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. There is hope for those who miss one night too many or whose children keep them up at night. The unwelcome effects of a bad night's sleep - forgetfulness, impaired mental performance - can be dealt with by reducing the concentration of an enzyme in the brain. http://www.physorg.com/news178449806.html Medicine & Health Thu, 26 Nov 2009 09:26:11 EST news178449806 (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists are learning that the dynamic regulation of genes -- as much as the genes themselves -- shapes the fate of organisms. Now the discovery of a new epigenetic mechanism regulating genes in the brain under stress is helping change the way scientists think about psychiatric disorders and could open new avenues to treatment. http://www.physorg.com/news178271825.html Medicine & Health Tue, 24 Nov 2009 07:57:44 EST news178271825 The generation of new nerve cells in the brain is regulated by a peptide known as C3a, which directly affects the stem cells' maturation into nerve cells and is also important for the migration of new nerve cells through the brain tissue, reveals new research from the Sahlgrenska Academy published in the journal Stem Cells. http://www.physorg.com/news178200389.html Medicine & Health Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:20:03 EST news178200389 Short-term memory may depend in a surprising way on the ability of newly formed neurons to erase older connections. That's the conclusion of a report in the November 13th issue of the journal Cell that provides some of the first evidence in mice and rats that new neurons sprouted in the hippocampus cause the decay of short-term fear memories in that brain region, without an overall memory loss. http://www.physorg.com/news177251287.html Biology Thu, 12 Nov 2009 12:28:44 EST news177251287 Combination therapies to tackle multiple changes in the brain may be needed to combat the growing problem of dementia in ageing societies, according to a study published this week in the open access journal PLoS Medicine. The study shows that multiple abnormal processes in the brain are often involved in cases of dementia, and that the drugs currently in development to treat individual brain pathologies may have a limited impact on the overall burden of dementia in the population. http://www.physorg.com/news177058872.html Medicine & Health Tue, 10 Nov 2009 07:50:02 EST news177058872 The long-held theory that our brains use different mechanisms for forming long-term and short-term memories has been challenged by new research from UCL, published today in PNAS. http://www.physorg.com/news177005525.html Medicine & Health Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:21:37 EST news177005525 More than half the people who take antidepressants for depression never get relief. Why? Because the cause of depression has been oversimplified and drugs designed to treat it aim at the wrong target, according to new research from the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. The medications are like arrows shot at the outer rings of a bull's eye instead of the center. http://www.physorg.com/news175521459.html Medicine & Health Fri, 23 Oct 2009 13:00:21 EST news175521459 One of the many reasons to pick a low-calorie, low-fat diet rich in vegetables, fruits, and fish is that a host of epidemiological studies have suggested that such a diet may delay the onset or slow the progression of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Now a study published in BioMed Central's open access journal Molecular Neurodegeneration tests the effects of several diets, head-to-head, for their effects on AD pathology in a mouse model of the disease. Although the researchers were focused on triggers for brain plaque formation, they also found that, unexpectedly, a high protein diet apparently led to a smaller brain. http://www.physorg.com/news175287346.html Medicine & Health Tue, 20 Oct 2009 19:57:08 EST news175287346 Over-expressing a gene that lets brain cells communicate just a fraction of a second longer makes a smarter rat, report researchers from the Medical College of Georgia and East China Normal University. http://www.physorg.com/news175175805.html Biology Mon, 19 Oct 2009 13:50:21 EST news175175805 (PhysOrg.com) -- Being in captivity for just a few weeks can reduce the volume of the hippocampus by as much as 23 percent, according to a new Cornell study. http://www.physorg.com/news174565035.html Biology Mon, 12 Oct 2009 11:23:53 EST news174565035 (PhysOrg.com) -- The author of a new report suggests the belief that harsh interrogation and torture techniques are effective is a form of folk neuroscience that is not supported by scientific evidence, and does not fit with what we know about how the brain works. http://www.physorg.com/news173424688.html Medicine & Health Tue, 29 Sep 2009 11:00:02 EST news173424688 A new study explores how our brains synthesize concepts that allow us to organize and comprehend the world. The research, published by Cell Press in the September 24th issue of the journal Neuron, uses behavioral and neuroimaging techniques to track how conceptual knowledge emerges in the human brain and guides decision making. http://www.physorg.com/news172930530.html Medicine & Health Wed, 23 Sep 2009 13:16:00 EST news172930530 (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at MIT`s Picower Institute for Learning and Memory have found that rats use a mental instant replay of their actions to help them decide what to do next, shedding new light on how animals and humans learn and remember. http://www.physorg.com/news170515991.html Medicine & Health Wed, 26 Aug 2009 14:33:35 EST news170515991 Researchers on Sunday said they had pinpointed the biochemical pathway by which cannabis causes memory loss in mice. http://www.physorg.com/news168440808.html Medicine & Health Sun, 02 Aug 2009 15:10:01 EST news168440808 (PhysOrg.com) -- The development of the brain proceeds a little like the European settlement of North America. The earliest pioneers settled on the east coast with subsequent waves of settlers forming communities further and further westward. In cortical regions of the developing brain, generations of young neurons undergo a staged migration as well, with the earliest-born cells staying relatively close to their birthplace and subsequent generations traveling further, ultimately stratifying into six neuronal layers in the mature brain. Now, for the first time, imaging studies have identified the `motors` that propel a unique form of cell migration that creates these layers that underlie the formation of synaptic circuitry. http://www.physorg.com/news167581076.html Medicine & Health Thu, 23 Jul 2009 15:40:02 EST news167581076 Pictures paint concepts of a thousand words- now, for the first time, scientists studying the brain have worked out how words paint concepts in our minds. http://www.physorg.com/news167571527.html Medicine & Health Thu, 23 Jul 2009 12:39:26 EST news167571527 Memories aren't made of actin filaments. But their assembly is crucial for long-term potentiation (LTP), an increase in synapse sensitivity that researchers think helps to lay down memories. In the July 13, 2009 issue of the Journal of Cell Biology, Rex et al. reveal that LTP's actin reorganization occurs in two stages that are controlled by different pathways, a discovery that helps explain why it is easy to encode new memories but hard to hold onto them. http://www.physorg.com/news166695446.html Biology Mon, 13 Jul 2009 09:18:04 EST news166695446 (PhysOrg.com) -- Experts have long suspected that part of the process of turning fleeting short-term memories into lasting long-term memories occurs during sleep. Now, researchers at the RIKEN-MIT Center for Neural Circuit Genetics of MIT's Picower Institute for Learning and Memory have shown that mice prevented from "replaying" their waking experiences while asleep do not remember them as well as mice who are able to perform this function. http://www.physorg.com/news165074214.html Medicine & Health Wed, 24 Jun 2009 17:00:01 EST news165074214 A Japanese research group, led by Dr. Yoko Yamagata of the National Institute for Physiological Sciences, has successfully generated a novel kinase-dead mutant mouse of the CaMKIIalpha gene that completely and exclusively lacks its kinase activity. They examined hippocampal synaptic plasticity and behavioral learning of the mouse, and found a severe deficit in both processes. They reported their findings in Journal of Neuroscience on June 10, 2009. http://www.physorg.com/news164625012.html Medicine & Health Fri, 19 Jun 2009 10:19:20 EST news164625012 Theta oscillations are a type of prominent brain rhythm that orchestrates neuronal activity in the hippocampus, a brain area critical for the formation of new memories. For several decades these oscillations were believed to be "in sync" across the hippocampus, timing the firing of neurons like a sort of central pacemaker. A new study conducted by researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) argues that this long-held assumption needs to be revised. In a paper published in this week's issue of the journal Nature, the researchers showed that instead of being in sync, theta oscillations actually sweep along the length of the hippocampus as traveling waves. http://www.physorg.com/news162822140.html Medicine & Health Fri, 29 May 2009 13:22:58 EST news162822140 (PhysOrg.com) -- Single events account for many of our memories - a marriage proposal, a wedding toast, a baby's birth. Until a recent UC Irvine discovery, scientists knew little about what happens inside your brain that allows you to remember such events. http://www.physorg.com/news162575131.html Medicine & Health Tue, 26 May 2009 16:46:09 EST news162575131 In a study that could help explain the connections between depression and cancer, researchers at the University of Chicago have used an animal model to find, for the first time, a biological link between tumors and negative mood changes. http://www.physorg.com/news161886169.html Medicine & Health Mon, 18 May 2009 17:23:19 EST news161886169 Push-ups, crunches, gyms, personal trainers -- people have many strategies for building bigger muscles and stronger bones. But what can one do to build a bigger brain? Meditate. http://www.physorg.com/news161355537.html Medicine & Health Tue, 12 May 2009 13:59:50 EST news161355537 For some time now it has been known that certain hereditary factors enhance the risk of schizophrenia or a manic-depressive disorder. However, just how this occurs had remained obscure. Researchers at the Zentralinstitut für Seelische Gesundheit in Mannheim, Heidelberg University and Bonn University are now able to answer this question, at least for one common genetic variant: this impairs the interoperation of certain regions of the brain. The study is to appear on 1st May in the prestigious scientific journal Science. It will also be suited to provide fresh stimuli for the search for cures. http://www.physorg.com/news160322616.html Medicine & Health Thu, 30 Apr 2009 15:04:19 EST news160322616 The hippocampus, a key brain region for memory and learning, codes the degree of uncertainty of potential reward situations. This fundamental role has just been demonstrated by Giovanna Vanni-Mercier and her colleagues at the Centre de neuroscience cognitive (CNRS / Université Lyon 1), working with the medical epileptology team from the Neurological Hospital in Lyon. Their work, published on 22 April 2009 in Journal of Neuroscience, sheds new light on the way the brain extracts and processes information about the environment. http://www.physorg.com/news160295679.html Medicine & Health Thu, 30 Apr 2009 07:34:53 EST news160295679 (PhysOrg.com) -- When we emerge from a supermarket laden down with bags and faced with a sea of vehicles, how do we remember where we've parked our car and translate the memory into the correct action to get back there? Scientists have identified the part of the brain responsible for solving this everyday problem - and the results could have implications for understanding the functional significance of a prominent brain abnormality observed in neuropsychiatric diseases such as schizophrenia. http://www.physorg.com/news159116757.html Medicine & Health Thu, 16 Apr 2009 16:07:03 EST news159116757 Single events account for many of our most vivid memories - a marriage proposal, a wedding toast, a baby's birth. Until a recent UC Irvine discovery, however, scientists knew little about what happens inside the brain that allows you to remember such events. http://www.physorg.com/news156600182.html Medicine & Health Wed, 18 Mar 2009 13:03:36 EST news156600182 People who have lost brain cells in the hippocampus area of the brain are more likely to develop dementia, according to a study published in the March 17, 2009, print issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. http://www.physorg.com/news156440974.html Medicine & Health Mon, 16 Mar 2009 16:51:07 EST news156440974 It may be possible to "read" a person's memories just by looking at brain activity, according to research carried out by Wellcome Trust scientists. In a study published today in the journal Current Biology, they show that our memories are recorded in regular patterns, a finding which challenges current scientific thinking. http://www.physorg.com/news156084067.html Medicine & Health Thu, 12 Mar 2009 13:41:32 EST news156084067 (PhysOrg.com) -- Stress, the ever-present threat to health and happy living, is tough on the brain. If the strain goes on too long, it can lead to debilitating psychological problems. Part of the reason, according to scientists at The Rockefeller University, may have to do with a little-known family of proteins called kainate receptors that has recently been implicated in major depression. New research in rats may help explain one mechanism by which stress reshapes the brain: namely, by ramping up production of a particular part of these proteins. http://www.physorg.com/news154887406.html Medicine & Health Thu, 26 Feb 2009 16:23:19 EST news154887406