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Category: neuroscience

An exciting experimental drug developed by scientists at Johns Hopkins Medicine has been found to stop the progression of Parkinson’s disease in live mice models. The new drug could be the first medication to specifically slow the progression of the devastating disease as opposed to current treatments that only target the symptoms.

Microglia are a kind of immune cell primarily found in the brain. One of the neurodegenerative processes that occurs in the brains of Parkinson’s disease patients is when the microglial cells send chemical signals to another kind of brain cell called astrocytes. This signal spurns those astrocytes into more aggressive behaviors, eating away at connections between neurons.

“The activated astrocytes we focused on go into a revolt against the brain,” explains Ted Dawson, one of the researchers on the project, “and this structural breakdown contributes to the dead zones of brain tissue found in those with Parkinson’s disease. The idea was that if we could find a way to calm those astrocytes, we might be able to slow the progression of Parkinson’s disease.”

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British researchers are zeroing in on genes they believe are responsible for early onset Alzheimer’s disease in people with Down syndrome.

WEDNESDAY, July 3, 2018 — British researchers are zeroing in on the genes that they believe are responsible for early onset Alzheimer’s disease in people with Down syndrome.

The two conditions have long been strongly linked.

The findings — based on research with mice — could pave the way for new medicines to prevent Alzheimer’s in people with Down syndrome, and shed light on the development of dementia in the general population, the study authors said.

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Fascinating findings: “1. Neurofeedback yields significant reductions in parent ratings of inattentive and hyperactive-impulsive symptoms. 2. These reductions persist for up to 2–12 months after neurofeedback ends. 3. Although medication has a larger initial effect, symptom reductions resulting from neurofeedback and medication may be comparable over a more extended time period.”

In neurofeedback treatment for ADHD, individuals learn to alter their typical pattern of brainwave activity, i.e., EEG activity, to one that is consistent with a focused and attentive state.

This is done by collecting EEG data from individuals as they focus on stimuli presented on a computer screen. Their ability to control the stimuli, e.g., keeping the smile on a smiley face keeping a video playing, depends on their maintaining an EEG state that reflects focused attention.

Over time, most individuals better at this. Supporters of neurofeedback argue that learning to alter EEG activity and focus better during training eventually generalizes to real-world tasks that require strong attention skills, e.g., reading, homework, etc.

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(HealthDay)—Get up off of the couch: Sitting too much may kill you even if you exercise regularly.

If you sit for six hours a day or more, your risk of dying early jumps 19 percent, compared with people who sit fewer than three hours, an American Cancer Society study suggests.

And, the study authors added, sitting may kill you in 14 ways, including: cancer; heart disease; stroke; diabetes; kidney disease; suicide; chronic (COPD); lung disease; liver disease; peptic ulcer and other ; Parkinson’s disease; Alzheimer’s disease; nervous disorders; and .

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Living in a culture dependant upon caffeine and lack of sleep, its important to remember that sleep offers an incredibly important biological function. One night of sleep deprivation is tied to Alzheimer’s disease.

While people once believed that sleep was merely a period of inactivity and rest, modern studies in chronobiology have shown that sleep is important for a variety of biochemical processes. A recent study suggests that sleep is even more important than physicians and scientists previously thought, allowing the brain to flush out toxic chemicals that build up over the course of a day.

Neurotoxins and Your Brain

The cells in your brain are busy throughout the day, performing a variety of reactions that create mental function. Unfortunately, many of these processes have toxic byproducts that could be deadly to cells if not removed.

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Maryam shanechi, university of southern california.

With recent technological advances, we can now record neural activity from the brain, and manipulate this activity with electrical or optogenetic stimulation in real time. These capabilities have brought the concept of brain-machine interfaces (BMI) closer to clinical viability than ever before. BMIs are systems that monitor and interact with the brain to restore lost function, treat neurological disorders, or enhance human performance.

February 2018

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Polio was a devastating disease before the development of the polio vaccine. But now, this once-feared virus might help treat another deadly illness — brain cancer.

In a new study, some patients who had an aggressive type of brain cancer called glioblastoma and who received a genetically modified poliovirus lived much longer than typical for these patients.

The study found that about 21 percent of the brain cancer patients who received the poliovirus therapy were alive three years later. In contrast, among a group of previously treated patients who had the same cancer but received standard therapies (such as chemotherapy), just 4 percent were alive after three years.

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