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Category: neuroscience – Page 988

Sluggish Brain Waves May Be Early Sign of Dementia

Tracking brain wave activity in individuals at high risk for Alzheimer’s disease may be a promising new method for early detection, according to a new Canadian study by researchers at Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care in Toronto, Ontario.

This is possible because brain waves tend to slow down in certain regions likely to be affected by the disease next, even before neurons have been lost.

The findings, published online in the journal Human Brain Mapping, show that individuals potentially in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease (mild cognitive impairment) and those with a rare form of language dementia (primary progressive aphasia) exhibited sluggish brainwaves and subtle signs of damage in the brain regions responsible for memory and planning.

Breakthrough as molecules shown to ‘air-kiss’ when brain neurons attract each other

All brain cells ‘air-kiss’ before they come together to form a final synaptic relationship, new research by University of Kent scientists has revealed.

The breakthrough study reveals that molecular signaling within the brain operates in a very different way to previously thought, with cells now found to use the same pair of molecules for both distant and close contacts.

The research, by a team led by Professor Yuri Ushkaryov of the University’s Medway School of Pharmacy, may lead to a much better understanding of how neurons send messages to distant parts of the brain or other organs in the body, such as muscle cells.

Empathy Is Rooted In Cognitive Neural Processes Rather Than Sensory Ones

According to a study recently published by researchers at the University of Colorado, empathy is rooted in cognitive processes rather than sensory ones, as reported by the Daily Camera. The study found that the act of understanding the pain of others does not involve the same neural pathways as experiencing pain in one’s own body, suggesting that the two are different interactions within the brain.

The study revealed that the brain patterns of volunteers when they experienced pain themselves did not overlap with their brain patterns when the volunteers were observing the pain of others. When observing pain, the volunteers showed brain patterns consistent with “mentalizing,” which involves imagining another’s thoughts and intentions.

“The research suggests that empathy is a deliberative process that requires taking another person’s perspective rather than being an instinctive, automatic process,” said Tor Wager, the Director of the University of Colorado’s Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Laboratory and the senior author of the study, as reported by Daily Camera.

The human brain has two internal clocks that allow you to see the future, new research says

Our results suggest at least two different ways in which the brain has evolved to anticipate the future.

Go ahead and add ‘seeing the future’ to the growing list of amazing things your brain can do.

Well, almost, at least. According to new research from the University of California, Berkeley, it turns out that humans have the innate skill to somewhat predict or anticipate some things moments before they actually happen.

The research has suggested that humans have two ‘internal clocks’ in your brain, connected to your cerebellum and the basal ganglia, both of which work together to allow you to make these short-term predictions.

Parkinson’s Disease Patient in World First Stem Cell Therapy

In a world first, a patient with Parkinson’s disease has undergone transplant therapy, which uses reprogrammed stem cells to replace neurons destroyed by the disease.

Stem cell therapy is part of the toolkit

The stem cell field is an area of science that is relatively well funded and, out of all the branches of medical science relevant to aging, is probably the most understood by the public. In the last decade or so, progress in stem cell research has been rapid, and scientists now have a wide range of cell types they can create on demand via cellular programming.

Newly discovered region of the brain could be part of what makes us unique

Michio Kaku calls the brain “the most complicated object in the known universe.” So, despite plenty of study, maybe it’s not a total surprise that we’re still finding new parts of it. After decades of mapping the brains of humans and other mammals, and publishing a multitude of books and journal articles on the subject, Professor George Paxinos AO (Order of Australia) has discovered a new region of the human brain that he says could be part of what makes us unique.

Highly adhesive hydrogel sticks to the task of tissue regeneration

Researchers from all corners of medical science are hoping to harness advanced hydrogels to help repair damaged hearts, regrow brain tissues, or quickly shut down bleeding wounds, to name just a few examples. Scientists in Switzerland have now developed a new form of the material they say has unparalleled adhesive properties, a characteristic that could prove particularly useful in trying to repair cartilage and meniscus.