Chronic migraine sufferers saw significant pain relief after
four weeks of electrical brain stimulation in the part of the brain
responsible for voluntary movement, the motor cortex, according to a new
study
Researchers from the University of Michigan School of Dentistry,
Harvard University and the City College of the City University of New
York used a noninvasive method called transcranial direct current
stimulation (tDCS) as a preventative migraine
therapy on 13 patients with chronic migraine, or at least15 attacks a
month. After 10 sessions, participants reported an average 37 percent
decrease in pain intensity.
The effects were cumulative and kicked in after about four weeks of
treatment, said Alexandre DaSilva, assistant professor at the U-M School
of Dentistry and lead author of the study, which appears in the journal
Headache.
"This suggests that repetitive sessions are necessary to revert
ingrained changes in the brain related to chronic migraine
suffering," DaSilva said, adding that study participants had an average
history of almost 30 years of migraine attacks.
The animation above shows where on the skull
scientists placed the non-invasive electrodes, and where the current
flowed through the brain. The areas in blue show low current. The areas
in red show high current, and they found that this high current reached
key pain processing structures deeper within the brain.
The researchers also tracked the electric current flow through the brain
to learn how the therapy affected different regions.
"We went beyond, 'OK, this works,'" DaSilva said. "We also showed
what possible areas of the brain are affected by the therapy."
They did this by using a high-resolution computational model. They
correctly predicted that the electric current would go where directed by
the electrodes placed on the subject's head, but the current also
flowed through other critical regions of the brain associated with how
we perceive and modulate pain.
"Previously, it was thought that the electric current would only go
into the most superficial areas of the cortex," DaSilva said. "We found
that pain-related areas very deep in the brain could be targeted."
Other studies have shown that stimulation of the motor cortex reduces chronic pain. However, this
study provided the first known mechanistic evidence that tDCS of the
motor cortex might work as an ongoing preventive therapy in complex,
chronic migraine cases, where attacks are more frequent and resilient to
conventional treatments, DaSilva said.
While the results are encouraging, any clinical application is a long
way off, DaSilva said.
"This is a preliminary report," he said. "With further research,
noninvasive motor cortex stimulation can be in the future of adjuvant
therapy for chronic migraine and other chronic pain
disorders by recruiting our own brain analgesic resources."
The discovery came in a study of brain scans
and DNA samples from more than 20,000 people from North America, Europe
and Australia, of European ancestry.
PARIS: An international team of scientists said Sunday the
largest brain study of its kind had found a gene linked to intelligence,
a small piece in the puzzle as to why some people are smarter than
others.
A variant of this gene “can tilt the scales in favour of a higher
intelligence”, study leader Paul Thompson told AFP, stressing though
that genetic blessings were not the only factor in brainpower.
Searching for a genetic explanation for brain disease, the scientists
stumbled upon a minute variant in a gene called HMGA2 among people who
had larger brains and scored higher on standardised IQ tests.
Thompson dubbed it “an intelligence gene” and said it was likely that
many more such genes were yet to be discovered.
The variant occurs on HMGA2 where there is just a single change in
the permutation of the four “letters” of the genetic code.
DNA, the blueprint for life, comprises four basic chemicals called A
(for adenine), C (cytosine), T (thymine) and G (guanine), strung
together in different combinations along a double helix.
In this case, the researchers found that people with a double “C” and
no “T” in a specific section of the HMGA2 gene had bigger brains on
average.
“It is a strange result, you wouldn’t think that something as simple
as one small change in the genetic code could explain differences in
intelligence worldwide,” said Thompson, a neurologist at the University
of California at Los Angeles.
The discovery came in a study of brain scans and DNA samples from
more than 20,000 people from North America, Europe and Australia, of
European ancestry.
People who received two Cs from their parents, a quarter of the
population, scored on average 1.3 points higher than the next group —
half of the population with only one C in this section of the gene.
The last quarter of people, with no Cs, scored another 1.3 points
lower.
“The effect is small,” said Thompson, but “would be noticeable on a (IQ)
test … (it) may mean you get a couple more questions correct.
“It wouldn’t be an enormous change. Even so, it would help our brain
resist cognitive decline later in life.”It is generally accepted that
genes, a good education and environmental factors combine to determine
our intelligence.
“If people wanted to change their genetic destiny they could either
increase their exercise or improve their diet and education,” said
Thompson.
“Most other ways we know of improving brain function more than
outweigh this
gene.” He added there were ethical safeguards and laws in place to guard
against the abuse of genetic information.
The research, published in Nature Genetics, was conducted by more
than 200 scientists from 100 institutions worldwide, working together on
a project called Enigma.
Thompson said other studies have implicated some genes in IQ, but
this was the first to link a common gene to brain size.
The team found that every T in place of a C represented a 0.6 per
cent smaller brain — equal to more than a year’s worth of brain loss
through the normal ageing process.
Asked to comment on the research, Tom Hartley, a psychologist at
Britain’s University of York said he was “a little wary of thinking in
terms of a gene for intelligence.
“There are undoubtedly a lot of things that have to work properly in
order to get a good score on an IQ test, if any of these go wrong the
score will be worse.” But he said it was “fascinating” to find that such
small genetic changes could affect the size of critical structures such
as the hippocampus, the brain’s memory centre.
“Given the importance of the hippocampus in disorders such as
Alzheimer’s disease these could turn out to be very significant
findings,” said Hartley.
John Williams, head of neuroscience and mental health at the Wellcome
Trust, a British charitable foundation which backs biomedical research,
said the findings paved the way for further research into “structural
changes” which occur in disorders such as dementia, autism and
schizophrenia.
Changes in the epigenome, a structure that controls the function
of genes, were found in the brains of Alzheimer's patients.
These epigenetic changes can be caused by exposure to environmental
toxicants or lifestyle behaviors, according to a study out of the
University of Michigan School of Public Health. If researchers can
establish a causal link between epigenetic changes and toxicants, it
could lead to new treatments, or even the prevention of Alzheimer's
disease. This paper did not look at specific toxicants, but future
studies in this body of research will, said Laura Rozek, assistant
professor in the SPH and study co-author.
Further, these epigenetic changes, which cause genes to behave
differently over a person's lifetime, could be reversible. The
researchers found higher rates of a kind of an epigenetic change called
methylation in genes located in the brains of people with Alzheimer's,
said Rozek, who also has an appointment in the Department of
Otolaryngology at the U-M Health System.
"Our next step is to look at exposures that occurred earlier in life
and try to link those exposures to the epigenetic changes we saw in the
brain," Rozek said. "That way we may find evidence that toxicants are
linked to the epigenetic changes that are present in the brains in the
people with Alzheimer's."
In the study, researchers did a postmortem comparison of the brains
of 50 subjects, half with late onset Alzheimer's, said Dana Dolinoy,
assistant professor in the U-M SPH and study co-author. Lower
methylation and higher expression of the TMEM59 protein were associated
with the Alzheimer's subjects, which suggests that the TMEM59 protein
could be a good therapeutic target to prevent and treat Alzheimer's,
Rozek said.
"If there are epigenetic changes in the brain they are potentially
modifiable, there are probably ways to reverse these changes," Rozek
said. "It may be a good biomarker to target for drug therapy for late onset
Alzheimer's."
Researchers looked only at late onset Alzheimer's, which is vastly
more common than early onset Alzheimer's, which affects only about 2
percent of people and sets in before age 60.
Scientists have identified several genes that may increase a person's
risk for developing Alzheimer's. The same genes
can have different outcomes in different people. So, other factors must
play a role in developing the disease, and this has fueled studies on
the epigenetics of Alzheimer's.
Howard Hu, chair of the SPH Department of Environmental Health
Sciences, is the principal investigator on the study. Co-authors include
Kelly Bakulski, U-M SPH, and researchers from the U-M Health System and
the Department of Veteran's Affairs in Ann Arbor.
A recent study out of the University
of Illinois has shown that people who used dietary supplements
tended to have less age-related brain shrinkage associated with
cognitive decline and memory loss symptoms. Researchers out of Boston University’s School
of Medicine also state that dementia and memory loss could reach
all-time high levels in the Baby Boom generation. However, key dietary
supplements, like those contained in Vitalmax Vitamins Memorin, have shown promise in fighting memory loss
disorders. One of these is Huperzine-A, a strong antioxidant that
neutralizes free radical damage in the brain. It also works to increase
acetylcholine, an important neurotransmitter, responsible for
protecting memory and healthy brain functioning.
Vitalmax Vitamins expert and Director of
south Florida’s Institute
for Healthy Aging, Mark
Rosenberg, M.D., explains the benefits of Memorin’s ingredients:
“Memorin contains multiple ingredients that are considered
brain-boosters known for their ability to help alleviate and remedy
forgetfulness, decrease mental fatigue, improve concentration and
mental clarity.”
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health related articles.
Newt Gingrich visits DBI to discuss the
importance of brain science research.
9:01 a.m., April 20, 2012--Republican presidential candidate Newt
Gingrich visited the Delaware Biotechnology Institute (DBI) at the
University of Delaware on Thursday morning, April 19, to discuss the
importance of brain research with faculty, scientists and advocates for
neurological research and the treatment of brain diseases.
"If you are looking at trying to impact health care, we need to
invest substantially in more brain research than we currently do,"
Gingrich said. "There are so many manifestations of bad health relating
to brain activity."
Additional research commitments are needed in areas such as autism
and Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, Gingrich said.
The health concerns are "staggering" and yet "our research response
is not," Gingrich said. "If you look at the 41 years since President
Nixon declared war on cancer, and the scale of investment in cancer
research, or look at AIDS, you can see the size of those commitments."
Gingrich said key goals include a public/private research initiative
to map the brain and maximize understanding of how it works and what
affects it, a reformed Food and Drug Administration with the mission of
understanding emerging new science and accelerating its development from
the laboratory to the patient, and the development of an integrated
public/private partnership to use new technologies to minimize the
stress of caregiving and maximize the potential for independent living
for those with brain disorders.
Kelvin Lee, Gore Professor of Chemical Engineering and director of
DBI, said the discussion reflects the opportunity for progress while
illustrating the total collaborative effort such a goal will require.
“I think we agreed that investments to support a more comprehensive
understanding of the brain (and brain diseases) would facilitate the
discovery and implementation of new treatments, improved care and
outcomes, as well as lower costs to society,” Lee said. “On the other
hand, developing such an understanding will require multidisciplinary
teams to work together and will require partnerships among academic,
public, and private institutions.”
Thomas Buchanan, George W. Laird Professor of Mechanical Engineering
and director of the Delaware Rehabilitation Institute, said, " A better
understanding of brain science is critical to providing aid to those
with Parkinson's Disease, stroke, cerebral palsy and a host of other
neurological disorders that lie at the heart of the rehabilitation
research in the state of Delaware. I think that if we, as a nation,
invest in brain sciences in a major way, we will be more than paid back
in health benefits for our parents, our children and ourselves."
Other University faculty joining Lee and Buchanan at the discussion
were:
Stuart Binder-McLeod, chair of the Department of Physical Therapy and
Edward L. Ratledge Professor of Physical Therapy, and an affiliated
faculty member in the Biomechanics and Movement Science Program;
Anna Klintsova, associate professor of psychology; and
Greg Miller, chair of the Department of Psychology
Lee also noted that DBI is hosting a science retreat for the Delaware
neuroscience community on Friday, Sept. 27, at Buena Vista Conference
Center in New Castle.
Federico Cirett, a doctoral student in the UA
computer science department, can predict within about a 20 second period
and with consistent accuracy when a person will make a mistake on a
standardized math exam. (Photo credit: Federico Cirett)
(Phys.org) -- UA computer science doctoral student
Federico Cirett is using new technology to predict, in advance, when
people will make a mistake. He's been testing subjects taking the SAT
exam in math.
Our bodies and brains tend to give us good cues about when we are
becoming stressed, fatigued or overwhelmed.
But what if, with near exact precision, you could predict when
heightened levels of fatigue were about to cause you to make a mistake?
University of Arizona doctoral student Federico Cirett believes he's
found a way – and with about 80 percent accuracy.
Cirett had been working on the Animal Watch tutoring program with
Carole Beal, a professor in the UA's School of Information: Science,
Technology and Arts, or SISTA.
Noticing English language learners were having more difficulty
answering problems, Cirett set out on an investigation for his
dissertation work.
"There are so many things going on where students may be getting
distracted, but it wasn't clear," said Cirett, a computer
science department student working on his dissertation. "So, I
thought to measure brain states of students as they were working on the
material."
Using electroencephalography, or EEG, technology, Cirett began
studying specific brain wave activity in students taking the math
portion of the popular, but challenging, SAT exam.
Measuring the activity, Cirett was able to detect with 80 percent
accuracy whether a student – all of them university students – would
answer a question incorrectly about 20 seconds after they began the
question.
The findings have important implication for students and educators,
said Beal, also Cirett's adviser and collaborator.
With the findings, Beal and Cirett co-authored "EEG estimates of
engagement and cognitive workload predict math problem solving
outcomes." The paper has since been accepted for presentation during the
User Modeling, Adaptation and Personalization conference to be held in
Montreal, Canada in July.
"He's done this great project, and his contribution is applying this
research to education," said Beal, who has spent years developing
AnimalWatch, a Web-based tutoring system centered on algebra readiness.
But how is this done?
During his work on AnimalWatch, Cirett said he noticed that the
English language learners – the majority of them who spoke Spanish as
their primary language – seemed to be having a more difficult time
answering problems than did their primarily English-speaking peers.
Cirett found that the students performed at comparable levels on the
math problems, but the English learners stumbled a bit. "It was the
language barrier."
"We want students to be able to solve these problems," Cirett said,
"but we have to make these problems easier for them to read, but we have
to give them better opportunities."
Mexico-born Cirett, who came to the UA to study alongside his wife,
spoke with Beal about using the EEG technology, which she had employed
in the past.
For his research, which was partially funded by the National Science
Foundation, Cirett employs a headset developed by the San Diego-based
Advanced Brain Monitoring Technologies, which is generally used to
monitor high-stress and fatigue in military personnel.
"Some of it is pre-programmed," Beal said, noting that the technology
and algorithms had already been designed.
"But what Federico did was to look at these patters to create a
classification," Beal said. "His algorithm is much better than chance
and it's much better than knowing the number of correct answers people
typically get on the exam."
With its nine sensors, the device records information about
individual attention levels and cognitive workload as they completed
multiple-choice math questions, some easy; some hard. For instance, the
measurements were directly correlated to how engaged students were in
their work and how they felt in the process.
During the study, students also reported on feelings of frustration
and their perceived difficulty of the math problems. Cirett analyzed the
data to try and figure out if the EEG data specific to students'
attention levels and their cognitive workload could predict when they
would answer a question with the correct answer.
Though his research involved college students, Cirett intends for his
work to inform efforts to improve tutoring programs, especially for
English language learners.
Cirett and Beal point to developments over the last decade in
intelligent tutoring systems, those modeled after human behavior, which
have resulted in more adaptive systems.
But what Cirett wants to see are intelligent educational technologies
that would intervene at important moments in students' learning, aiding
them in ways an educator might not.
The end goal, he said, is to optimize learning at the individual
level, especially in the area of math, an increasingly important
subject.
"There are different ways to solving this problem," Cirett said.
"But if we can detect when they are going to fail, maybe we can
change the text or switch the question to give them another one at a
different level of difficulty, but also to keep them engaged," Cirett
said. "Brain
wave data is the nearest thing we have to really know when the students
are having problems."
Overeating, drug addiction relapses and impulsive sexual behavior may
have a deeper cause than a simple lack of will power. Researchers have
demonstrated a connection between brain responses to food and sexual
images measured on fMRI and future behavior, suggesting heightened
reward responsivity may contribute to overeating and sexual activity,
according to a study published April 18 in the Journal of
Neuroscience.
“The implication of the current research is
that there are individual differences in the extent to which cue
exposure primes behavior, such that some individuals show more robust
reward activity to appetitive cues, which in turn may produce greater
behavioral priming,” wrote authors Kathryn E. Demos, PhD, and colleagues
from Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H.
Using fMRI, Demos and
colleagues targeted the nucleus accumbens, the brain’s “reward center,”
in a cohort of incoming first-year female college students. Fifty-eight
were scanned while viewing images of animals, environmental scenes,
appetizing food and images of people, some of which were sexual scenes.
Participants were weighed and told that it was a necessary part of the
scanning procedure.
Six months later, 48 study participants
returned, with 10 lost to follow-up. Those who returned were weighed
again and asked to complete a questionnaire assessing their sexual
behavior.
Results showed that activity in the left nucleus
accumbens correlated positively with body mass index (BMI) change.
“Importantly, this relationship was unique to the food images. [Nucleus
accubens] activity in response to the non-food images did not predict
weight gain,” wrote the authors.
Similarly, brain activity when
viewing sexual images was positively correlated with sexual desire,
while non-sexual image response was not predictive of sexual desire.
"This is one of the first studies in brain imaging that uses the
responses observed in the scanner to predict important, real-world
outcomes over a long period of time," Todd Heatherton, PhD, a coauthor
on the study, said in a statement. "Using brain activity to predict a
consequential behavior outside the scanner is pretty novel."
The
researchers noted that the first step toward controlling cravings is to
become aware of how much they are affected by triggers in the
environment. "You need to actively be thinking about the behavior you
want to control in order to regulate it," said William M. Kelley, PhD,
coauthor. "Self-regulation requires a lot of conscious effort."
Ras Al Khaimah: More than 50 per cent patients fail to recognise
symptoms of stroke, and make the cardinal mistake of waiting for these
symptoms to disappear automatically, an expert observed.
Acute
stroke or brain attack is a medical emergency and urgent medical care is
key to saving lives. Knowledge of a stroke’s warning signs is a must.
Brain attacks can be treated effectively, provided that the patient
reaches the specialised unit in time.
“What’s important is to
identify the symptoms and take immediate action. It is critical that
the person be taken to hospital within 1-3 hours to reverse the damage,
beyond which it could be permanent,” warned Dr Hillol K Pal, head of
Neurosurgery department at RAK Hospital.
“Treatment received in
the first 90 minutes is most crucial. The symptoms for stroke and
Transient Ischaemic Attack (TIA) or mini stroke are almost similar;
while the former is permanent, the latter, potentially reversible,” he
said.
“The warning signs of a TIA tend to be discreet. They
disappear on their own, do not cause any pain, can be endured and,
therefore, forgotten. However, the consequences of a stroke can be
cruel, lifelong, painful and impairing, leading to the loss of
livelihood or family life, drastically affecting the quality of life or
even causing instantaneous death.” “That is why it is critical for
everyone to “Be Stroke Smart” and learn a stroke’s 3 Rs: Reduce risk,
Recognise symptoms, Respond by calling the nearest hospital that is
equipped with an acute stroke unit.”
“Stroke or ‘brain attack’
occurs when a blood clot blocks the blood flow in a vessel or artery or
when a blood vessel breaks, interrupting blood flow to an area of the
brain. There are two types of “brain attacks” — ischaemic and
haemorrhagic. Ischaemic strokes are the most common kind of strokes,
comprising 84 per cent of all strokes,” explained Dr Pal.
Statistically,
only three per cent of acute stroke patients worldwide actually reach
the hospital in time for any meaningful treatment, and hence it becomes
important to educate people about stroke, its causes, symptoms and
treatments.
“The TIA or ‘mini stroke’ is caused by a temporary
fall in blood supply to the brain, leading to a lack of oxygen to it,
something that is usually resolved within 24 hours,” Dr Pal said.
He
was speaking on the occasion of launching a specialised “Acute Stroke
Unit” set up at RAK Hospital in Ras Al Khaimah.
The unit, which
comes as a big respite to the residents in the emirate, has a team of
specialised medical professionals working round the clock in an
emergency room equipped with neuro-diagnostic facilities, including a
24x7 CT and MRI scanner and a 24x7 laboratory service.
“Since the
launch of this unit, many brain stroke cases have been effectively
treated, and life-saving emergency care provided to the people of Ras Al
Khaimah and surrounding emirates,” Dr Pal revealed.
Cooperation and teamwork drove human intelligence and larger brain
sizes, according to fresh evidence unearthed by scientists.
Researchers from Trinity College Dublin constructed computer models
of artificial organisms, endowed with artificial brains, which played
each other in classic games, such as the 'Prisoner's Dilemma', that
encapsulate human social interaction.
"The strongest selection
for larger, more intelligent brains, occurred when the social groups
were first beginning to start cooperating, which then kicked off an
evolutionary Machiavellian arms race of one individual trying to
outsmart the other by investing in a larger brain," explained study
co-author Andrew Jackson, assistant professor at Dublin.
"Our
extraordinary level of intelligence defines mankind and sets us apart
from the rest of the animal kingdom. It has given us the arts, science
and language, and above all else, the ability to question our very
existence," concluded doctoral student, Luke McNally at Dublin, who led
the study, the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B reports.
Researchers
used 50 simple brains, each with up to 10 internal processing and 10
associated memory nodes. The brains were pitted against each other in
these classic games, according to a Trinity statement.
By allowing
the brains of these digital organisms to evolve freely in their model,
researchers were able to show that the transition to cooperative society
leads to the strongest selection for bigger brains. Bigger brains
essentially did better as cooperation increased.
ScienceDaily (Apr. 20, 2012) — esearchers at
Lund University in Sweden have discovered a new stem cell in the adult
brain. These cells can proliferate and form several different cell types
-- most importantly, they can form new brain cells. Scientists hope to
take advantage of the finding to develop methods to heal and repair
disease and injury in the brain.
Analyzing brain tissue from biopsies, the researchers for the first
time found stem cells located around small blood vessels in the brain.
The cell's specific function is still unclear, but its plastic
properties suggest great potential.
"A similar cell type has been identified in several other organs
where it can promote regeneration of muscle, bone, cartilage and adipose
tissue," said Patrik Brundin, M.D., Ph.D., Jay Van Andel Endowed Chair
in Parkinson's Research at Van Andel Research Institute (VARI), Head of
the Neuronal Survival Unit at Lund University and senior author of the
study.
In other organs, researchers have shown clear evidence that these
types of cells contribute to repair and wound healing. Scientists
suggest that the curative properties may also apply to the brain. The
next step is to try to control and enhance stem cell self-healing
properties with the aim of carrying out targeted therapies to a specific
area of the brain.
"Our findings show that the cell capacity is much larger than we
originally thought, and that these cells are very versatile," said
Gesine Paul-Visse, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Neuroscience at Lund
University and the study's primary author. "Most interesting is their
ability to form neuronal cells, but they can also be developed for other
cell types. The results contribute to better understanding of how brain
cell plasticity works and opens up new opportunities to exploit these
very features."
The study, published in the journal PLoS ONE, is of interest
to a broad spectrum of brain research. Future possible therapeutic
targets range from neurodegenerative diseases to stroke.
"We hope that our findings may lead to a new and better understanding
of the brain's own repair mechanisms," said Dr. Paul-Visse. "Ultimately
the goal is to strengthen these mechanisms and develop new treatments
that can repair the diseased brain."
According to a new study from researchers at the University of Groningen Medical Center in the Netherlands, watching porn dulls a part
of the brain in heterosexual women. (Shutterstock)
Have you ever heard that watching porn will melt your brain or make
you go blind? Well, it's true. Sort of.
A recent study found that watching porn dulls a part of the brain.
And ironically, it's the part responsible for processing visual stimuli.
Or at least, that's what happens when straight women watch porn.
The researchers at the University of Groningen Medical Center in the
Netherlands scanned the primary visual cortexes of 12 healthy
heterosexual premenopausal women while showing them porn.
They found that watching actors get hot and heavy led to less blood
being sent to the primary visual cortex. And the more explicit the
video, the less blood they got.
That's the opposite of what usually happens when people watch TV and
movies. In fact, the same women saw an increase of blood the visual
cortex when they were shown a video about marine life in the Caribbean.
The researchers posit that the brain is more focused on the arousal
than the actual video, and decides it doesn't really need to see every
detail.
"If you look, for example, at your computer and you have to write
something or whatever, then you have to look specifically and carefully
at what you're doing because if you don't, it means you make mistakes,"
Uroneurologist Gert Holstege told LiveScience.
"But the moment you are watching explicit sexual movies, that's not
necessary, because you know exactly what's going on. It's not important
that the door is green or yellow.
"You have to realize that the brain wants to spare as much energy as
possible, so if some part of the brain is not necessary at a high level
of functioning, it immediately goes down."
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C., April 20, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ --
Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center researchers seeking a successful
treatment for traumatic brain injury have found that the size and extent
of damaged tissue can be reduced by using a new device to prevent cell
death.
The research, the focus of a three-year, $1.5 million study funded by
the Department of Defense, was recently published in the journal
Neurosurgery. The technology, tested in rats, is called mechanical
tissue resuscitation (MTR) and uses negative pressure to create an
environment that fosters cell survival.
Louis C. Argenta, M.D., and Michael Morykwas, Ph.D., professors in the
Department of Plastic Surgery and Reconstructive Surgery, and a
multidisciplinary team of colleagues at Wake Forest Baptist, have more
than 15 years of experience working with negative pressure devices to
successfully treat wounds and burns. In this study, the team used MTR to
remove fluid and other toxins that cause cell death from an injury site
deep in the brain.
When the brain is injured by blunt force, explosion or other trauma, the
cells at the impact site are irreversibly damaged and die. In the area
surrounding the wound, injured cells release toxic substances that cause
the brain to swell and restrict blood flow and oxygen levels. This
process results in more extensive cell death which affects brain
function. Argenta and his team targeted these injured brain cells to
determine if removing the fluid and toxic substances that lead to cell
death could help improve survival of the damaged cells.
In the study, a bioengineered material matrix was placed directly on the
injured area in the brain and attached to a flexible tube connected to a
microcomputer vacuum pump. The pump delivered a carefully controlled
vacuum to the injured brain for 72 hours drawing fluid from the injury
site.
The brain injuries treated with the device showed a significant decrease
in brain swelling and release of toxic substances when compared to
untreated injuries. Brains treated with the device showed that over 50%
more brain tissue could be preserved compared to nontreated animals.
Behavioral function tests demonstrated that function was returned faster
in the MTR treated group.
"We have been very gratified by the results thus far. This study
demonstrates that by working together a multidisciplinary group of
researchers can develop new technology that could be used one day at the
hospital bedside," said Argenta.
The researchers are now studying the same technology in stroke and brain
hemorrhage models.
"The Department of Defense has identified this as an area that is ripe
for medical advancement," said study co-author Stephen B. Tatter, M.D.,
Ph.D., professor of neurosurgery at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.
"We believe it will soon be ready for a clinical trial."
Co-authors on this study are Zhenlin Zheng, Ph.D., and Allyson Bryant,
M.D., Department of Plastic Surgery and Reconstructive Surgery.
Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center (
www.wakehealth.edu ) is a fully integrated academic medical center
located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The institution comprises the
medical education and research components of Wake Forest School of
Medicine, the integrated clinical structure and consumer brand Wake
Forest Baptist Health, which includes North Carolina Baptist Hospital
and Brenner Children's Hospital, the commercialization of research
discoveries through the Piedmont Triad Research Park, as well as a
network of affiliated community-based hospitals, physician practices,
outpatient services and other medical facilities. Wake Forest School of
Medicine is ranked among the nation's best medical schools and is a
leading national research center in fields such as regenerative
medicine, cancer, neuroscience, aging, addiction and public health
sciences. Wake Forest Baptist's clinical programs are consistently
ranked as among the best in the country by U.S.News & World Report.
Most of us
know that radiation from X-rays can be harmful to our body. High amounts
of radiation exposure can increase the risk of several types of cancer.
Ionizing radiation from X-rays can potentially damage the DNA. A recent
study published in Cancer, Journal of the American Cancer Society,
provides further evidence about the dangers of X-rays. This study shows
that frequent dental X-rays are linked to brain tumor called meningioma.
Dental
x-ray exams significantly increase risk of brain tumor
This
research found that people who received dental X-rays frequently were
more than twice as likely to develop meningioma. Meningioma is the most
common and potentially debilitating type of non-cancerous brain tumor.
This tumor occurs in the meninges, which is the membrane that is around
the spinal cord and the brain. Some of the effects of meningioma are
headaches, problems with vision, loss of speech and motor control. These
tumors may not be detected for several years until the size of the
tumor gets large.
Based on the research findings, the bitewing and
panorex dental X-ray exams increase the risk of developing the brain
tumor. Patients who received bitewing x-ray exams annually or more
frequently were more than twice as likely to develop meningioma. In a
bitewing exam, the X-ray film is held between the teeth.
Receiving
a panorex exam annually or more frequently increased the risk even
more. The individuals in the group receiving panorex exam were three
times more likely than the control group to develop a tumor. Panorex
dental exam is the exam in which the dentist uses an external device to
take the X-ray of the entire set of the teeth.
Children under ten
years old are most vulnerable to radiation
According to the study
findings, children under 10 years old were the most vulnerable group.
Since children are still growing, the cells in the body are more
sensitive to radiation. As a result, the radiation affects them more
than the adults. Children exposed to radiation from dental X-rays had
five times the risk of developing a tumor.
Some critics of the
study argue that the frequency of dental X-ray exams was based on what
the volunteers remembered. They argue that not many people remember past
events. So a better study is needed to strengthen the link between
dental X-ray and brain tumor.
Challenge your dentist whether you
really need the dental X-ray
So what do the research findings mean
for all of us? Basically we have to be aware of the dangers of
unnecessary X-rays. When you go to the dentist's office, usually the
dentist will recommend an X-ray during each visit. You can ask your
dentist whether the X-ray is really necessary. Especially if you have a
child who has no risk of dental cavity, you can challenge your dentist
that an X-ray may cause more harm than benefits.
Dr. Keith Black,
chairman of neurosurgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles,
wrote about the dangers of frequent dental X-rays among young children
in his 2009 book , "Brain Surgeon: A Doctor's Inspiring Encounters with
Mortality and Miracles." The main reason for his concern is that the
X-rays are aimed at not only the jaw but also the lower brain. Dr. Black
claims that he hasn't had a dental X-ray in 20 years.
Skipping
unnecessary X-ray exams is also a great way to save money. Some of the
dental exams cost several hundred dollars and these exams may or may not
be covered by insurance. Published by HT Syndication with permission
from The Kashmir Monitor.
Scientists have identified and isolated a
previously unidentified population of
mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) that surround blood vessels in the
adult brain and which they say could feasibly be exploited for repairing
damaged or diseased brain tissue. A team led by Patrik Brundin, M.D.,
and colleagues at Lund University’s Wallenberg Neuroscience Center,
isolated, purified, and characterized the perivascular stem cells
from the ventricular wall and neocortex of brain biopsies.
Patrik Brundin, M.D.,et al. claim the isolated MSCs
differs from previously described human neural stem cells, as they are
highly positive for both pericyte and MSC markers and negative for
hematopoietic, endothelial, microglial, and glial markers. Indeed, while
the cells exhibited a mesenchymal phenotype and could be differentiated
into osteoblasts, chondrocytes, and adipocytes, they could also be
epigenetically induced to differentiate along glial and neuronal
lineages. “This has not been reported for a human brain-derived
progenitor cell before,” the team remarks.
Encouragingly, the
perivascular MSCs could be propagated efficiently over the long term as
adherent cultures, and the cells demonstrated clonality and retained a
stable karyotype and full differentiation capacity following extensive
proliferation.
Interestingly, the investigators add, the findings tie in with recent
studies suggesting that MSCs in vivo may reside in the perivascular
niche and might actually represent a subclass of pericyte. While the
team further admits that the function of dual phenotypic stem cells in
vivo is unknown, they suggest further studies will help determine
whether they can be exploited for therapeutic applications. Dr. Brundin
and colleagues report their findings in PLoS One in a paper
titled “The Adult Human Brain Harbors Multipotent Perivascular
Mesenchymal Stem Cells.”
The investigators claim the newly identified perivascular MSCs
clearly aren’t the same as previously described neural stem cells. In
addition to their expression of perivasular and mesenchymal phenotypes
and capacity for both neuroectodermal and mesodermal differentiation,
clonal perivascualr MSCs derived from the adult human brain don’t
express mRNA for neural progenitors or exhibit neuronal markers when
proliferating.
Their discovery is of particular note as tissue-specific
differentiation capacity of pericytes has previously been observed under
pathological conditions, the authors point out. This includes pericyte
differentiation into adipocytes during fat tissue injury or, dependent
on their location, into chondroblasts, bone, myoblasts, or Leydig cells.
And studies in animal models have separately demonstrated that
pericytes can contribute to spinal cord repair by differentiation into
astrocytes. “Our findings support previous data in primates and rodents
that indicate the possible derivation of neurons from pericytes in the
central nervous system,” they write.
The new cell type will hopefully lead to a better understanding of
the brain’s own repair mechanisms,comments lead author Gesine
Paul-Visse, Ph.D. “The results contribute to better understanding of how
brain cell plasticity works and opens up new opportunities to exploit
these very features. Ultimately the goal is to strengthen these
mechanisms and develop new treatments that can repair the diseased
brain.”
New research using brains scans shows that many elderly people
have over time either learned to not stew over things they regret or to
not regret them at all. Those that don’t learn such skills tend to
become depressed, say researchers from University Medical Center in
Germany, who have been conducting research into regret and aging using
brain scans. The team, led by Stefanie Brassen has published the results
of their efforts in the journal Science.
In their report, the team finds that young people and depressed older
adults tend to rue decisions they’ve made and to fixate on them. In
contrast, mentally healthy older adults tend to call it all water under
the bridge and move on.
To find out such things, the team recruited sixty volunteers, 20
healthy young people, 20 mentally healthy elderly people and 20 elderly people who suffer from
depression, to help them carry out an experiment. They asked each
volunteer to play a video game of chance that involved several covered
containers. Under each was either a gold ingot or a demon that would
steal all the money they’d earned thus far. As each container was
opened, the player got to keep the gold if it was underneath. As play
progressed the odds of finding a demon increased, upping the anxiety.
Also, to see what was going on in the brain,
players played the game while being scanned inside of an MRI machine.
The researchers looked specifically at the brain region known as the
ventral striatum, which is known to respond to rewards. In analyzing the
players, the researchers found that young people and older depressed
adults tended to show more activity than did the brains of older more
complacent older people. By watching carefully, they could also measure
the impact on players when they felt they opted out too early, or when
they kept on playing but eventually lost all they’d won to the demon.
This time, the younger players and those that were older but depressed
showed less activity in the ventral striatum, indicating sadness or
depression, meaning they were upset about how things had come out. The
older, healthier players on the other hand showed little to no change,
indicating they weren’t nearly as worried or upset about how things had
played out.
The team also found by looking at the anterior cingulate cortex, that
older healthy adults did actually feel some remorse at some points in
the game, but suppressed it.
The researchers repeated the whole exercise with another group of
volunteers, only instead of testing them with an MRI machine, they
tested their heart rates and skin for electrical response (indicating
degree of sweating) during play. This time too they found that the older
healthier players were more relaxed regardless of outcome, while the young people and older depressed people tended to
sweat it out both while playing and then when reacting to the results of
their own decision making.
And finally, to put it all together, the team interviewed the
volunteers asking them if they had a lot of regrets and how strong those
feelings were if they hand them. Not surprisingly, the volunteers
answers tended to mirror the results of the earlier experiments.
These results, the researchers say, show that as people grow older,
those that do so in a healthy manner learn to not dwell on past mistakes
or to suppress negative feelings about them, while those that don’t
tend to become depressed.
Dr Barbara Fam from the University's Molecular Obesity
Laboratory group at Austin Health with Associate Professor Sof
Andrikopoulos have discovered that the liver can directly talk to the brain
to control the amount of food we eat.
The results have demonstrated that the liver, which has never been
classed as an important organ in controlling body weight before, is in
fact a major player and should be considered a target for treatment of
weight gain.
Test on mice showed that over-expression of a specific enzyme in the
liver resulted in 50% less fat and the subjects ate less food than mice
without the extra enzyme. Needed in the production of glucose, the
enzyme called FBPase previously led to speculation that too much FBPase
was bad for you.
'We actually thought that the mouse with the over-expressed enzyme
would show signs of becoming diabetic since the enzyme is important in
producing more glucose from the liver. However when we studied our mice
in more depth, we were very surprised to see that this enzyme triggered a
number of hormones
that influence the control of appetite," said Dr Fam.
"The really striking result was that the genes
in the brain, important in making us increase our food intake were
actually reduced.
"The results suggest that consumption of a diet high in fat, causes
an increase in liver FBPase that was likely put in place as a negative
feedback mechanism to limit further weight gain. Importantly, FBPase
does not function to control body weight under normal physiological
circumstances but acts only when the system is exposed to excess
nutrients such as fat.
"When people eat diets loaded with fat and sugars particularly over
the long term, it can have a number of different effects on the body but
it appears that we actually have in place an innate system that
protects us from any further weight gain that could happen while eating
these type of diets."
More needs to be investigated to verify this in further trials,
however this study has demonstrated that liver FBPase should be viewed
not only as a mediator of glucose metabolism
but also as an important regulator of appetite and fat. It also gives
us great insight into why the liver is a very important organ.
Source: University of Melbourne
One of the world's leading neurologists, Dr Judy Willis, says
educational engagement with children in the early years pays off.
Transcript
EMMA ALBERICI, PRESENTER: Educational engagement with children in
those first years pays off according to one of the world's leading
neurologists, Dr Judy Willis. Dr Willis is a scientist and former
teacher who has written six books about applying the mind, the brain and
educational research in the classroom. Dr Willis joined us from Santa
Barbara.
Judy Willis, thank you very much for being there.
DR
JUDY WILLIS, NEUROLOGIST: It is my pleasure and honour.
EMMA
ALBERICI: You practised as a neurologist for 15 years before changing
tack and becoming a school teacher. What was it that you wanted to bring
to the classroom?
DR JUDY WILLIS: Well, I hoped that I could
make a change in what I was seeing as a doctor in my office. I was
seeing kids referred to me for what were believed to be neurologic
conditions at a greater rate than ever before. I had been in practice
already for 15 years, but so many kids suddenly were being sent to me
for what teachers thought were attention disorders, behaviour problems.
And
that's when I found out that the schooling had changed, and now I know
that it's happened all over the world; that as new information grew, it
was shoved in the curriculum and these kids were responding to being
asked to memorise so many facts with stress. And their stress response
was what the brain is supposed to do when it is under stress, you act
out, you zone out, the way animals flight, fight, freeze.
So my
hope if I became a teacher, knowing what I know about the brain, that my
students, 30 kids a year, I would be aware that nobody wants to act
badly. They're responding to stress and I could help them do things to
reduce the stress, and school wouldn't become wouldn't become so
onerous. The joy would come back to learning. But it's wonderful how
neuroscience shows us, guides us in ways to help kids learn more
effectively.
EMMA ALBERICI: Given what we know about a child's
brain and its development, how early should education start?
DR
JUDY WILLIS: The earlier the better in terms of parents talking with
their children, making eye contact, giving them experiences, because the
brain is setting up patterns from the time it's born, organising the
world into patterns and categories. And it's those that get stored as
networks in the brain, so later in school and in life, new information,
if it doesn't find anything in the brain to link up with, to code with,
it doesn't really stay.
So the more experiences and words that
they hear as babies and growing up, when they get to school, it's like a
puzzle, the pieces know where to fit. And if there are problems with
parents or the home situation, then having an outside opportunity like a
preschool or a day care centre with people who will provide that
stimulation is the next best thing.
EMMA ALBERICI: Now, in
Australia we're about to introduce a system that intends to provide
universal access for four-year-olds to preschool. Is that early enough
do you think? Because of course, in many parts of Europe they're
offering free state funded preschool 15 hours a week at the age of
three.
DR JUDY WILLIS: Well, again, as an alternative to parents,
who already have good bonds ... and because certainly the bond of love
and affection and trust and one-on-one is ideal with parents, but if
that can't be the situation - so if parents can't provide the mental
manipulation and stimulation and encouragement - then starting at four
is better than at five, and starting at three is better than four.
The
earlier the brain experiences the opportunity to hear words, to develop
patterns of what's familiar, what goes together, the better ... the
more efficiently it will learn later and the more comfortable it will be
with the academic setting. So as long as it is a loving place where the
child feels they can explore, and natural curiosity is encouraged, not
regimented, but there's a real sense of trust, the right climate at four
is great to be maybe necessary for kids who don't have the right home
environment.
EMMA ALBERICI: Now, there is some research that says
good quality preschool education, those who have access and opportunity
for that sort of environment, end up achieving better at university.
How are the two related?
DR JUDY WILLIS: The brain is very
plastic and the more we start building those categories of structures,
those neuronal networks and patterns the better. However, once they're
in place, even if there's a delay and a catch up, the kids may not have
equal educational experiences once they get to school. They may not have
the same attendance as other classmates. But the background that
they've constructed, the brain that they've built, with early
experiences, will be there and can be picked up on in later years.
Whether the delay is until college or high school, that's unfortunate,
but at least that net, that network, is there.
EMMA ALBERICI: In
Australia we've had a lot of focus in the last few years on education,
and particularly though, on funding for education and more specifically
on funding things like buildings and new halls and so on. Is that
necessarily always the correlation that you have to have more money, or
is it more about a focus on teaching and how children learn?
DR
JUDY WILLIS: What's most important to a child is the sense that they are
safe and can experiment and can be curious and will be taken care of in
a learning environment. So whether the building looks nice or whether
it has a lot of art in the room, it's lovely. But if a child feels "I'm
in a place where I can explore, try things out, say things that I think
could be right, but it is all right to make mistakes," in that type of
learning environment with the trust it can build, that's going to cause
the most positive brain changes.
But we now know, because we have
scanners that show what the brain is doing, how the brain is responding
during stress, during pleasure, during fear, and we see that during
stress the structures getting hyper metabolic, not letting flow to the
higher brain - yet, when kids have experienced how to help themselves
de-stress or suddenly when somebody comes into the room whom they trust,
we can see the metabolic activity start decreasing in this area and we
see flow go back again into the higher brain, and behaviour have an
input from the reflective brain. So, people make the difference, trust
makes the difference. Kids understanding their brain and understanding
when they're acting out and zoning out, it is not their voluntary
choice. It is what the brain does when it perceives stress.
EMMA
ALBERICI: I think you've mentioned before in your writings that a lot of
this is also down to an obsession with testing. Now children are tested
throughout their academic lives here now. What's your view of the value
of such tests in terms of improving outcomes?
DR JUDY WILLIS:
Ideally a test should be to give the teacher, the administration,
evidence about how well student are learning something so that
adjustments can be made, improvements can be made in the way either in
the books they're using or they way it's taught, so that learning can be
more successful. Those types of written tests should not be used to
judge how good the teacher or how good the student is. It should be a
way of "Ok, this is the information we have back, let's see what we need
to change".
But instead - and please don't go there Australia -
but instead the system we have in the US is the results on these tests
that the kids take, reflect directly the amount of funding schools get.
So the unfortunate switch comes and the pressure is teach for the test,
not use the test to inform teaching. So, you're in a good place. You
haven't made the funding of a school dependent on the test scores. So,
you can still use those tests for feedback, but certainly let the kids
know that they are not a test score. And tests only measure what the
tests ask, they don't measure how much else the child knows that isn't
asked. So formal tests like those bubble tests with the multiple choice
questions are fine it if it's going to change the curriculum or
teaching. They're not a good way to assess the wisdom that a child has
learned.
EMMA ALBERICI: The best countries in the world as far as
academic achievements are concerned, what are they doing right that
other countries aren't?
DR JUDY WILLIS: If I teach you how to
multiply seven times 14, that's a big number. If you memorise what that
is, that's a little fact, but the only time your brain will dig into
that, activate that memory, is when it is asked what is seven times 14.
In these other countries they dedicate a lot of time to problem solving,
to discovering. So if you discovered on your own - maybe you would be
doing it with little manipulatives and blocks, maybe you would be doing
it by making a skit about seven and 14 - if you were to discover what
seven and 14, seven times 14 is because you did things to learn it, now
you have much more than a memory. It is like fishing pole versus a fish.
You have the ability to extrapolate, to transfer knowledge, so you'll
be able to, when higher numbers come up, you'll be able to take what you
learned because you discovered what seven times 14 was. You didn't just
memorise it. Your brain is so different.
A person who learns by
discovery has not just the information activated in a little network
circuit when they remember it, while we're scanning their brains we see
connections all over their brains while they're thinking of that
multiplication. And what's wonderful, these are the time
multi-hemisphere connections that light up during the "aha!" moment in a
child and an adult when they've gone beyond, when they've improvised,
when they've innovated, when they've taken what they know and applied it
to something they never applied to it before. And you can't do that
with learning rote facts that are on a test. You only do that building
understandings and concepts. They will be the creative and innovative
kids now who will be the 21st century leaders.
EMMA ALBERICI:
What you're saying, in essence, is that it's about the way we teach and
they way children learn rather than where money is allocated and so on.
DR
JUDY WILLIS: Just think of a child's curiosity, right? When you give a
child a big present and it's in the box, a little child. They love the
box, right? They have this wonderful imagination and curiosity. They can
take things all over their imagination, which literally means the
information is stimulating lots of places in their brain. That's the
type of brain preparation that's great for school and it's great for
life.
So that child who got a big box, didn't get a very
expensive present or fancy classroom, they got someone who encouraged
them to explore and be curious, and supported them and played with them.
Turns out block play, and kids using their imagination and playing with
blocks collaboratively with another classmate, that turns out to be one
of the greatest things. We have to start ... it's sad, but there's a
whole study about how to get kids to play, how to teach play. And when
you and I were kids, no one had to teach us how to play. But since it's
been pulled out, it needs to be reinstated and some people need
instructions.
EMMA ALBERICI: Thank you so much Judy Willis for
your time this evening.
The sugar cube-size NIST sensor can measure
human brain activity using a gas of rubidium atoms and micro-optics.
We first reported on an earlier iteration of the sensor, which has
been in development since 2004, back when the team was first able to
use the sensor to track a human heartbeat in 2010.
This week, the researchers report in
the journal Biomedical Optics Express that their tiny sensor --
which consists of a gas of 100 billion rubidium atoms
and fiber optics to detect the light signals that in turn register the
strength of magnetic fields -- now uses a new type of optical fiber that
improves signal clarity.
"We're focusing on making the sensors small, getting them close to
the signal source, and making them manufacturable and ultimately low in
cost," says NIST co-author Svenja Knappe in the institute's news
release. "By making an inexpensive system, you could have one in every
hospital to test for traumatic brain injuries and one for every football
team."
The researchers hope the sensor will improve magnetoencephalography
(MEG), a technique for measuring the magnetic fields produced by
electrical activity in the brain. Applications include testing for
traumatic brain injury, screening for visual perception in newborns, and
mapping neurological activity before surgeries that, say, aim to treat
epilepsy or remove tumors.
The current gold standard MEG is called a superconducting quantum
interference device (SQUID), but it works best at just above
absolute zero and thus requires heavy helmet-shaped flasks with
cryogenic coolants. NIST's sensor, for one, might allow for lighter,
cheaper, and less rigid helmets.
As with the tests to detect a human heartbeat, the team worked with
German scientists at a
lab in Berlin that is described as having the best magnetic
shielding in the world to block the Earth's magnetic field from
interfering with extremely sensitive measurements. (The sensor measures
signals of about a trillionth of a tesla -- called a picotesla;
MRIs, by comparison, register
closer to 1 to 8 tesla.)
The team says it anticipates being able to improve its sensor's
performance another tenfold by upping the amount of light it can detect.
This neuroradiological scan shows what an injured right
parietal lobe looks like. Individuals with similar injuries to this
part of the brain will be less focused on the self, and more likely to
be able to experience spiritual connection with a higher power/nature,
depending on their faith tradition.
Scientists have speculated that the human
brain features a “God spot,” one distinct area of the brain responsible
for spirituality. Now, University of Missouri researchers have completed
research that indicates spirituality is a complex phenomenon, and
multiple areas of the brain are responsible for the many aspects of
spiritual experiences.
“We have found a neuropsychological basis for spirituality, but it’s
not isolated to one specific area of the brain,” said Brick Johnstone,
professor of health psychology in the School of Health Professions.
“Spirituality is a much more dynamic concept that uses many parts of the
brain. Certain parts of the brain play more predominant roles, but they
all work together to facilitate individuals’ spiritual experiences.”
In the most recent study, Johnstone studied 20 people with traumatic
brain injuries affecting the right parietal lobe, the area of the brain
situated a few inches above the right ear. He surveyed participants on
characteristics of spirituality, such as how close they felt to a higher
power and if they felt their lives were part of a divine plan. He found
that the participants with more significant injury to their right
parietal lobe showed an increased feeling of closeness to a higher
power.
“Neuropsychology researchers consistently have shown that impairment
on the right side of the brain decreases one’s focus on the self,”
Johnstone said. “Since our research shows that people with this
impairment are more spiritual, this suggests spiritual experiences are
associated with a decreased focus on the self. This is consistent with
many religious texts that suggest people should concentrate on the
well-being of others rather than on themselves.”
Johnstone says the right side of the brain is associated with
self-orientation, whereas the left side is associated with how
individuals relate to others. Although Johnstone studied people with
brain injury, previous studies of Buddhist meditators and Franciscan nuns with normal
brain function have shown that people can learn to minimize the
functioning of the right side of their brains to increase their
spiritual connections during meditation and prayer.
Johnstone makes the comparison to other kinds of disciplines; "It is
like playing the piano, the more you train your brain, the more the
brain becomes predisposed to piano playing. Practice makes perfect."
While researchers have been focused on finding a 'God spot' in the
brain, the new research suggests that it might be better to focus on the
neuropsychological questions of self focus vs selfless focus. As Prof.
Johnstone explains: "when the brain focuses less on the the self (by
decreased activity in the right lobe) it is by definition a moment of
self-transcendence and can be understood as being connected to God or
Nirvana. It is the sensation of feeling like you are part of a bigger
thing."
The research does not make claims about spiritual truths but
demonstrates the way that the brain allows for different kinds of
spiritual experiences that Christians might name God, Buddhists it could
be Nirvana, and for atheists it might be the feeling of being connected
to the earth.
On the other end of the spectrum, Professor Johnstone admits that for
him it is the music of Led Zeppelin that helps him transcend himself:
"When I put on my headphones and listen to "Stairway to Heaven" I just
get lost."
New technology
bypasses spinal cord and delivers electrical signals from brain directly
to muscles.
CHICAGO --- A new Northwestern
Medicine brain-machine technology delivers messages from the brain
directly to the muscles -- bypassing the spinal cord -- to enable
voluntary and complex movement of a paralyzed hand. The device could
eventually be tested on, and perhaps aid, paralyzed patients.
"We are eavesdropping on
the natural electrical signals from the brain that tell the arm and hand
how to move, and sending those signals directly to the muscles," said
Lee E. Miller, the Edgar C. Stuntz Distinguished Professor in
Neuroscience at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and
the lead investigator of the study, which was published in Nature. "This
connection from brain to muscles might someday be used to help patients
paralyzed due to spinal cord injury perform activities of daily living
and achieve greater independence."
The research was done in
monkeys, whose electrical brain and muscle signals were recorded by
implanted electrodes when they grasped a ball, lifted it and released it
into a small tube. Those recordings allowed the researchers to develop
an algorithm or "decoder" that enabled them to process the brain signals
and predict the patterns of muscle activity when the monkeys wanted to
move the ball.
These experiments were
performed by Christian Ethier, a post-doctoral fellow, and Emily Oby, a
graduate student in neuroscience, both at the Feinberg School of
Medicine. The researchers gave the monkeys a local anesthetic to block
nerve activity at the elbow, causing temporary, painless paralysis of
the hand. With the help of the special devices in the brain and the arm –
together called a neuroprosthesis -- the monkeys' brain signals were
used to control tiny electric currents delivered in less than 40
milliseconds to their muscles, causing them to contract, and allowing
the monkeys to pick up the ball and complete the task nearly as well as
they did before.
"The monkey won't use his
hand perfectly, but there is a process of motor learning that we think
is very similar to the process you go through when you learn to use a
new computer mouse or a different tennis racquet. Things are different
and you learn to adjust to them," said Miller, also a professor of
physiology and of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Feinberg and a
Sensory Motor Performance Program lab chief at the Rehabilitation
Institute of Chicago.
Because the researchers
computed the relationship between brain activity and muscle activity,
the neuroprosthesis actually senses and interprets a variety of
movements a monkey may want to make, theoretically enabling it to make a
range of voluntary hand movements.
"This gives the monkey
voluntary control of his hand that is not possible with the current
clinical prostheses," Miller said. The Freehand prosthesis is
one of several prostheses available to patients paralyzed by spinal
cord injuries that are intended to restore the ability to grasp.
Provided these patients can still move their shoulders, an upward shrug
stimulates the electrodes to make the hand close, a shrug down
stimulates the muscles to make the hand open. The patient also is able
to select whether the prosthesis provides a power grasp in which all the
fingers are curled around an object like a drinking glass, or a key
grasp in which a thin object like a key is grasped between the thumb and
curled index finger.
In the new system Miller
and his team have designed, a tiny implant called a multi-electrode
array detects the activity of about 100 neurons in the brain and serves
as the interface between the brain and a computer that deciphers the
signals that generate hand movements.
"We can extract a
remarkable amount of information from only 100 neurons, even though
there are literally a million neurons involved in making that movement,"
Miller said. "One reason is that these are output neurons that normally
send signals to the muscles. Behind these neurons are many others that
are making the calculations the brain needs in order to control
movement. We are looking at the end result from all those calculations."
Scientists studying the way Alzheimer's
takes root in the brain
have identified important new similarities between a mouse model and
human Alzheimer's.
Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis
have shown that brain plaques in mice are associated with disruption of
the ability of brain regions to network with each other. This decline
parallels earlier results from human studies, suggesting that what
scientists learn about Alzheimer's effects on brain networks in the mice
will likely be transferable to human disease research.
The study, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, is
among the first to precisely quantify the effects of Alzheimer's
disease plaques on brain networks in an animal model. Until now,
scientists studying Alzheimer's in animals have generally been limited
to assessments of structural brain
damage and analyses of brain cell activity levels.
"Precise measurement of changes in brain networks are critical to
understanding Alzheimer's and will likely be important in models of
other neurodegenerative
disorders," says senior author David M. Holtzman, MD, the Andrew B.
and Gretchen P. Jones Professor and head of the Department of
Neurology. "For example, we can now test whether blocking Alzheimer's
plaques from building up in the mouse brain prevents disruptions in
brain networks."
In humans, scientists assess the integrity of brain
networks by monitoring cerebral blood flow with functional magnetic
resonance imaging scans. When the brain is idle, blood flow rises
and falls in sync in brain regions that network with each other, a
phenomenon called functional connectivity. These links are believed to
be an important component of normal brain activity. In humans, problems
in functional connectivity appear to presage the development of dementia.
Applying the same technique to mice can be very challenging,
according to Holtzman. Instead, researchers used an approach for
monitoring brain blood flow in mice recently developed by the lab of
Joseph Culver, PhD, associate professor of radiology
at Washington University.
The technique involves mounting a ring with light-emitting diodes on the
head of a lightly anesthetized mouse. Sensors in the ring monitor light
that is reflected back from hemoglobin molecules flowing through blood
vessels in the brain.
This data can be used to quickly assess blood flow.
Researchers applied the approach to a mouse model of Alzheimer's
disease. They found that the brain regions with the strongest network
connections in young mice developed the most plaques as the mice aged.
As plaques accumulated in these regions, functional connectivity
declined. Scientists have already found similar results in humans using
functional magnetic resonance imaging.
A link between stronger brain
networking in young mice and increased signs of Alzheimer's
in older mice may seem contradictory, but it echoes earlier studies in
Holtzman's laboratory that linked higher activity levels in individual
brain cells to increased plaque deposition.
Holtzman and others have speculated that the types of information and
functions encoded in the activities of brain cells and networks may
affect their impact on Alzheimer's risk. Epidemiological studies have
shown that brain stimulation, such as puzzles, reading or learning, is
associated with reduced risk of Alzheimer's. Leaving the brain idle for
long periods of time may increase risk.
The mice studied in the research have a mutated form of a human
protein, Alzheimer's precursor protein, that causes them to develop brain
plaques. Other mouse models have mutated versions of a protein called
tau that lead to the development of neurofibrillary tangles, which are
another hallmark of Alzheimer's
disease.
Holtzman, Culver and colleagues plan to test functional connectivity
in mouse models with mutated versions of human tau. The results may help
determine the effects of additional types of protein aggregates in the
brain, according to Holtzman.
"Important new insights into the normal and dysfunctional human
brain have been made via studies of functional connectivity,"
Holtzman says. "Being able to analyze brain function from a similar
perspective in animal models, where we have much more freedom to
manipulate genes
and proteins, should be very helpful in our efforts to understand and
treat complex conditions like Alzheimer's disease."
