all brain stories

Finding the seat of language?

404132862 — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 16:59:52 -0400

A team of Harvard and University of California, San Diego (UCSD), researchers report having pinpointed an area of the brain where three essential components of language — word identification, grammar, and word pronunciation — are processed.

Ned T.

Neural response to electrical currents isn't localized, as previously believed

404132862 — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 12:00:00 -0400

For more than a century, scientists have been using electrical stimulation to explore and treat the human brain. The technique has helped identify regions responsible for specific neural functions — for instance, the motor cortex and pleasure center — and has been used to treat a variety of conditions from Parkinson's disease to depression. Yet no one has been able to see what actually happens at the cellular level when the brain is electrically prodded.

Fragile period of childhood brain development could underlie epilepsy

705287540 — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 14:59:30 -0400

A form of partial epilepsy associated with auditory and other sensory hallucinations has been linked to the disruption of brain development during early childhood, according to a study led by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC).

An unusual collection : A brain tumor tissue bank

404132862 — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 12:22:27 -0400

Five years ago, as she was walking into Caritas Holy Family Hospital and Medical Center in Methuen, Mass., Patricia Fay saw a priest she knew and cornered him. “I’m like ‘Oh, Father Peter! And I sort of grabbed him by his arm,” she recounts.“I said, ‘What are you doing here? Father Peter! I could use a prayer right now. He asked me what was going on and I told him, “They found a brain tumor and I’m about to get set up for radiation. It’s cancer.”

“Father Peter put his hand on the top of my head, closed his eyes, and started saying a prayer,” Fay continues. But all she could think was, “Oh no! He’s blessing the wrong side!”

Neuroimaging suggests truthfulness requires no act of will for honest people

404132862 — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 16:28:42 -0400

A new study of the cognitive processes involved with honesty suggests that truthfulness depends more on absence of temptation than active resistance to temptation.

Using neuroimaging, psychologists looked at the brain activity of people given the chance to gain money dishonestly by lying and found that honest people showed no additional neural activity when telling the truth, implying that extra cognitive processes were not necessary to choose honesty. However, those individuals who behaved dishonestly, even when telling the truth, showed additional activity in brain regions that involve control and attention.

Shining light on leptin’s role in brain

50443248 — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 15:42:36 -0400

In investigating the complex neurocircuitry behind weight gain and glucose control, scientists have known that the hormone leptin plays a key role in the process. But within the myriad twists and turns of the brain’s intricate landscape, the exact pathways that the hormone travels to exert its influence have remained a mystery.

‘Super-recognizers' never forget a face

50443248 — Wed, 20 May 2009 14:12:50 -0400

Some people say they never forget a face, a claim now bolstered by psychologists at Harvard University who’ve discovered a group they call “super-recognizers”: those who can easily recognize someone they met in passing, even many years later.

The new study suggests that skill in facial recognition might vary widely among humans. Previous research has identified as much as 2 percent of the population as having “face-blindness,” or prosopagnosia, a condition characterized by great difficulty in recognizing faces.

Lighting up Parkinson’s disease research

50443248 — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 11:41:08 -0400

Most people do not think of jellyfish at the mention of Parkinson’s disease research.

Modification of mutant Huntington's protein increases its clearance from brain cells

50443248 — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 12:57:47 -0400

A new study has identified a potential strategy for removing the abnormal protein that causes Huntington’s disease (HD) from brain cells, which could slow the progression of the devastating neurological disorder.

A mother’s criticism touches nerve in formerly depressed

50443248 — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 14:05:25 -0400

Formerly depressed women show patterns of brain activity when they are criticized by their mothers that are distinctly different from the patterns shown by never-depressed controls, according to a new study from Harvard University.

The participants reported being completely well and fully recovered, yet their neural activity resembled that which has been observed in depressed individuals in other studies.

Angiogenesis inhibitor improves brain tumor survival by reducing swelling

50443248 — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 15:58:17 -0400

The beneficial effects of anti-angiogenesis drugs in the treatment of the deadly brain tumors called glioblastomas appear to result primarily from reduction of edema – the swelling of brain tissue – and not from any direct anti-tumor effect, according to a study from Harvard researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH).

Hearing could hold key to unlocking schizophrenia mystery

50443248 — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 16:12:45 -0400

Measuring brain waves in response to hearing a variety of tones appears to be a useful way to begin understanding the underlying genetic abnormalities associated with schizophrenia, says a study headed by researchers at Harvard-affiliated McLean Hospital.

Higher temperatures lead to more severe headaches

50443248 — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 15:56:45 -0400

Although large numbers of headache sufferers, particularly individuals who struggle with migraines, attribute their pain to the weather, there has been little scientific evidence to back up their assertions.

Now, a study of more than 7,000 patients, led by Harvard researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), provides some of the first large-scale data on how environmental conditions — weather, as well as air pollution — influence headache pain.

Alzheimer's-associated plaques may have impact throughout the brain

50443248 — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 14:15:19 -0500

The impact of the amyloid plaques that appear in the brains of patients with Alzheimer’s disease may extend beyond the deposits’ effects on neurons — the cells that transmit electrochemical signals throughout the nervous system.

In an article in the Feb. 27 issue of Science, Harvard researchers from the MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease (MGH-MIND) report that amyloid plaques may also increase the activity of astrocytes, star-shaped nervous system cells traditionally considered to provide a supporting role in normal brain function. They also show that amyloid-induced astrocyte hyperactivity extends throughout the brain rather than being confined to regions directly adjacent to plaques.

New ALS gene identified

50443248 — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 15:33:39 -0500

A collaborative research effort spanning nearly a decade between Harvard researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and King’s College London (KCL) has identified a novel gene for inherited amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease).