MedWorm: Neuroscience Top 20

Detecting Brain Tumors Earlier With One Scan

Neurology / Neuroscience News From Medical News Today — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 15:00:00 +0100

Next generation technology is set to revolutionize medical imaging by enabling earlier detection of brain tumors with one scan, improving the diagnosis and therapy of cancer, and increasing patient throughput in hospitals, according to news of a pioneering UK project... (Source: Neurology / Neuroscience News From Medical News Today)

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A Survey of Stimulation Methods Used in SSVEP-Based BCIs

Computational Intelligence and Neuroscience — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 16:31:11 +0100

Brain-computer interface (BCI) systems based on the steady-state visual evoked potential (SSVEP) provide higher information throughput and require shorter training than BCI systems using other brain signals. To elicit an SSVEP, a repetitive visual stimulus (RVS) has to be presented to the user. The RVS can be rendered on a computer screen by alternating graphical patterns, or with external light sources able to emit modulated light. The properties of an RVS (e.g., frequency, color) depend on the rendering device and influence the SSVEP characteristics. This affects the BCI information throughput and the levels of user safety and comfort. Literature on SSVEP-based BCIs does not generally provide reasons for the selection of the used rendering devices or RVS properties. In this paper, we rev...

Brain Activity Predicts Emotional Resiliency Following A Fight With A Partner

Neurology / Neuroscience News From Medical News Today — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 13:00:00 +0100

Common wisdom tells us that for a successful relationship partners shouldn't go to bed angry. But new research from a psychologist at Harvard University suggests that brain activity - specifically in the region called the lateral prefrontal cortex - is a far better indicator of how someone will feel in the days following a fight with his or her partner... (Source: Neurology / Neuroscience News From Medical News Today)

Evidence-Based Treatment For Childhood Epilepsy

Neurology / Neuroscience News From Medical News Today — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 12:00:00 +0100

The first comprehensive comparative effectiveness clinical trial of three widely used anti-seizure drugs for childhood absence epilepsy the most common form of epilepsy in kids has established an evidence-based approach for initial drug therapy... (Source: Neurology / Neuroscience News From Medical News Today)

Ocular Shingles Linked To Increased Risk Of Stroke

Neurology / Neuroscience News From Medical News Today — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 12:00:00 +0100

Having a shingles infection that affects the eyes may increase the risk of stroke, according to new research published in the March 3, 2010, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. For the study, researchers identified 658 people diagnosed with ocular shingles and 1974 without the infection... (Source: Neurology / Neuroscience News From Medical News Today)

Parkinson's Disease Makes It Harder To Figure Out How Other People Feel

Neurology / Neuroscience News From Medical News Today — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 12:00:00 +0100

Scientists are beginning to find out why people with Parkinson's disease often feel socially awkward. Parkinson's patients find it harder to recognize expressions of emotion in other people's faces and voices, report two studies published by the American Psychological Association... (Source: Neurology / Neuroscience News From Medical News Today)

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Modelling the molecular mechanisms of synaptic plasticity using systems biology approaches

Nature Reviews Neuroscience — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 17:56:31 +0100

Authors: Jeanette Hellgren Kotaleski & Kim T. Blackwell Synaptic plasticity is thought to underlie learning and memory, but the complexity of the interactions between the ion channels, enzymes and genes that are involved in synaptic plasticity impedes a deep understanding of this phenomenon. Computer modelling has been used to investigate the information processing (Source: Nature Reviews Neuroscience)

The Human Brain Processes Predictable Sensory Input In A Particularly Efficient Manner

Neurology / Neuroscience News From Medical News Today — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 08:00:00 +0100

It turns out that there is a striking similarity between how the human brain determines what is going on in the outside world and the job of scientists. Good science involves formulating a hypothesis and testing whether this hypothesis is compatible with the scientist's observations... (Source: Neurology / Neuroscience News From Medical News Today)

Nouns And Verbs Are Learned In Different Parts Of The Brain

Neurology / Neuroscience News From Medical News Today — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 08:00:00 +0100

Two Spanish psychologists and a German neurologist have recently shown that the brain that activates when a person learns a new noun is different from the part used when a verb is learnt. The scientists observed this using brain images taken using functional magnetic resonance, according to an article they have published this month in the journal Neuroimage... (Source: Neurology / Neuroscience News From Medical News Today)

License Agreement To Develop Treatments For Neurological Disease Announced By Brain Science Institute

Neurology / Neuroscience News From Medical News Today — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 09:00:00 +0100

Johns Hopkins University's newly formed Brain Science Institute's NeuroTranslational Program has entered into a licensing agreement with pharmaceutical company Eisai Inc. to discover and develop small molecule glutamate carboxypeptidase II (GCPII) inhibitors... (Source: Neurology / Neuroscience News From Medical News Today)

Possible Link Between Epstein-Barr Virus And Progression Of MS

Neurology / Neuroscience News From Medical News Today — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 09:00:00 +0100

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), the pathogen that causes mononucleosis, appears to play a role in the neurodegeneration that occurs in persons with multiple sclerosis, researchers at the University at Buffalo and the University of Trieste, Italy, have shown. Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease that can cause major disability. There currently is no cure. (Source: Neurology / Neuroscience News From Medical News Today)

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In Fight Against Deadly Brain Tumors Common Virus May Serve As Target For Vaccine

Neurology / Neuroscience News From Medical News Today — Sun, 18 May 2008 13:00:00 +0100

By targeting a common virus, doctors may be able to extend the lives of patients diagnosed with the most prevalent and deadly type of brain tumor, according to a study led by researchers in Duke's Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center.A type of herpes virus called human cytomegalovirus (CMV) is found in up to 80 percent of Americans, though the virus normally produces very few clinical symptoms, is dormant, and usually undetectable in most people. (Source: Neurology / Neuroscience News From Medical News Today)

The Protein Srebp2 Drives Cholesterol Formation In Prion-Infected Neuronal Cells Which May Promote Prion-Dependent Diseases

Neurology / Neuroscience News From Medical News Today — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:00:00 +0100

Prions are causing fatal and infectious diseases of the nervous system, such as the mad cow disease (BSE), scrapie in sheep or Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans. Scientists of Helmholtz Zentrum MÃ¼nchen and Technische UniversitÃ¤t MÃ¼nchen have now succeeded in elucidating another disease mechanism of prion diseases: The prion-infected cell changes its gene expression and produces increased quantities of cholesterol. Prions need this for their propagation. (Source: Neurology / Neuroscience News From Medical News Today)

A First Step in Viral Gene Therapy for Muscular Dystrophy

Current Neurology and Neuroscience Reports — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 08:02:34 +0100

Content Type Journal ArticleCategory Clinical Trial ReportDOI 10.1007/s11910-010-0090-xAuthors Michio Hirano, Columbia University Medical Center 630 West 168th Street, P&S 4-423 New York NY 10032 USA Journal Current Neurology and Neuroscience ReportsOnline ISSN 1534-6293Print ISSN 1528-4042 (Source: Current Neurology and Neuroscience Reports)

The Genetics of Pediatric Brain Tumors

Current Neurology and Neuroscience Reports — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:26:48 +0100

Abstract Brain tumors are the most common childhood solid malignancy and the leading cause of cancer-related death in children. Medulloblastoma, ependymoma, supratentorial primitive neuroectodermal tumors, and pilocytic astrocytoma are the most prevalent types, all of which are clinically, histologically, and genetically heterogeneous. Despite an incomplete molecular understanding of these tumors, we have made significant headway in the past 5 years in identifying and classifying important genetic alterations and pathways central to the disease process. This review summarizes our current state of knowledge, emphasizes recent seminal findings in the field, and proposes future research efforts needed to further characterize the genetic basis of pediatric brain tumors. ...

1. Quantification of epileptic activity for therapeutic monitoring

Clinical Neurophysiology — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 18:13:02 +0100

The aim of treatment of epilepsies is to control seizures without causing adverse effects by reaching the best possible quality of life. For this aim diagnostic and therapeutic monitoring became an increasingly clinically important tool because seizures are transient events difficult to observe. An assessment of the amount of knowledge gain by the different examination methods such as routine EEG, sleep EEG, ictal routine EEG, long-term video EEG. Evaluation of antiepileptic drugs can be performed with the aid of therapeutic intensive seizure analysis including neuropsychological testing. Computer supported seizure detection in emergency cases status epilepticus and for the quantification of frequency and severity of epileptic seizures in difficult to treat epilepsies. Here adequate method...

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Music Composition from the Brain Signal: Representing the Mental State by Music

Computational Intelligence and Neuroscience — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:14:07 +0100

This paper proposes a method to translate human EEG into music, so as to represent mental state by music. The arousal levels of the brain mental state and music emotion are implicitly used as the bridge between the mind world and the music. The arousal level of the brain is based on the EEG features extracted mainly by wavelet analysis, and the music arousal level is related to the musical parameters such as pitch, tempo, rhythm, and tonality. While composing, some music principles (harmonics and structure) were taken into consideration. With EEGs during various sleep stages as an example, the music generated from them had different patterns of pitch, rhythm, and tonality. 35 volunteers listened to the music pieces, and significant difference in music arousal levels was found. It implied t...

Management and prevention of human prion diseases

Current Neurology and Neuroscience Reports — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 10:45:11 +0100

Abstract Prion diseases are a group of fatal neurologic disorders that affect humans and animals and for which there is no available therapy. The basic pathogenic mechanism is linked to posttranslational changes of the host cellular prion protein (PrPc) into a pathologic conformer (PrPTSE) that has a strong tendency to aggregate and form amyloid fibrils. In humans, the most common form of the disease is sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), which equally affects females and males of all ages and all ethnic groups. Sporadic CJD has an overall mortality rate of approximately one to two cases per million people per year, with peak incidence in individuals 60 to 70 years old. Approximately 10% to 20% of CJD cases appear within families and are linked to point or insert mutat...

GABA(A) alpha-1 subunit mediated desynchronization of elevated low frequency oscillations alleviates specific dysfunction in stroke – A case report

Clinical Neurophysiology — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 18:12:59 +0100

Conclusions: In JP, functional deficits and pathological oscillations appear coincidentally reduced following administration of low-dose zolpidem.Significance: GABA(A) alpha-1 sensitive desynchronisation of pathological oscillations may represent a biomarker and potential therapeutic target in brain injury. (Source: Clinical Neurophysiology)

Quick thinking: perceiving in a tenth of a blink of an eye

Nature Neuroscience — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 17:10:54 +0100

Authors: Jan Drugowitsch & Alexandre Pouget What is the minimal sensory processing time before we can make a decision about a stimulus? A study now reports that, for simple perceptual decisions, this can take as little as 30 ms. (Source: Nature Neuroscience)