Lowered activity in the brain region involved with stopping habitual behavior may help identify people at higher risk for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Measuring this underactivation with functional MRI (fMRI) would represent improvement over current diagnostic techniques which rely on clinical interviews with the patient and therefore can't identify the disease until it has already taken hold.

via medicinenet.com

Chalk up another benefit of being physically fit, this time for people who have early Alzheimer's disease.
A new study links cardiorespiratory fitness to less brain shrinkage in people with early Alzheimer's disease.
Researcher Jeffrey M. Burns, MD, says in a news release that Alzheimer's patients were also compared to those who did not have the disease.

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Surprising findings from a gene study have set the world of autism research spinning on a new axis. The new study shows that many of the different genes linked to autism — and many of the new autism genes discovered in the course of the study — are part of a network that allows a child's brain to build new connections in response to experience.

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A professor at the University of California, Los Angeles says that a balanced diet and regular exercise not only protects from heart disease and cancer, but also from brain damage and mental disorders. "Food is like a pharmaceutical compound that affects the brain," Nature magazine quoted Prof. Fernando Gomez-Pinilla, a neurosurgery and physiological science expert who has spent years studying the effects of food, exercise and sleep on the brain, as saying.

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More evidence has emerged that a chemical imbalance in the brain may play a key role in cot deaths.
Researchers found low levels of serotonin triggered changes in heart rate and body temperature that led to sudden death in tests on mice. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that passes messages between brain cells and is most associated with mood.
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Following a traumatic brain injury (TBI), patients should be given nutritional supplementation through a gastric feeding tube as soon as possible, for it can improve their chances of survival by as much as four-fold, suggests a new study. Clinician-scientists from NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center are suggesting an immediate addition of the change in guidelines used in the care of patients with TBI.

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Punchstock researchers have developed a 'puncture repair kit' for cells, that would repair burst cell membranes in the brain, just like puncture sealants are used in bicycle tyres, and would thus help prevent brain damage after serious head injuries. This new treatment may also help trauma victims avoid the severest injuries and the researchers showed that when brain-injured rats that are injected with a polymer called polyethylene glycol (PEG) soon after their injuries, they recover certain behavioural abilities better than untreated rats.

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Scientists have created the first ever complete high-resolution map of how tens of millions of neural fibres in the brain’s outer layer connect and communicate. Their ground-breaking work identified a single network core, or hub, that may be the key to the working of both hemispheres of the brain.
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A simple polymer, mixed with sterile water and injected into the body, can help reduce brain injury caused by blunt force. Andrew Koob and Richard Borgens of Purdue University found that rats injected with PEG, or Polyethylene glycol, limited brain damage, if administered within four hours of the injury.
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Sophisticated scans showed the region, located in a primitive area of the brain, is activated when people choose unfamiliar options. The researchers believe this suggests that taking a chance is an ancient human trait that may have given humans an evolutionary advantage.
The University College London study features online in the journal Neuron.

via news.bbc.co.uk

In a first of its kind study, scientists at the Burnham Institute for Medical Research have genetically programmed embryonic stem (ES) cells to become nerve cells when transplanted into the brain. Headed by Stuart A. Lipton, M.D., Ph.D., professor and director of the Del E. Webb Neuroscience, Aging, and Stem Cell Research Center at Burnham, the study has paved the way for developing new treatments for stroke, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and other neurological conditions.

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High-dose folic acid pills - providing as much of the nutrient as 2.5 pounds of strawberries - might help slow the cognitive decline of aging. So says a Dutch study that’s the first to show a vitamin could really improve memory.Read the rest of this entry »

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A protein linked to Alzheimer's disease also plays a role in HIV progression by promoting entry of the virus into cells, U.S. researchers say. "The apoE4 protein is the greatest known genetic risk factor to Alzheimer's disease. However, its role in infectious diseases has been less well-defined," study author Robert W. Mahley, president of the Gladstone Institutes, said in a prepared statement.

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You might not just realize this while downing a mug of chilled beer on a summer afternoon, but a new study has revealed that too much alcohol can cause permanent damage to brain. The study has shown that too much alcohol can also cause brain injury and degeneration by inhibiting insulin and insulin-like growth factor (IGF) With the help of postmortem human brain tissue, researchers showed that chronic alcohol.

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Imaging studies reveal key differences in the brains of gay and straight men and women that could add to the understanding of the biology of homosexuality. Using magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, researchers from Stockholm's Karolinska Institute found that the brains of straight men and gay women tended to be slightly asymmetric, with the right hemisphere somewhat larger than the left.

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