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Taking a biopsy of a brain tumor is a complicated and invasive surgical process, but a team of researchers at Washington University in St. Louis is developing a way that allows them to detect tumor biomarkers through a simple blood test. Hong Chen, a biomedical engineer, and Eric C. Leuthardt, MD, a neurosurgeon, led a team of engineers, physicians and […]
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A new study from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden shows that imagined movements can change our perception in the same way as real, executed movements do. The research, which is presented in the scientific journal Nature Communications, contributes to an increased understanding of how mental training works and may be useful for patients with motor disabilities. “Mental training is very beneficial […]
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Who we are, and what makes us “us” has been the topic of much debate throughout history. At the individual level, the ingredients for the unique essence of a person consist mostly of personality concepts. Things like kindness, warmth, hostility and selfishness. Deeper than this, however, is how we react to the world around us, respond socially, our moral reasoning, […]
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Brown University’s brain science institute has been given $100 million to advance the understanding of the brain and what causes Lou Gehrig’s Disease, Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases. The Ivy League university in Providence, Rhode Island, announced the donation from alumnus Robert Carney and his wife, Nancy, on Wednesday. Institute Director Diane Lipscombe said she hopes the funding can be […]
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Adolescence is a period for individual growth and opportunities, but it also coincides with the emergence of many mental disorders. In a study that was recently published in JAMA Psychiatry, Norwegian researchers revealed that the pathways between brain regions are associated with early signs of mental illness in youth. The researchers analyzed a wide range of clinical, cognitive, and genetic […]
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McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School researchers believe they have uncovered a method that could be useful in predicting a depressed patient’s treatment prognosis, prior to starting treatment. In the paper “Pretreatment Rostral Anterior Cingulate Cortex Activity in Relation to Symptom Improvement in Depression: A Randomized Clinical Trial,” currently available online and scheduled to appear in the June 2018 edition […]
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Inflammation is a normal part of the body’s response to infection, chronic stress or obesity. In pregnant women, it is believed that heightened inflammation increases the risk of mental illness or brain development problems in children. A study conducted by researchers at OHSU in Portland, Oregon, has established a link between inflammation in pregnant women and the way the newborn […]
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Researchers from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and colleagues have discovered how two brain regions work together to maintain attention, and how discordance between the regions could lead to attention deficit disorders, including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depression. People with attention deficits have difficulty focusing and often display compulsive behavior. The new study suggests these symptoms could […]
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Researchers show for the first time that healthy older men and women can generate just as many new brain cells as younger people. There has been controversy over whether adult humans grow new neurons, and some research has previously suggested that the adult brain was hard-wired and that adults did not grow new neurons. This study, to appear in the […]
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If you keep a close eye on an MRI scan of the brain, you’ll see a wave pass through the entire brain like a heartbeat once every few seconds. This ultra-slow rhythm was recognized decades ago, but no one quite knew what to make of it. MRI data are inherently noisy, so most researchers simply ignored the ultra-slow waves. But […]
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