The replacement of lost neurons is a holy grail for neuroscience. A new promising approach is the conversion of glial cells into new neurons. Improving the efficiency of this conversion or reprogramming after brain injury is an important step towards developing reliable regenerative medicine therapies. Researchers at Helmholtz Zentrum München and Ludwig Maximilians University Munich […]

Evolutionary perspective is critical for understanding human biology, human medicine, and the traits that make human beings unique. One of the crucial characteristics that sets humans apart from other extant species is our cognitive ability, which allows for complex processes including symbolic thought, theory of mind, and syntactical-grammatical language, and is thought to arise from […]

Having subtler symptoms, a form of epilepsy that affects only one part of the brain often goes undiagnosed long enough to cause unexpected seizures that contribute to car crashes, a new study finds. The study, published online October 20 in the journal Epilepsia, addressed focal epilepsy, the most common form of this brain disorder. Researchers […]

Intranasal administration of an anti-inflammatory drug helped reduce disease progression in a preclinical model of multiple sclerosis, according to recent research out of the University of Alberta. Christopher Power, a professor in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry, and Leina Saito, a graduate student on his team, showed that delivering an anti-inflammatory drug to mice […]

Researchers studied 5,227 participants of the Chicago Health and Aging Project who were aged 65 years or older, of whom 30% had mild cognitive impairment and 11% had Alzheimer’s disease. They found that persons living with 10 decibels more noise near their residences during the daytime had a 36% higher odds of having mild cognitive […]

New research shows a simple skin test can accurately identify Parkinson’s disease, demonstrating for the first time the feasibility of the method. Currently diagnosed by clinical signs and symptoms but only definitively diagnosed at autopsy, Parkinson’s disease is commonly misdiagnosed early in the disease course, complicating clinical trials of potential treatments. The study, published in […]

Mayo Clinic researchers, along with national and global collaborators, have developed a potential test for Machado-Joseph disease, or spinocerebellar ataxia type 3 (SCA3) ― a disease that has no cure. They also have clarified the role of a gene target associated with the disease. The inherited disease is linked to a mutation in the ATXN3 […]

About half of the people with multiple sclerosis have the HLA-DR15 gene variant. A study led by the University of Zurich has now shown how this genetic predisposition contributes to the development of the autoimmune disease multiple sclerosis in combination with environmental factors. The decisive factor is the shaping of a repertoire of immune cells […]

Can COVID-19 infection increase the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease? That’s the question posed by a new commentary published in the journal Trends in Neurosciences, which explores three known case studies of people developing Parkinson’s-like symptoms in the weeks following infection with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. While rare, these cases provide important insights […]

Air pollution was significantly associated with an increased risk of hospital admissions for several neurological disorders, including Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and other dementias, in a long-term study of more than 63 million older U.S. adults, led by researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The study, conducted with colleagues at Emory University’s […]