Brain

01/28/2008 - Army Col. (Dr.) Loree Sutton is a woman on a mission.

The military psychiatrist has, for the last month, ricocheted across the Capital Beltway landscape and beyond, setting up a Defense Department office that will, for the first time, bring together the best of the best relating to psychological health and brain injury treatment.    » read more »

In a review of brain imaging studies, researchers advance a theory for the neural basis of intelligence

Irvine, Calif., September 11, 2007 -- A primary mystery puzzling neuroscientists – where in the brain lies intelligence? – just may have a unified answer.    » read more »

5-Sep-2007, CHAPEL HILL — Neurons, or nerve cells, communicate with each other through contact points called synapses. When these connections are damaged, communication breaks down, causing the messages that would normally help our feet push our bike pedals or our mind locate our car keys to fall short.

Now scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine have shown that a protein called neurexin is required for these nerve cell connections to form and function correctly.    » read more »

Sept. 4, 2007 -- While rabies, an ancient scourge that still kills 70,000 every year in developing countries worldwide can be combated with a series of vaccines today, it nearly is always fatal when it reaches the brain.    » read more »

Sept. 4, 2007 -- Results of a new study indicate a strong link between the loss of the neuronal receptor LR11and onset of mild cognitive impairment (MCI), often a harbinger of Alzheimer's disease.

LR11, like all receptors, selectively receives and binds specific substances. Researchers found reduced levels of LR11, also known as sorLA or SORL1, in the brain tissue of people diagnosed with MCI. In addition, the findings show that levels of LR11 in the brain tissue reflect the severity of cognitive impairment and may predict which individuals will progress to Alzheimer's disease.    » read more »

4-Sep-2007 -- Using new software developed to investigate how the brains of dyslexic children are organized, University of Washington researchers have found that key areas for language and working memory involved in reading are connected differently in dyslexics than in children who are good readers and spellers.

However, once the children with dyslexia received a three-week instructional program, their patterns of functional brain connectivity normalized and were similar to those of good readers when deciding if sounds went with groups of letters in words.    » read more »

4-Sep-2007 -- The fragile head and brain of a fly are not easy things to examine but MRC scientists have figured out how to make it a little simpler. And they hope their research will shed light on human disease.

Using an imaging technique, originally developed at the MRC Human Genetics Unit, called optical projection tomography (OPT) they have generated startling 3D images of the inside of a fruit fly for the first time. The OPT images could help to speed up genetic research into Alzheimer’s and other human diseases that affect brain cells.    » read more »

May Yield New Treatments for Brain Injury

WASHINGTON, DC August 31, 2007 – New evidence from a patient shows that the area of the brain that processes visual inputs can reorganize after an injury caused by stroke. Scientists found that a brain region that had stopped receiving signals from the eyes because of a stroke began responding to signals formerly processed in adjacent brain areas.    » read more »

First in the nation program to provide TBI screening for state’s returning Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans, mandatory screening for returning Guard members and 24-hour PTSD helpline

July 3, 2007 -- CHICAGO – On the eve of Independence Day, Illinois Governor Rod R.    » read more »

May 10, 2007 -- [WASHINGTON, D.C.] – U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) introduced legislation, yesterday evening, to improve the care of veterans and service members suffering from traumatic brain injuries (TBI).    » read more »

May 03, 2007 -- BOSTON -- A new application for deep brain stimulation (DBS), a 10-year-old advanced surgical treatment, could be to reduce cluster headache occurrences, according to Mayo Clinic neurologists. They cite the case of a 51-year-old man who suffered about 100 disabling cluster headaches every month for two years -- an average of 3.5 a day, despite high doses of medications intended to control them. Now, he has 0 to 30 attacks a month as the result of this new application of deep brain stimulation.    » read more »