brain's Archives - Family Medicine News

Autism-related genetic mutations occur in aging brains of Alzheimer’s patients

26.11.2019 Health Problems

Researchers believe that autism is caused by mutations that occur sporadically in the egg or sperm or during pregnancy. Activity-dependent neuroprotective protein (ADNP) is a dominant gene whose de novo (during pregnancy) mutations are known to cause autism-related intellectual disabilities. A new Tel Aviv University study has found that ADNP mutations continue to occur in old age and accumulate in […]

Untangling the brain’s life-support network

27.03.2019 Health Problems

The portion of the brain known as the hypothalamus is small but mighty—it controls fundamental behaviors and physiology that are essential for survival. These include eating and drinking, sexual and defensive behaviors, sleep, and physiological control of things like body temperature, fluid balance, and the body’s responses to stress. A USC Dornsife-led study, published in the Proceedings of the National […]

How celastrol sensitizes brains to leptin, curbing hunger and obesity

05.03.2019 Health Problems

Celastrol’s potent anti-obesity effects were widely reported in 2015. Derived from the roots of the thunder god vine, the drug curbed food intake in obese mice by nearly 80 percent, producing up to a 45 percent weight loss. Celastrol increases the brain’s sensitivity to leptin, the hormone that signals we’ve had enough to eat, but until now, no one knew […]

Women’s brains appear three years younger than men’s

05.02.2019 Health Problems

Time wears differently on women’s and men’s brains. While the brain tends to shrink with age, men’s diminish faster than women’s. The brain’s metabolism slows as people grow older, and this, too, may differ between men and women. A new study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis finds that women’s brains appear to be about three years […]

How brains distinguish between self-touch and touch by others

22.01.2019 Health Problems

The brain seems to reduce sensory perception from an area of skin when we touch it ourselves, according to a new study from Linköping University published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The finding increases the understanding of how the brain distinguishes between being touched by another person and self-touch. The ability to distinguish between self […]

To detect new odors, fruit fly brains improve on a well-known computer algorithm

04.12.2018 Health Problems

It might seem like fruit flies would have nothing in common with computers, but new research from the Salk Institute reveals that the two identify novel information in similar ways. The work, which appeared in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) on December 3, 2018, not only sheds light on an important neurobiological problem—how organisms detect new odors—but […]

Zombie cells found in brains of mice prior to cognitive loss

19.09.2018 Health Problems

Zombie cells are the ones that can’t die but are equally unable to perform the functions of a normal cell. These zombie, or senescent, cells are implicated in a number of age-related diseases. And with a new letter in Nature, Mayo Clinic researchers have expanded that list. In a mouse model of brain disease, scientists report that senescent cells accumulate […]

Science Says: How family separation may affect kids’ brains

28.06.2018 Health Problems

Doctors have long known that separating families and other traumatic events can damage children’s well-being. More recent research has shed some light on how that may happen: Severe early adversity may cause brain changes and “toxic stress,” resulting in lasting psychological and physical health problems. A “zero-tolerance” immigration policy announced this spring by the Trump Administration has separated 2,300 children […]

Study identifies protein’s role in mediating brain’s response to stress

17.06.2018 Health Problems

A study led by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators has identified a critical role for a protein called Kruppel-like factor 9 (Klf9) in the brain’s response to stress, which has implications for protecting against the effects of stress in conditions like major depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In their paper published in Cell Reports, the team describes finding that […]

Living with neighborhood violence may shape teens’ brains

12.06.2018 Health Problems

Flinching as a gunshot whizzes past your window. Covering your ears when a police car races down your street, sirens blaring. Walking past a drug deal on your block or a beating at your school. For kids living in picket-fence suburbia, these experiences might be rare. But for their peers in urban poverty, they are all too commonplace. More than […]

1 2 3 »