Medical Animations Neurology

Does A Lab-Measured Compassionate Brain Fare Well In Real Life?
A new series of studies is being launched by the University of Wisconsin-Madison, exploring insight knowledge on how laboratory measures of moral qualities, such as compassion, relate to real-life behavior. Founder of the UW's Center for Investigating Healthy Minds (CIHM), Dr. Richard J. Davidson at the Waisman Center, was awarded a three-year, $1...

Treating Brain Injuries With Stem Cell Transplants - Promising Results
The February edition of Neurosurgery reports that animal experiments in brain-injured rats have shown that stem cells injected via the carotid artery travel directly to the brain, greatly enhancing functional recovery...

Memory Function - Decaffeinated Coffee May Help
Drinking decaffeinated coffee may improve brain energy metabolism associated with diabetes type 2, according to a study published in Nutritional Neuroscience and carried out by researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Brain energy metabolism is a dysfunction with a known risk factor for dementia and other neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer's disease...

Link Between Insulin Resistance And Brain Health In Elderly
New research from Uppsala University shows that reduced insulin sensitivity is linked to smaller brain size and deteriorated language skills in seniors. The findings are now published in the scientific journal Diabetes Care. The main hormonal function of insulin is to support the uptake and use of glucose in muscles and fat tissues...

Study Of Human And Other Primate Brains Finds Extended Synaptic Development May Explain Our Cognitive Edge
Over the first few years of life, human cognition continues to develop, soaking up information and experiences from the environment and far surpassing the abilities of even our nearest primate relatives...

For Brain Cancer - A Thought-Provoking New Therapeutic Target?
Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most common of all malignant brain tumors that originate in the brain. Patients with GBM have a poor prognosis because it is a highly aggressive form of cancer that is commonly resistant to current therapies. New therapeutic approaches are therefore much needed...

Noise Exposure Can Cause Long-Lasting Changes To Sensory Pathways; Touch-Sensing Nerve Cells May Lead To Future Tinnitus Treatments
We all know that it can take a little while for our hearing to bounce back after listening to our iPods too loud or attending a raucous concert. But new research at the University of Michigan Health System suggests over-exposure to noise can actually cause more lasting changes to our auditory circuitry - changes that may lead to tinnitus, commonly known as ringing in the ears...

Investigating The Neural Basis Of Prosopagnosia
For Bradley Duchaine, there is definitely more than meets the eye where faces are concerned. With colleagues at Birkbeck College in the University of London, he is investigating the process of facial recognition, seeking to understand the complexity of what is actually taking place in the brain when one person looks at another...

Dyslexia-Linked Genetic Variant Decreases Midline Crossing Of Auditory Pathways
Finnish scientists have found that a rare dyslexia-linked genetic variant of the ROBO1 gene decreases normal crossing of auditory pathways in the human brain. The weaker the expression of the gene is, the more abnormal is the midline crossing. The results link, for the first time, a dyslexia-susceptibility gene to a specific sensory function of the human brain...

An Explanation For Why The Brain May Become More Reluctant To Function As We Grow Older
New findings, led by neuroscientists at the University of Bristol and published this week in the journal Neurobiology of Aging, reveal a novel mechanism through which the brain may become more reluctant to function as we grow older. It is not fully understood why the brain's cognitive functions such as memory and speech decline as we age...

Abnormal Brain Structure In Both Siblings - Addiction Only Affects One
A study conducted by Dr. Karen Ersche, Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, England, and published in Science, reveals that one sibling who is addicted to drugs, and the other who is not, have similar brain abnormalities. These abnormalities come from an area of the brain that is vital for aiding people in exhibiting self control...

Are CT Scans For Dizziness In ER Cost-Effective?
Henry Ford Hospital researchers have found that conducting CT scans in the emergency department (ED) for individuals experiencing dizziness may not be cost effective. The researchers discovered that less than 1% of CT scans carried out in the ED showed a more serious underlying cause for dizziness (stroke or intracranial bleeding), which required intervention...

Scientists Have Now Discovered How Different Brain Regions Cooperate During Short-Term Memory
Holding information within one's memory for a short while is a seemingly simple and everyday task. We use our short-term memory when remembering a new telephone number if there is nothing to write at hand, or to find the beautiful dress inside the store that we were just admiring in the shopping window...

Fatal Strokes May Be Predicted By Earlier Severe, Rapid Memory Loss
Severe, rapid memory loss may be linked to - and could predict - a future deadly stroke, according to research presented at the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference 2012. Researchers found that people who died after stroke had more severe memory loss in the years before stroke compared to people who survived stroke or people who didn't have a stroke...

The Development Of Parkinson's Cells Visualized By Researchers
In the US alone, at least 500,000 people suffer from Parkinson's disease, a neurological disorder that affects a person's ability to control his or her movement. New technology from the University of Bonn in Germany lets researchers observe the development of the brain cells responsible for the disease...