Latest Brain Stories

Brett Smith for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Networking might be the key to moving along in your career path, but it’s also a great way to meet that special someone – and it’s a skill that just might be inherited. That’s the conclusion of researchers who have just completed a new study titled “Genetic Origins of Social Networks in Rhesus macaques” which was recently published in the journal Nature Scientific Reports. "If you are a more social monkey, then you're...

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Jan. 9, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Amarantus BioScience, Inc. (OTCQB: AMBS), a biotechnology company discovering and developing treatments and diagnostics for diseases associated with protein misfolding and apoptosis centered around its patented therapeutic protein Mesencephalic Astrocyte-derived Neurotrophic Factor (MANF), today presented positive preclinical efficacy data for MANF in a neurorestoration 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) rat model of Parkinson's disease. The...

Insect research yields insights for muscle control and nerve disorders in mammals, including humans Working with fruit flies, Johns Hopkins scientists have decoded the activity of protein signals that let certain nerve cells know when and where to branch so that they reach and connect to their correct muscle targets. The proteins’ mammalian counterparts are known to have signaling roles in immunity, nervous system and heart development, and tumor progression, suggesting broad...

New research reveals a shared genetic susceptibility to epilepsy and migraine. Findings published in Epilepsia, a journal of the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE), indicate that having a strong family history of seizure disorders increases the chance of having migraine with aura (MA). Medical evidence has established that migraine and epilepsy often co-occur in patients; this co-occurrence is called "comorbidity." Previous studies have found that people with epilepsy are...

Brett Smith for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online As the most intelligent animals on the planet, we often wonder—how did we get so darn smart? While there are many hotly contested theories, a new study from researchers at Uppsala University in Sweden supports the notion that large, energy-expensive brains evolved in primates at the cost of other bodily functions, also known as the Expensive Tissue Theory. If bigger and better brains were always selected for, then every animal...

Study suggests potential new target in fight against debilitating disease For several years, neurologists at UCLA have been building a case that a link exists between pesticides and Parkinson's disease. To date, paraquat, maneb and ziram — common chemicals sprayed in California's Central Valley and elsewhere — have been tied to increases in the disease, not only among farmworkers but in individuals who simply lived or worked near fields and likely inhaled drifting particles. Now,...

Bigger brains can make animals, well, brainier, but that boost in brain size and ability comes at a price. That's according to new evidence reported on January 3rd in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, in which researchers artificially selected guppies for large and small brain sizes. The findings lend support to the notion that bigger brains and increased cognitive ability do go together, a topic that has been a matter of considerable debate in recent years, said Niclas Kolm of...

Jedidiah Becker for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online A recent study by neuroscientists at Johns Hopkins University has torn the bottom out of a widely accepted theory about how the brain creates memories. The old paradigm held that the ability to form long-term memories depended largely on the activity of a single enzyme in the brain, a notion that now appears to be entirely incorrect. In a report of their research published in the January 2 issue of the journal Nature, the...

Scientists have developed a quick, easy and cheap vision test to find out which part – and how much – of the brain of a stroke victim has been damaged, potentially enabling them to save more lives. The test requires patients to look into a device for about ten minutes, enabling it to be used in the early stages of a stroke – even if the patient cannot move their limbs or speak. This can help doctors diagnose and treat the stroke quickly and accurately, which is vital, as early...

New foundation will drive awareness, supportive care and accelerate new therapies for millions of people living with seizures Washington, DC, December 26, 2012 (PRWEB) December 26, 2012 The Epilepsy Foundation (EF) and the Epilepsy Therapy Project (ETP) announced today that their Boards of Directors have unanimously approved the merger of the two organizations. The new organization, known as the Epilepsy Foundation, will fight for more than two million Americans and their families living...