Latest Neuropsychology Stories

Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery but how do our brains decide when and who we should copy? Researchers from The University of Nottingham have found that the key may lie in an unspoken invitation communicated through eye contact.In a study published this week in the Journal of Neuroscience, a team of scientists from the University's School of Psychology show that eye contact seems to act as an invitation for mimicry, triggering mechanisms in the frontal region of the brain that...

Baylor College of Medicine has received a $25 million gift from an anonymous donor to establish the Drs. Beth K. and Stuart C. Yudofsky Division of Neuropsychiatry in the Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at BCM.Dr. Stuart Yudofsky, professor and chair of the Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at BCM and chairman of the Department of Psychiatry of The Methodist Hospital, will serve as the Drs. Beth K. and Stuart C. Yudofsky Presidential Chair...

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- All those hits to the head may have a lasting impact on football players. A new study shows retired NFL players are at a higher risk of developing mild cognitive impairment (MCI), which can be a precursor to Alzheimer's disease.Individuals with MCI have trouble with memory, language or another mental function. While these problems are often apparent to the patient and others, they are not severe enough to interfere with everyday life.Researchers screened 513 retired...

As any student who's had to study for multiple exams can tell you, trying to learn two different sets of facts one after another is challenging. As you study for the physics exam, almost inevitably some of the information for the history exam is forgotten. It's been widely believed that this interference between memories develops because the brain simply doesn't have the capacity necessary to process both memories in quick succession. But is this truly the case?A new study by researchers at...

Brigid Waldron-Perrine, Ph.D., a recent graduate from Wayne State University, and her mentor, Lisa J. Rapport, Ph.D., professor of psychology at Wayne State University's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, found that if traumatic brain injury (TBI) victims feel close to a higher power, it can help them rehabilitate. The study was recently published in Rehabilitation Psychology.Traumatic brain injury is a disruption of normal brain function after a head injury and affects 1.7 million...

SAN FRANCISCO, June 21, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Brain Plasticity Inc. (BPI), a technology incubator dedicated to the discovery and development of novel technologies that harness the basic principles of brain plasticity to improve the lives of people with neurological and psychiatric disorders, was recently awarded a $2 million grant from the United States Department of Defense. The grant will fund a two-year clinical trial of an internet-based program designed to improve cognitive function...

ROCKVILLE, Md., June 20, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Neuralstem, Inc. (NYSE Amex: CUR) announced that it has been approved to dose the final cohort in the ongoing Phase Ia trial to test the safety of NSI-189 for the treatment of major depression. Phase Ia is testing the drug in healthy volunteers for safety and tolerability. NSI-189 is a proprietary new chemical entity discovered by Neuralstem that stimulates new neuron growth in the hippocampus, an area of the brain that is believed to be...

    * Hippocampus adapts to environmental stresses    * Stockpiles neuronal stem cells under deprived conditions, produces more neurons under favorable conditions    * Knowledge of how neural stem cells produce neurons could lead to potential treatment for neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's Scientists have known for years that neurogenesis takes place throughout adulthood in the hippocampus of the mammalian brain. Now Columbia researchers...

BOSTON, June 8, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- NeuroRestorative, a leading provider of post-acute rehabilitation services for people with brain injury, is honored to have been chosen as a contracted provider with the Veterans Health Administration Assisted Living Pilot Program for Veterans with Traumatic Brain Injury. This pilot program is the first time that the VA has contracted with civilian providers who offer post-acute brain injury rehabilitation services. The VA program provides dedicated...

The results of a Dutch study of 300 patients demonstrated that 22% of patients with Sjögren's syndrome were classified as clinically 'alexithymic' (experiencing difficulty identifying and describing emotions) compared to 12% of healthy controls. Subsequent results of the study showed that higher levels of alexithymia were moderately correlated with worse mental wellbeing in both groups (Pearson's correlation* (r) ≥ 0.32, p< 0.001), showing that there is a proven link between the...