Tag: glioblastoma

Weekly Neuroscience Update

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Crime films, action films, comedies, or documentaries? A person’s favourite film genre reveals a lot about how their brain works. This is the finding of a new study that compared data on film preferences with recordings of the brain activity of around 260 people.

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), neuroscientists have identified several regions of the brain that are responsible for processing language.

Certain regions of the brain show changes during the early stages after quitting drinking that may contribute to increased anxiety and relapse rates in people attempting recovery from alcohol use disorder, according to a recent study.

A research team has found evidence suggesting that minor brain injuries that occur early in life, may have health impacts later on.

Scientists have discovered a mutation in SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, that plays a key role in its ability to infect the central nervous system. The findings may help scientists understand its neurological symptoms and the mystery of “long COVID,” and they could one day even lead to specific treatments to protect and clear the virus from the brain.

Scientists have identified how gene variations lead to brain changes associated with essential tremor, a common movement disorder affecting over 60 million people worldwide.

A new study reveals that non-cognitive skills like motivation and self-regulation are as crucial as intelligence in determining academic success. These skills, influenced by both genetics and environment, grow increasingly important throughout a child’s education.

Researchers have developed an innovative device that can diagnose glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer, in under an hour using a novel biochip.

A recent study investigates how the brain reacts to different types of love, ranging from parental to romantic, through sophisticated imaging methods. The findings indicate that the love for one’s children elicits the strongest brain response, particularly within the reward system.

Researchers have developed a system that detects genetic markers of autism in brain images with 89-95% accuracy, potentially enabling earlier diagnosis and treatment.

In a small pilot study, researchers used a new closed-loop system to measure the electrical brain patterns of individual patients and then stimulate those patterns with a weak electrical current, resulting in significantly improved symptoms of major depressive disorder.

A deeper understanding of the communication inside the body when someone is going through opioid withdrawal has led to a new clinical trial at the University of Calgary.

Researchers have developed a brain-inspired AI technique that utilizes neural networks to model the complex quantum states of molecules, which are essential for technologies such as solar panels and photocatalyst.

Finally this week, a new finding could open doors to new treatments for a range of psychiatric and neurological disorders attributed to dysfunctions in specific dopamine pathways.

Weekly Neuroscience Update

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A new study sheds light on gender differences in risk-taking behavior. The research reveals women are more averse to risk than men due to heightened sensitivity to potential losses. Conversely, men, exhibiting greater optimism, are more willing to engage in risk-taking.

Researchers have identified specific brain network connections associated with anosognosia, a condition where patients are unaware of their neurological or psychiatric deficits.

Scientists have discovered children’s ability to process emotional cues is largely established by the time they start school. Analyzing brain scans from children aged five to 15, the study revealed that such brain activity becomes increasingly similar to their peers as they reach adolescence. The research emphasizes the importance of early intervention to address issues related to understanding emotional cues.

Recent neuroscience studies underscore the profound impact of sleep and sleep disorders on memory.

In a paper published in Science Advances, an international team reveal the discovery of sequence variants in the gene ABCC9 that influence the pitch of voices. The scientists found that ABCC9 variants associate with higher voice pitch in both men and women. The same sequence variants are also linked to higher pulse pressure, a cardiovascular risk factor, highlighting links between voice pitch and health-related traits.

Researchers have discovered a promising new avenue for treating glioblastoma, a deadly brain cancer.

Research led by the University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, Texas, has looked into premature brain aging in individuals with type 1 diabetes. The findings of this study show an increase in brain aging among individuals with type 1 diabetes without any early signs of AD-related neurodegeneration. These increases were associated with reduced cognitive performance, but according to the authors, the abnormal patterns observed in the samples were modest.

Finally this week, intricate links between breathing and memory recall have been unraveled by recent scientific research, painting a more complex picture of our cognitive processes.

Weekly Neuroscience Update

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brain-waves-memory-neurosciencenews.jpgAlpha and theta oscillations move rhythmically across the brain, reflecting neural activity propagating across the cortex to help form working memory, a new study reports.

Researchers have developed a new computational model of major depressive disorder. The model reveals older memories, as well as short term memories, are affected by major depressive disorder. Researchers say how long the memory deficits go back depends on how long the depressive episode lasts.

A new brain cancer atlas maps out comprehensive, visually rich information about the anatomical and genetic bases of glioblastoma, researchers report.

A new study reports people who have a family history of alcohol use disorder release more dopamine in the ventral striatum as a response to the expectation of receiving an alcoholic drink than those without a family history of alcoholism.

A drug that blocks the alpha7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor may provide a new method for combating drug addiction relapse, researchers report.

A groundbreaking study reveals human immune cells in the blood can be transformed into functional neurons within 3 weeks by adding four proteins. The discovery could be used to generate neurons to study specific psychological and neurological disorders, researchers say.

Researchers report transcranial magnetic stimulation predisposes neural connections in the visual cortex for reorganization.

Researchers have created a new model that may help explain how the brain stores memories of tangible events. The new model explains how neural activity in the hippocampus can help map space, time and context in episodic memories.

A new study reveals people respond to stimuli in another person’s peripersonal space as they could their own.

Research has shown that a developing child’s brain structure and function can be adversely affected when the child is raised in an environment lacking adequate education, nutrition and access to health care.

Finally this week, researchers report intuition is the result of information processing in the brain that results in prediction based on previous experience.

 

 

Weekly Neuroscience Update

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Researchers analyzed a series of 164 images from each of 114 individuals and discovered the brain scans of the social perception circuits indicated ASD only in boys. Credit: The researchers/George Washington University.

Researchers have developed a new method to map and track the function of brain circuits affected by autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in boys using brain imaging, a technique that will provide doctors with a tool that measures the progress of treatments in individual patients.

Scientists have derived a structural model of a transporter at the blood-brain barrier called Mfsd2a. This is the first molecular model of this critical transporter, and could prove important for the development of therapeutic agents that need to be delivered to the brain, across the blood-brain barrier. In future, this could help treat neurological disorders such as glioblastoma.

Research co-led by the University of Glasgow has made a potential breakthrough in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.

Frontotemporal dementia (FTD), the second most common cause of dementia in people under 65, may be triggered by a defect in immune cells called microglia that causes them to consume the brain’s synaptic connections, according to new research.

A new study shows that a series of play sessions with music improved 9-month-old babies’ brain processing of both music and new speech sounds.

Researchers at the RIKEN Brain Science Institute (BSI) in Japan have demonstrated that astrocytes help control the strength of connections between neurons. Published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the study used cultured cells and brain slices to show that astrocytes in the hippocampus regulate changes in the brain brought on by neural activity.

Finally this week, people with more friends have higher pain tolerance, Oxford University researchers have found.

Weekly Neuroscience Update

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Nerve cells communicate with each other via intricate projections. In brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s these extensions atrophy, thereby causing connectivity problems. Credit DZNE/Detlef Friedrichs.

Nerve cells communicate with each other via intricate projections. In brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s these extensions atrophy, thereby causing connectivity problems. Credit DZNE/Detlef Friedrichs.

A new study shows the interdependency between the structure and function of neurons.

Neuroscientists have discovered an unexpected benefit of getting older – a more nuanced understanding of social signals, such as the age of others.

Children with autism show different patterns of brain activity during everyday gestures and movements than controls do, suggest unpublished results presented at the 2014 Society for Neuroscience annual meeting.

Researchers have gained fresh insights into how ‘local’ body clocks control waking and sleeping.

People with bipolar disorder who are being treated with the drug lithium are at risk of acute kidney damage and need careful monitoring, according to new research.

Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD) is the major cause of blindness in the western world, affecting around 50 million people. Now scientists at The University of Manchester have identified an important new factor behind its causes, which they hope could lead to new treatments.

A team of researchers has identified an enzyme key to the survival and spread of glioblastoma cancer cells that is not present in healthy brain cells, making the enzyme a promising therapeutic target.

It is claimed one in five students have taken the ‘smart’ drug Modafinil to boost their ability to study and improve their chances of exam success. But new research into the effects of Modafinil has shown that healthy students could find their performance impaired by the drug.

Researchers have developed new insight into a rare but deadly brain infection, called progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML). This disease – which is caused by the JC virus – is most frequently found in people with suppressed immune systems and, until now, scientists have had no effective way to study it or test new treatments.

New research offers insight into short-term effects of maternal caregiving on a developing brain.

A team of researchers  has now been able to demonstrate in a study that the bonding hormone oxytocin inhibits the fear center in the brain and allows fear stimuli to subside more easily. This basic research could also usher in a new era in the treatment of anxiety disorders.

Blocking a key receptor in brain cells that is used by oxygen free radicals could play a major role in neutralizing the biological consequences of Alzheimer’s disease, according to new research.

Finally this week, brain scientists have long believed that older people have less of the neural flexibility (plasticity) required to learn new things. A new study shows that older people learned a visual task just as well as younger ones, but the seniors who showed a strong degree of learning exhibited plasticity in a different part of the brain than younger learners did.