Medical Animations Neurology

Gene Therapy Helps Children With Rare, Incurable Brain Disease
Using gene transfer techniques pioneered by University of Florida faculty, Taiwanese doctors have restored some movement in four children bedridden with a rare, life-threatening neurological disease. The first-in-humans achievement may also be helpful for more common diseases such as Parkinson's that involve nerve cell damage caused by lack of a crucial molecule in brain tissue...

Surgical Vs. Nonsurgical Treatment For Cervical Spine Fracture
For older adults with "C2" fractures of the upper (cervical) spine, surgery and nonsurgical treatment provide similar short- and long-term outcomes, reports a study in the May issue of Neurosurgery, official journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health...

Glioblastoma Classification Revision Should Improve Patient Care
Radiation oncology researchers have revised the system used by doctors since the 1990s to determine the prognosis of people with glioblastoma, which is the most devastating of malignant brain tumors. The outdated system was devised for glioblastoma and related brain tumors that were treated by radiation therapy only, and it relied on clinical signs and symptoms...

Trial Of ALK Inhibitor In Neuroblastoma, Lymphoma
A pill designed to zero in on abnormal genes that drive specific cancers has produced encouraging early results in children with an uncommon but aggressive type of lymphoma, as well as in children with a rare form of neuroblastoma...

Famous 1848 Case Of A Man Who Survived A Terrible Brain Injury Has Modern Parallel
Poor Phineas Gage. In 1848, the supervisor for the Rutland and Burlington Railroad in Vermont was using a 13-pound, 3-foot-7-inch rod to pack blasting powder into a rock when he triggered an explosion that drove the rod through his left cheek and out of the top of his head. As reported at the time, the rod was later found, "smeared with blood and brains...

First Case Of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy In Blast-Exposed Military Personnel
Investigators from Boston University (BU) and the Veterans Affairs Boston Healthcare System have shown evidence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in brain tissue from blast-exposed military service personnel...

Unravelling How Locomotion Starts
Scientists at the University of Bristol have shed new light on one of the great unanswered questions of neuroscience: how the brain initiates rhythmic movements like walking, running and swimming...

A Very Sugary Diet Makes You Stupid
As we near the final year exams for schools and universities, students should be wary of powering up on buckets of soda and pocketfuls of candy bars. A UCLA study on rats suggests that fructose slows down the brain and memory functions. Too much sweetness can also prevent learning. The findings are published in Journal of Physiology and also show omega-3 fatty acids helping to negate the effect...

Study Shows High-Fructose Diet Sabotages Learning, Memory
Attention, college students cramming between midterms and finals: Binging on soda and sweets for as little as six weeks may make you stupid. A new UCLA rat study is the first to show how a diet steadily high in fructose slows the brain, hampering memory and learning - and how omega-3 fatty acids can counteract the disruption. The peer-reviewed Journal of Physiology has published the findings...

Insight Into Brain Regeneration And Developmental Disorders From Mice With Big Brains
Scientists at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute (OHRI) and the University of Ottawa (uOttawa) have discovered that mice that lack a gene called Snf2l have brains that are 35 per cent larger than normal. The research, led by Dr...

Thought Controlled Robotic Arm For Paralyzed Patients
The journal Nature reports on a science fiction style jump in technology, where an interface on the brain is used to connect to a robotic arm and provide real time thought control. It is a dramatic leap for the technology which has been tested with paralyzed patients and gives hope for Stars Wars style bionic technology, for wounded soldiers and paraplegics...

Quadriplegic Patient Has Some Hand Function Restored By Surgeons
Surgeons at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have restored some hand function in a quadriplegic patient with a spinal cord injury at the C7 vertebra, the lowest bone in the neck. Instead of operating on the spine itself, the surgeons rerouted working nerves in the upper arms. These nerves still "talk" to the brain because they attach to the spine above the injury...

Different Mechanisms Of Pain Discovered Which Suggest New Strategies For Drug Development
Researchers at the University of Leeds have found a previously unknown mechanism through which pain is signalled by nerve cells - a discovery that could explain the current failings in the drug development process for painkillers and which may offer opportunities for a new approach...

Greater Diversity Than Expected Found In Children's Brain Tumors
Paediatric brain tumours preserve specific characteristics of the normal cells from which they originate - a previously unknown circumstance with ramifications for how tumour cells respond to treatment. This has been shown by Uppsala researcher Fredrik Swartling together with colleagues in the U.S., Canada and England in a study that was published in the distinguished journal Cancer Cell...

Some Symptoms Of Multiple Sclerosis Respond To Smoked Cannabis
A clinical study of 30 adult patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine has shown that smoked cannabis may be an effective treatment for spasticity - a common and disabling symptom of this neurological disease...