Copyright 2009 Medical News Today Latest Neurology / Neuroscience News From Medical News Today. http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/sections/neurology/ admin@medicalnewstoday.com (MNT Admin) editors@medicalnewstoday.com (MNT Editors) en-us Sat, 07 Nov 2009 01:00:00 PST http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/170203.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/170203.php H. Lundbeck A/S strengthens its pipeline of pharmaceuticals in clinical development by initiating phase IIa clinical studies with the innovative project Lu AA24493 in order to evaluate safety and tolerability and to explore theoretical efficacy parameters of the drug in humans. Lundbeck expects to enrol 35-40 people suffering from Friedreich's ataxia in this study. Neurology / Neuroscience Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:00:00 PST http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/170119.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/170119.php A gene associated with longevity in roundworms and humans has been shown to affect the function of stem cells that generate new neurons in the adult brain, according to researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine. The study in mice suggests that the gene may play an important role in maintaining cognitive function during aging. Neurology / Neuroscience Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:00:00 PST http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/170121.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/170121.php The Stop ALD Foundation has applauded the investigators who are reporting in the current issue of Science successful results from the pioneering use of gene therapy for adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD), a potentially crippling and fatal brain disorder in young boys. Neurology / Neuroscience Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:00:00 PST http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/170141.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/170141.php The ELA association and Zinedine Zidane, its emblematic ambassador, are proud to announce a world premiere: the results regaring the gene therapy in adrenoleukodystrophy conducted in France have just been published in the prestigious journal Science. Two children have been treated and their diseases have been halted. The children are doing well, which is unexpected for a disease destroying the brain in a few months. Neurology / Neuroscience Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:00:00 PST http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/170153.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/170153.php In diseases such as multiple sclerosis, cells of the immune system infiltrate the brain tissue, where they cause immense damage. For many years, it was an enigma as to how these cells can escape from the bloodstream. This is no trivial feat, given that specialized blood vessels act as a barrier between the nervous system and the bloodstream. Until now, tissue sections provided the sole evidence that the immune cells really do manage to reach the nerve cells. Multiple Sclerosis Fri, 06 Nov 2009 03:00:00 PST http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/170099.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/170099.php Common experience tells us that particular scents of childhood can leave quite an impression, for better or for worse. Now, researchers reporting the results of a brain imaging study online on November 5th in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, show that first scents really do enjoy a "privileged" status in the brain. Neurology / Neuroscience Fri, 06 Nov 2009 03:00:00 PST http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/170102.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/170102.php From their very first days, newborns' cries already bear the mark of the language their parents speak, reveals a new study published online on November 5th in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication. The findings suggest that infants begin picking up elements of what will be their first language in the womb, and certainly long before their first babble or coo. Pregnancy / Obstetrics Fri, 06 Nov 2009 01:00:00 PST http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/170032.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/170032.php Substances naturally produced by the human body may one day help prevent paralysis following a spinal cord injury, according to researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College. A recent $2.5 million grant from the New York State Spinal Cord Injury Research Board will fund their research investigating this possibility. Neurology / Neuroscience Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:00 PST http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/169985.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/169985.php There are areas in the brain devoted to our arms, legs, and various parts of our bodies. The way these areas are distributed throughout the brain are known as "body maps" and there are some significant differences in these maps between left- and right-handed people. For example, in left-handed people, there is an equal amount of brain area devoted to the left and right arms in both hemispheres. Psychology / Psychiatry Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:00 PST http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/170037.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/170037.php An article published Online First and in the January edition of The Lancet Neurology reports that MRI scans on infants who's brains were oxygen deprived can predict with 80 percent accuracy the likelihood of death or disability by eighteen months. Children whose brains are starved of oxygen at birth suffer less brain injury if they undergo therapeutic cooling. The article is the work of Dr Denis Azzopardi, MRC Clinical Sciences Centre, Imperial College London, UK, and colleagues. Pediatrics / Children's Health Thu, 05 Nov 2009 05:00:00 PST http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/169960.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/169960.php One of the many mysteries of Alzheimer's disease is how protein-like snippets called amyloid-beta peptides, which clump together to form plaques in the brain, may cause cell death, leading to the disease's devastating symptoms of memory loss and other mental difficulties. In order to answer that key question and develop new approaches to preventing the damage, scientists must first understand how amyloid-beta forms the telltale clumps. Alzheimer's / Dementia Thu, 05 Nov 2009 05:00:00 PST http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/169964.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/169964.php For estrogen replacement to provide stroke protection, it likely must be given soon after levels drop because of menopause or surgical removal of the ovaries, scientists report in the Journal of Neuroscience. Stroke Thu, 05 Nov 2009 05:00:00 PST http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/169971.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/169971.php In one sense, our hands define our humanity. Our opposable thumbs and our hands' unique structure allow us to write, paint, and play the piano. Those who lose their hands as a result of accident, conflict or disease often feel they've lost more than mere utility. A new invention from Tel Aviv University researchers may change that. Prof. IT / Internet / E-mail Thu, 05 Nov 2009 04:00:00 PST http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/169955.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/169955.php A chemical cousin of the common antibiotic tetracycline might be useful in treating spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), a currently incurable disease that is the leading genetic cause of death in infants. This is the finding of a research collaboration involving Adrian Krainer, Ph.D., of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) and scientists from Paratek Pharmaceuticals and Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science. Genetics Thu, 05 Nov 2009 03:00:00 PST http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/169938.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/169938.php NeuroVive Pharmaceutical AB, of Lund, Sweden, announced that on November 3, 2009 it completed the clinical phase of its study investigating tolerability and pharmacokinetics of the cremophor®-free cyclosporine i.v. formula NeuroSTAT®. CEO Eskil Elmér comments that "This study in 52 healthy subjects is a direct comparison of NeuroVive's injectable cyclosporine product NeuroSTAT® with Novartis's product Sandimmune® Injection. Neurology / Neuroscience Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:00 PST http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/169841.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/169841.php Stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS), a radiation therapy procedure pioneered at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI) that precisely delivers a large dose of radiation to tumors, effectively controls pain in patients with cancer that has spread to the spine, according to researchers from UPCI. The results of the research were presented this week during the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) annual meeting in Chicago, being held November 1 - 5, 2009. Pain / Anesthetics Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:00:00 PST http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/169847.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/169847.php Science now offers us ever more advanced ways to understand and control pain. But with those new treatments come new questions about the use (and misuse) of state-of-the-art technology and how far pain management can and should go. Neurology / Neuroscience Wed, 04 Nov 2009 05:00:00 PST http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/169779.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/169779.php The majority of our life is spent moving around a static world and we generate our impression of the world using visual and other senses simultaneously. It is the ability to freely explore our environment that is essential for the view we form of our local surroundings. When we walk down the street and enter a shop to buy fruit, the street, shop and fruit are not moving, we are. Neurology / Neuroscience Wed, 04 Nov 2009 05:00:00 PST http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/169839.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/169839.php Radiation oncologists at Rush University Medical Center are intent on finding ways to avoid damage to the critically important hippocampus and limbic circuit of the brain when cranial radiation is required to treat existing or potential metastatic cancers. The goal is to spare these areas, which are responsible for short-term memory, as well as emotions, motivation, and a range of executive functions, such as planning and decision-making. Neurology / Neuroscience Wed, 04 Nov 2009 04:00:00 PST http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/169773.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/169773.php Treating a common brain tumor with multiple sessions of radiation appears to result in less brain swelling than treating the tumor once with a high dose of radiation, say researchers from the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center at Georgetown University Hospital. Benign brain tumors known as meningiomas are often treated with a single, high dose of radiation using stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS). At Georgetown, SRS is conducted using CyberKnife. Neurology / Neuroscience Wed, 04 Nov 2009 02:00:00 PST http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/169727.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/169727.php Inflammatory response of brain cells-as indicated by a molecular imaging technique-could tell researchers more about why certain neurologic disorders, such as migraine headaches and psychosis in schizophrenic patients, occur and provide insight into how to best treat them, according to two studies published in the November issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine. Neurology / Neuroscience Wed, 04 Nov 2009 02:00:00 PST http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/169732.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/169732.php Seaside Therapeutics LLC announced that the Company has initiated a Phase 1 clinical trial of STX107, a highly potent, selective mGluR5 antagonist, in development for the treatment of Fragile X Syndrome. The single ascending dose study is designed to evaluate the safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetics of STX107 in healthy volunteers. Fragile X Syndrome is the most common inherited form of mental impairment and the most common known cause of autism. Neurology / Neuroscience Wed, 04 Nov 2009 02:00:00 PST http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/169737.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/169737.php Learning and memory tests can help predict whether a healthy person will develop Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) according to a report published in Neurology. People who have MCI are at an increased risk of going on to develop dementia. Alzheimer's Society comment 'Dementia develops in the brain many years before people start to notice there is something wrong. Alzheimer's / Dementia Wed, 04 Nov 2009 01:00:00 PST http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/169712.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/169712.php Leading surgeons based at Southampton's university hospitals are carrying out cutting edge brain surgery through the nose. The innovative technique, which is at the forefront of neurosurgery across the world, is used to remove skull base tumours and is performed entirely by entering the skull through the nose, known as endonasal endoscopic skull base surgery. Neurology / Neuroscience Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:00:00 PST http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/169690.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/169690.php A study published this week in PNAS provides a comprehensive comparative functional anatomy study in human and monkey brains which reveals highly similar brain networks preserved across evolution. An international collaboration co-led by scientists at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City examined patterns of connectivity to show that the precuneus, long thought to be a single structure, is actually divided into four distinct functional regions. Neurology / Neuroscience