http://www.physorg.com/ en-us Physorg.com internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. It is common knowledge that smoking is a health risk but why do teens become addicted to smoking more easily than adults? In an evaluation for Faculty of 1000 Biology, Neil Grunberg looks into why adolescents are more prone to substance abuse. http://www.physorg.com/news179752204.html Medicine & Health Fri, 11 Dec 2009 11:11:01 EST news179752204 Ghrelin, a hormone produced in the stomach, may be used to boost resistance to, or slow, the development of Parkinson's disease, Yale School of Medicine researchers report in a study published in a recent issue of the Journal of Neuroscience. http://www.physorg.com/news178376748.html Medicine & Health Wed, 25 Nov 2009 13:20:02 EST news178376748 Scientists at the California Institute of Technology have uncovered evidence of a primitive emotion-like behavior in the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster. Their findings, which may be relevant to the relationship between the neurotransmitter dopamine and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), are described in the December issue of the journal Neuron. http://www.physorg.com/news178375764.html Medicine & Health Wed, 25 Nov 2009 13:01:02 EST news178375764 Australian scientists have significantly advanced our understanding of dopamine release from nerve cells, findings that should speed the development of more effective drugs for treating Parkinson's Disease. http://www.physorg.com/news177765108.html Medicine & Health Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:30:03 EST news177765108 Researchers at the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet have discovered that patients with recent-onset schizophrenia have higher levels of inflammatory substances in their brains. Their findings offer hope of being able to treat schizophrenia with drugs that affect the immune system. http://www.physorg.com/news177761560.html Medicine & Health Wed, 18 Nov 2009 10:50:08 EST news177761560 (PhysOrg.com) -- Enhancing the effects of the brain chemical dopamine influences how people make life choices by affecting expectations of pleasure, according to new research from the UCL Institute of Neurology. http://www.physorg.com/news177253940.html Medicine & Health Thu, 12 Nov 2009 13:14:02 EST news177253940 Researchers at Iowa State University have found an essential key to possibly cure Parkinson's disease and are looking for others. http://www.physorg.com/news176464812.html Medicine & Health Tue, 03 Nov 2009 10:50:03 EST news176464812 (PhysOrg.com) -- In his own words, MIT neuroscientist Mark Bear admits he did not "wake up one day and say 'Hey, I'm going to cure autism.'" But, after decades of painstaking basic research on how the brain rewires itself in response to external cues, Bear has discovered a way to reverse the symptoms of Fragile X Syndrome, a disorder that can cause autism, mental retardation and epilepsy. http://www.physorg.com/news176455642.html Medicine & Health Tue, 03 Nov 2009 07:28:09 EST news176455642 (PhysOrg.com) -- Everyday, people are required to make decisions quickly and flexibly. In a flash, they must weigh up the advantages, disadvantages and possible consequences of their behaviour and coordinate it with the relevant external circumstances. This learning process involves the messenger substance dopamine. http://www.physorg.com/news175796621.html Medicine & Health Mon, 26 Oct 2009 18:00:01 EST news175796621 New research clarifies how neurotransmitters like norepinephrine, serotonin, and dopamine, are regulated - a finding that may help fine-tune therapies for depression. http://www.physorg.com/news175092097.html Medicine & Health Sun, 18 Oct 2009 13:42:14 EST news175092097 By examining data from a 20-year-old clinical trial, a research team based at the MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases (MGH-MIND) and Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), has found evidence supporting the findings of their 2008 study - that elevated levels of the antioxidant urate may slow the progression of Parkinson's disease. The report - which will appear in the December 2009 Archives of Neurology and has been released online - analyzed blood and cerebrospinal fluid samples from participants in a 1980s trail of potential Parkinson's medications, confirming the previous study's findings in a totally different group of patients. http://www.physorg.com/news174584895.html Medicine & Health Mon, 12 Oct 2009 17:00:02 EST news174584895 The good, the bad and the ugly: That's a quick summary of the effects of dopamine, a natural brain chemical that's linked to pleasure, addiction and disease. http://www.physorg.com/news174154939.html Medicine & Health Wed, 07 Oct 2009 17:22:41 EST news174154939 A Michigan hospital is embarking on a research study for advanced Parkinson's disease using a state-of-the-art treatment called gene transfer. http://www.physorg.com/news174061732.html Medicine & Health Tue, 06 Oct 2009 15:37:38 EST news174061732 (PhysOrg.com) -- A chemical produced by common soil bacteria may kill neurons that produce dopamine, according to an article authored by University of Alabama researchers publishing Oct. 6. Dopamine neuron demise leads to the hallmark symptoms of Parkinson`s disease, a movement disorder affecting some 1 million Americans. http://www.physorg.com/news174036947.html Medicine & Health Tue, 06 Oct 2009 08:44:46 EST news174036947 New research with mice has provided some fascinating insight into how addictive drugs hijack reward signals and influence neural processes associated with learning and memory. The research, published by Cell Press in the September 10th issue of the journal Neuron, helps to explain why and how drug-associated memories, such as the place of drug use, drive and perpetuate the addiction. http://www.physorg.com/news171723185.html Medicine & Health Wed, 09 Sep 2009 14:20:02 EST news171723185 A brain-imaging study conducted at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory provides the first definitive evidence that patients suffering from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have lower-than-normal levels of certain proteins essential for experiencing reward and motivation. http://www.physorg.com/news171652613.html Medicine & Health Tue, 08 Sep 2009 18:17:27 EST news171652613 Neurons that produce the neurotransmitter dopamine are the cerebral cells that most commonly die-off in Parkinson's disease. The cells in the so-called substantia nigra, which contain the dark pigment neuromelanin, are affected. It is also known that the iron content of these cells increases during the course of Parkinson's disease. http://www.physorg.com/news169899879.html Medicine & Health Wed, 19 Aug 2009 11:50:04 EST news169899879 Jichi Medical University has succeeded in restoring the motor function of patients suffering from Parkinson's disease by injecting their brains with a virus with a built-in gene that has an enzyme to produce dopamine, it has been learned. http://www.physorg.com/news169483653.html Medicine & Health Fri, 14 Aug 2009 16:00:01 EST news169483653 As we all know from experience, people eat not only because they are hungry, but also because the food just simply tastes too good to pass up. Now, a new study in the August 6th Cell Metabolism, a Cell Press publication, helps to explain how leptin, a hormone produced by fat tissue, influences that motivation to eat. http://www.physorg.com/news168696652.html Medicine & Health Wed, 05 Aug 2009 13:11:17 EST news168696652 Parkinson's disease is well-known for impairing movement and causing tremors, but many patients also develop other serious problems, including sleep disturbances and significant losses in cognitive function known as dementia. http://www.physorg.com/news168327087.html Medicine & Health Sat, 01 Aug 2009 06:32:13 EST news168327087 New research demonstrates that single neurons in the reward center of the brain process not only primitive rewards but also more abstract, cognitive rewards related to the quest for information about the future. The study, published by Cell Press in the July 16 issue of the journal Neuron, enhances our understanding of learning and suggests that current theories of reward should be revised to include the effect of information seeking. http://www.physorg.com/news166882349.html Medicine & Health Wed, 15 Jul 2009 14:50:12 EST news166882349 Individuals who have higher levels of education and who are more impaired by Parkinson's disease appear to require treatment for their symptoms earlier than do other patients, according to a report posted online today that will appear in the September print issue of Archives of Neurology. http://www.physorg.com/news166729302.html Medicine & Health Mon, 13 Jul 2009 18:52:18 EST news166729302 The classic symptoms of Parkinson's disease involve tremor, stiffness and slow movements. Over the last decade, neurologists have been paying greater attention to non-motor symptoms, such as digestive and sleep problems, loss of sense of smell and depression. http://www.physorg.com/news164962495.html Medicine & Health Tue, 23 Jun 2009 07:55:38 EST news164962495 Neurological diseases including Parkinson's, Tourette's, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), Alzheimer's, and schizophrenia are all associated with alterations in dopamine-driven function involving the dopamine transporter (DAT). Research published today in the open access journal BMC Neuroscience suggests that a number of estrogens acting through their receptors affect the DAT, which may explain trends in timing of women's susceptibility to these diseases. http://www.physorg.com/news164337694.html Medicine & Health Tue, 16 Jun 2009 02:21:48 EST news164337694 Cocaine is one of the oldest drugs known to humans, and its abuse has become widespread since the end of the 19th century. At the same time, we know rather little about its effects on the human brain or the mechanisms that lead to cocaine addiction. The latest article by Dr. Marco Leyton, of the Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI), McGill University and the McGill University Health Centre, which was published in the journal Biological Psychiatry on May 15, 2009, not only demonstrates a link between cocaine and the reward circuits in the brain but also associates the susceptibility to addiction with these mechanisms. http://www.physorg.com/news161955658.html Medicine & Health Tue, 19 May 2009 12:41:32 EST news161955658 Scientists have identified a protein that appears not only to be central to the process that causes Parkinson's disease but could also play a role in muting the high from methamphetamine and other addictive drugs. http://www.physorg.com/news160673230.html Medicine & Health Mon, 04 May 2009 16:27:43 EST news160673230 (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists have identified a protein that appears not only to be central to the process that causes Parkinson's disease but could also play a role in muting the high from methamphetamine and other addictive drugs. http://www.physorg.com/news160305210.html Medicine & Health Thu, 30 Apr 2009 10:13:55 EST news160305210 In a study that reveals the clearest picture to date of neuron death in Parkinson's disease, researchers at Columbia University Medical Center have found that a trio of culprits acting in concert is responsible for killing the brain cells. http://www.physorg.com/news160228509.html Medicine & Health Wed, 29 Apr 2009 12:55:30 EST news160228509 It is said that each of us marches to the beat of a different drum, but new Stanford University research suggests that brain cells need to follow specific rhythms that must be kept for proper brain functioning. These rhythms don't appear to be working correctly in such diseases as schizophrenia and autism, and now two papers due to be published online this week by the journals Nature and Science demonstrate that precisely tuning the oscillation frequencies of certain neurons can affect how the brain processes information and implements feelings of reward. http://www.physorg.com/news159973996.html Medicine & Health Sun, 26 Apr 2009 14:13:41 EST news159973996 Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectroscopy has the potential to allow single-molecule detection sensitivity. This capability presents new approaches for studying the biophysical and biomedical properties of complex biologically relevant systems in situ. For this purpose, abundant, nontoxic, and biologically compatible materials must be used as SERS active supports. http://www.physorg.com/news159799998.html Nanotechnology Fri, 24 Apr 2009 13:54:54 EST news159799998