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Category: neuroscience – Page 32

Black tea and berries could contribute to healthier aging

Higher intakes of black tea, berries, citrus fruits and apples could help to promote healthy ageing, new research has found.

This study conducted by researchers from Edith Cowan University, Queen’s University Belfast and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, found that foods rich in flavonoids could help to lower the risk of key components of unhealthy ageing, including frailty, impaired physical function and poor mental health.

“The goal of medical research is not just to help people live longer but to ensure they stay healthy for as long as possible,” ECU Adjunct Lecturer Dr Nicola Bondonno said.

Surprisingly widespread brain activity supports economic decision-making, new study finds

A new study using direct brain recordings reveals that human economic decision-making is not localized to a single brain region. Instead, multiple areas work together, with high-frequency activity encoding risk, reward probability, and the final choice itself.

Adolescent health is at a tipping point, global analysis suggests

By 2030, there will still be over 1 billion of the world’s adolescents (aged 10–24 years) living in countries where preventable and treatable health problems like HIV/AIDS, early pregnancy, unsafe sex, depression, poor nutrition and injury collectively threaten the health and well-being of adolescents, suggests a new analysis from the second Lancet Commission on adolescent health and well-being.

Commission co-chair, Professor Sarah Baird, George Washington University (U.S.) says, The health and well-being of adolescents worldwide is at a tipping point, with mixed progress observed over the past three decades.

While tobacco and alcohol use has declined and participation in secondary and tertiary education has increased, overweight and obesity have risen by up to eight-fold in some countries in Africa and Asia over the past three decades, and there is a growing burden of poor adolescent mental health globally.

Scientists Tweaked LSD’s Molecular Structure and Created a Wild New Brain Drug

A team of researchers at the University of California, Davis, made small tweaks to the molecular structure of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) to see if it could be turned into an effective brain-healing treatment for patients that suffer from conditions like schizophrenia — without risking a potentially disastrous acid trip.

As detailed in a new paper published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences last month, the researchers created a new compound called JRT by shifting the position of just two atoms of the psychedelic’s molecular structure.

With the two atoms flipped, the new drug could still stimulate brain cell growth and repair damaged neural connections, while simultaneously minimizing psychedelic effects, in mice.

Common analgesic gas aids in opening of blood-brain barrier

Nitrous oxide, a commonly used analgesic gas, temporarily improved the opening of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) to allow gene therapy delivery in mouse models using focused ultrasound (FUS), UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers report in a new study. Their findings, published in Gene Therapy, could eventually lead to new ways to treat a variety of brain diseases and disorders.

“The approach we explored in this study has the potential to advance care for diseases of the brain that can be treated by targeted therapeutic delivery,” said study leader Bhavya R. Shah, M.D., Associate Professor of Radiology, Neurological Surgery, and in the Advanced Imaging Research Center at UT Southwestern. He’s also an Investigator in the Peter O’Donnell Jr. Brain Institute and a member of the Center for Alzheimer’s and Neurodegenerative Diseases. Deepshikha Bhardwaj, Ph.D., Senior Research Associate at UTSW, was the study’s first author.

The BBB is a highly selective border of semipermeable cells that line tiny blood vessels supplying blood to the brain. It is thought to have developed during evolution to protect the brain from toxins and infections in the blood. However, the BBB also impedes the delivery of drugs that could be used to treat neurologic or neuropsychiatric conditions, such as Alzheimer’s disease, multiple sclerosis, or brain tumors. Consequently, researchers have worked for decades to develop solutions that can temporarily open the BBB to allow treatments to enter.