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Medulloblastoma is a rare but devastating childhood brain cancer. This cancer can spread through the spinal fluid and be deposited elsewhere in the brain or spine. Radiation therapy to the whole brain and spine followed by an extra radiation dose to the back of the brain prevents this spread and has been the standard of care. However, the radiation used […]
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Existing evidence suggests that the risk of illness associated with preterm birth declines as children grow up, but it remains unclear at what age this begins to happen Being born before 37 weeks’ gestation is associated with a greater risk of hospital admission throughout childhood than being born at full term, says an observational study published in The BMJ on […]
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A specialist technique used to study drugs has been completed for the first time during an outbreak of Ebola virus disease. The study published today in eBiomedicine was a collaboration of researchers from Sierra Leone and the University’s of Glasgow, Oxford, Cambridge and the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. It used pharmacokinetics—the measurement of the change in drug concentration in […]
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Advances in scanning have allowed researchers for the first time to show lower levels of a protein found in the connections between neurons in the living brains of people with schizophrenia. The researchers, who conducted the scans at the psychiatric imaging facility at the Medical Research Council (MRC) London Institute of Medical Sciences, say these changes could underlie the cognitive […]
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Storing and retrieving memories is among the most important tasks our intricate brains must perform, yet how that happens at a molecular level remains incompletely understood. A new study from the lab of Neuroscience Professor Ronald Davis, Ph.D., at Scripps Research, Florida, sheds light on one element of that memory storage process, namely the storage and retrieval of a type […]
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Research led by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation points to a groundbreaking discovery about a new potential treatment and prevention for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The research team, led by Dr. Fang Liu, Senior Scientist and Head of Molecular Neuroscience in CAMH’s Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute, and Professor […]
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New research reveals a key insight into the development of hair bundles, the intricately complex assemblies in the inner ear responsible for hearing. Hair bundles are precisely arranged cellular structures deep within the spiral cavity of the inner ear. Together, they convert vibrational energy into electrical signals in the brain that translate into the sensation of hearing. Once they’re lost—whether […]
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It might be complicated, but the concept is as simple as a light switch. A team of researchers led by two Harvard alumni have uncovered a switch-like mechanism in the brains of larval zebrafish that flips their brains between two distinct motivational states—one a highly focused hunting state and the other an easily distracted, exploratory state. The findings, which they […]
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Published studies have long found a correlation between obesity in children and decreased executive function. New research published in JAMA Pediatrics, based on data mined from a massive national research study, suggests that a change in brain structure—a thinner prefrontal cortex—may help explain that interrelationship. “Our results show an important connection; that kids with higher BMI tend to have a […]
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Researchers from Lawson Health Research Institute and Brescia University College found that teenage pregnant women are more likely to live in poverty, have poorer mental health and have higher rates of substance use. There are limited Canadian studies on teenage pregnancies, in particular looking at risk factors and birth outcomes compared to women who became pregnant during adulthood. London researchers […]
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