's more representative of all pigs said Dilger.
It's called a deformable brain atlas because the software takes information from an individual
whether a brain region is larger or smaller compared to the average. Johnson and Dilger said that the goal is to develop a tool for pigs that is equivalent to
what is available for the mouse brain and make it publicly available. But they don't want to stop with tool development.
when the brain is undergoing massive growth to see how it alters brain growth and development.
if that alters the trajectory of normal brain growth in the offspring. The risk for behavioral disorders and reduced stress resilience is increased by pre-and postnatal infection
Dilger's group is interested in the effects of early-life nutrition on the brain. They are looking at the effects of specific fatty acids as primary structural components of the human brain and cerebral cortex and at choline a nutrient that is important for DNA production and normal functioning of neurons.
Choline deficiency has been tied to cognitive deficits in the mouse and human and we're developing a pig model to study the direct effects choline deficiency has on brain structure
and function Dilger said. Many women of childbearing age may not be receiving enough choline in their diets
This work helps us understand the basic mechanisms of how caffeine affects our brains. What we see in bees could explain why people prefer to drink coffee when studying.
Although human and honeybee brains obviously have lots of differences when you look at the level of cells proteins
and genes human and bee brains function very similarly. Thus we can use the honeybee to investigate how caffeine affects our own brains and behaviours.
This project was funded in part by the Insect Pollinators Initiative which supports projects aimed at researching the causes
and brain could cause a common protein to change shape and form dangerous blood clots. The scientists were surprised to find that the proteins could remain in the dangerous clot-initiating shape for up to five hours before returning to their normal healthy shape.
This research group has published previously work showing the benefits of GSSE in combating obesity heart dysfunction brain lipotoxicity and kidney cancer.
and the part of the brain used for language. Another similarity Berwick notes relates to an insight of celebrated MIT professor emeritus of linguistics Morris Halle who as Berwick puts it observed that all human languages have a finite number of stress patterns
of wings teeth and certain bones type of hair cover and brain structures. The dataset is about 10 times larger than information used in previous studies of mammal relationships.
The team reconstructed the anatomy of the placental common ancestor by mapping traits most strongly supported by the data to determine it had horned a two uterus a brain with a convoluted cerebral cortex and a placenta in
and later neurodevelopmental disabilities sepsis significantly raises NICU costs due to increased use of ventilation and longer lengths of stay.
because it can affect brain development and result in emphysema heart attack and now stroke he said.
and keeps the virus from traveling to the brain. Rabies continues to kill many thousands of people throughout the developing world every year
The study published by Wiley in Annals of Neurology a journal of the American Neurological Association
and Child Neurology Society found that diets high in lycopene beta-cryptoxanthin and Vitamin c did not reduce ALS risk.
According to the National Institutes of Neurological disorders and Stroke (NINDS) roughly 20000 to 30000 Americans have known ALS#lso as Lou gehrig s disease#nd another 5000 patients are diagnosed annually with the disease.
ALS is a progressive neurological disease that attacks nerve cells (neurons) in the brain and spinal cord which control voluntary muscles.
#Nations that consume a lot of milk also win a lot of Nobel prizesnations that consume a lot of milk and milk products also tend to have a lot of Nobel laureates among their populations suggest the authors of a letter published in Practical Neurology.
and Nobel laureate prowess speculating that the flavonoid content of chocolate was behind the boost in brain power.
and this may boost brain power the evidence suggests. So to improve your chances of winning Nobel prizes you should
The researchers also discovered that SBV rapidly grows in the brain and spinal cord of aborted lambs and calves.
The virus prefers to infect cells called neurons which explains why it infects and damages the brain.
This also results in muscular defects such as abnormally flexed legs often seen in stillborn animals
#Smaller radiation fields can spare brain when treating tumors, research findsnew research from Wake Forest Baptist Medical center shows that patients suffering from aggressive brain tumors can be treated effectively with smaller radiation fields to spare the rest of the brain and preserve cognition.
For patients with glioblastoma we now know we can safely and effectively treat them with smaller radiation fields to spare the rest of their normal brain said lead investigator Michael D. Chan M d. assistant professor of radiation oncology at Wake Forest Baptist.
That's important because it lessens the symptoms from radiation toxicity like tiredness and nausea.
Chan said that a patient's cognition is related to how much normal brain is irradiated so focusing radiation on smaller areas of the brain may help preserve cognition
and does not seem to lead to an increase in the likelihood of the tumor recurring.
what might help says co-investigator Andrew Zimmerman M d. now a professor of pediatric neurology at UMASS Memorial Medical center.
Tyrosine is an amino acid that increases the production of dopamine in the brain which positively influences our ability to think creatively.
Florian Krause investigated how our brain processes and understands numbers and number size. He shows that movements
which brain areas represent size and how these areas work together. He concludes that number size is associated with sizes experienced by our body.
'If numerical size and other body-related size information are represented indeed together in the brain strengthening this link during education might be beneficial.
The brainchild of JPL Principal investigator Stan Sander CLARS is a prototype for the next generation of satellite instrument.
although the effect of asymptomatic postnatal CMV infection on long-term neurodevelopmental outcomes is not clear the frequency of CMV infection in this study raises significant concern about the potential consequences of CMV infection among VLBW
#This is your brain on snacks: Brain stimulation affects craving, consumptionmagnetic stimulation of a brain area involved in executive function affects cravings for
and consumption of calorie-dense snack foods reports a study in the September issue of Psychosomatic Medicine:
Journal of Biobehavioral Medicine the official journal of the American Psychosomatic Society. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.
After stimulation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) young women experience increased cravings for high-calorie snacks
Brain Stimulation Affects Cravings and Consumption for'Appetitive'Snacksthe study included 21 healthy young women selected
but to brain power as well. In a paper published in the early online edition of the journal Prostaglandins Leukotrienes
Human intelligence has a physical basis in the huge size of our brains--some seven times larger than would be expected for a mammal with our body size said Steven Gaulin UCSB professor of anthropology
Since there is never a free lunch those big brains need lots of extra building materials--most importantly they need omega-3 fatty acids especially DHA.
and seem to be bad for brains. Both kinds of omega fat must be obtained through diet.
First because various kinds of fats interfere with one another in the body breast milk DHA shows how much of this brain-essential fat survives competition with omega-6. Second children receive their brain-building fats from their mothers.
We found that this depot that has been elaborated evolutionarily in women is important to building a good brain.
Now the researchers are looking at diet as the key to brain-building fat since mothers need to acquire these fats in the first place.
because that's where kids'brains come from. But it's important for men as well
because they have to take care of the brains their moms gave them. Just like a racecar burns up some of its motor oil with every lap your brain burns up omega-3
and you need to replenish it every day he said. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by University of California-Santa barbara. The original article was written by Andrea Estrada.
The reality is that they were modern humans with the brain capacity and talents that we have now.
and they don't listen to their brains telling them they are full. Alcohol can further complicate matters particularly for heart patients.
An international team of scientists has made now a breakthrough by showing that many genes controlling the development of the brain
The researchers were amazed by the strong enrichment of genes involved in the development of the brain
It is very likely that a similar diversity of gene variants affecting the brain and the nervous system occurs in the human population
Parkinsonsdr Olumayokun Olajide's research will look to produce compound derivatives of punicalagin for a drug that would treat neuro-inflammation
The key breakthrough by Dr Olajide and his co-researchers is to demonstrate that punicalagin which is a polyphenol--a form of chemical compound--found in pomegranate fruit can inhibit inflammation in specialised brain cells known as micrologia.
This inflammation leads to the destruction of more and more brain cells making the condition of Alzheimer's sufferers progressively worse.
The team used brain cells isolated from rats in order to test their findings. Now the research is published in the latest edition of the journal Molecular Nutrition
and regular consumption of pomegranate has a lot of health benefits--including prevention of neuro-inflammation related to dementia he says recommending juice products that are 100 per cent pomegranate meaning that approximately 3. 4 per cent will be punicalagin the compound
which inflammation--not just neuro-inflammation--is a factor such as rheumatoid arthritis Parkinson's and cancer. The research continues
They will attempt to produce compound derivatives of punicalagin that could the basis of new orally administered drugs that would treat neuro-inflammation.
and brain and is responsible for one third of all AIDS-related deaths. The study which appears Aug 21 in PLOS Pathogens found strong genetic evidence that three tree species--Canary Island pine Pohutukawa
Sensory systems give us a window into the brain to define what we understand about the world around us he said.
Wood calls attention to the neurology of habits and how they have a recognizable neural signature.
which involves the prefrontal cortex and supports working memory so you can make decisions. As you repeat the behavior in the same context the information is reorganized in your brain.
It shifts to the sensory motor loop that supports representations of cue response associations and no longer retains information on the goal or outcome.
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