Memory fuzzy after missing out on sleep? Researchers may be one step closer to figuring out what to do about it.
Sleep deprivation makes it harder for the brain to memorize newly learned information, and scientists may have found a way around that problem.
Writing in Nature, University of Pennsylvania graduate student Christopher G. Vecsey, professor Ted Abel, PhD, and colleagues identify a chemical chain reaction linked to sleep deprivation — and a possible solution.
The researchers used electrical shocks to train lab mice not to move in certain cages, and then deprived some of the mice of sleep for five hours. Those sleep-deprived mice were worse at remembering not to move around in those cages than mice that had been allowed to sleep. Read the rest of this entry »
Alcohol, a drug that is a major cause of accidents, may actually protect the brain from a life-threatening injury when an accident does occur, according to a study published this week in Archives of Surgery.
In the study of 38,000 patients with moderate to severe traumatic brain injuries who were admitted to U.S. hospitals between 2000 and 2005, 38% had alcohol in their blood. Such patients had a lower risk of dying of their injuries than those who hadn’t been drinking.
“This study really brings up more questions than it answers,” says coauthor Ali Salim, MD, the program director of the General Surgery Residency Educational Program at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, in Los Angeles. Read the rest of this entry »
Before you flip open that tub of Ben and Jerry’s, be aware that ice cream really can control your brain and say “eat me.”
A U.S. study by UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas has found that fat from certain foods such ice cream and burgers heads to the brain.
Once there, the fat molecules trigger the brain to send messages to the body’s cells, warning them to ignore the appetite-suppressing signals from leptin and insulin, hormones involved in weight regulation — for up to three days.
“Normally, our body is primed to say when we’ve had enough, but that doesn’t always happen when we’re eating something good,” said researcher Deborah Clegg in a statement. Read the rest of this entry »
US researchers have pinned down new differences in the brain chemistry of people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
They found ADHD patients lack key proteins which allow them to experience a sense of reward and motivation.
The Brookhaven National Laboratory study appears in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
It is hoped it could help in the design of new ways to combat the condition. Read the rest of this entry »
In the first functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study of its kind, neurologists and psychiatrists at Columbia University have identified an area of the brain involved in the earliest stages of schizophrenia and related psychotic disorders.
Activity in this specific region of the hippocampus may help predict the onset of the disease, offering opportunities for earlier diagnosis and for the development of drugs for schizophrenia prevention.
In the study, the researchers scanned the brains of 18 high-risk individuals with “prodromal” symptoms, and followed them for two years. Read the rest of this entry »
The public will be invited to take part in a mass brain training study later as part of a project between the BBC and medical research bodies.
A host of celebrities will kick off the experiment on the BBC science series Bang Goes the Theory at 1930BST.
People are being asked to take part in regular memory and reasoning tests to see if they can boost brain function.
Dementia experts believe such computer tests could help ward off and slow the development of the disease. Read the rest of this entry »
