BrainBlog

Just in time for gift-giving, Dana Press released earlier this month a paperback version of its 2003 resource on family-friendly brain health. A quick look at the 2006 release shows a very impressive resource about the healthy and disordered nervous system - as well as a CD-ROM of material. Nicely illustrated and written for a broad general audience: The Dana Guide to Brain Health: A Practical Family Reference from Medical Experts by Floyd E. Bloom, M. Flint Beal, & David J. Kupfer. 2006 paperback version: Amazon link - Anthony H. Risser | neuroscience | neuropsychology | brain

From an NIH press release: Novel Program Enhances Dementia Caregivers’ Quality of Life EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE Monday, November 20, 2006 5:00 p.m. ET NIA Media Contacts: Susan Farrer or Linda Joy 301-496-1752 nianews3@mail.nih.gov NINR Media Contact: Lanny Newman 301-496-0209 newmanl@mail.nih.gov A multifaceted, personalized intervention can significantly improve the quality of life for caregivers of people with dementia, new research published Nov. 21, 2006, in Annals of Internal Medicine has found. The study, Resources for Enhancing Alzheimer’s Caregiver Health II (REACH II) , is the first randomized, controlled trial to look systematically at the effectiveness of a multi-component caregiver intervention provided to ethnically diverse populations. Follow-up studies, the researchers suggest, should examine how the intervention might be used in communities through the nation’s existing network of health and aging services. REACH II was funded by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) an...

From the CBC : Humpback whales share brain cells with humans Last Updated: Monday, November 27, 2006 | 1:12 PM ET CBC News Humpback whales have joined an exclusive evolutionary club alongside humans, gorillas and dolphins, thanks to the discovery of a particular type of brain cell in the large aquatic mammals. The brains of humpback whales contain spindle neurons, a kind of brain cell found in the cerebral cortex in large primates like humans and gorillas, according to a study published online on Monday. Patrick R. Hof and Estel Van der Gucht of the Department of Neuroscience at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York published their findings in The Anatomical Record , the official journal of the American Association of Anatomists. The authors found humpback whales not only had spindle neurons in the same area of the cortex where they are found in hominids, but also in other parts of their brain. Named for their long, spindle-shaped bodies, spindle neurons are a complex and not c...

Bertaina-Anglade V, Enjuanes E, Morillon D, & Drieu la Rochelle C. (2006). The object recognition task in rats and mice: A simple and rapid model in safety pharmacology to detect amnesic properties of a new chemical entity. J Pharmacol Toxicol Methods, 54(2) , 99-105. Preclinical Pharmacology Department, Biotrial, 7-9 rue JL Bertrand, 35000 Rennes, France. INTRODUCTION: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the potential usefulness of the object recognition learning paradigm to detect the potential amnesic properties of a new drug for use in the characterisation of its safety pharmacology profile. METHODS AND RESULTS: In the first experiment, the time-dependent decay of object recognition memory was characterised in Sprague-Dawley rats and C57Bl/6J mice. Under our experimental conditions, it takes between 3 and 4 post-training hours for the rats and between 1 and 2 post-training hours for the mice to forget the respective value of the objects. In the second experiment, the...

von Lehe M, Lutz M, Kral T, Schramm J, Elger CE, & Clusmann H. Correlation of health-related quality of life after surgery for mesial temporal lobe epilepsy with two seizure outcome scales. Epilepsy and Behavior 2006 Aug; 9(1): 73-82. Department of Neurosurgery, University Clinic Bonn, Bonn, Germany. PURPOSE: The objective of this study was to correlate health-related quality of life (HRQOL) after surgery for mesial temporal lobe epilepsy, as revealed by a postoperative screening tool, to different modalities of seizure outcome classification (Engel, International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE)). METHOD: One hundred twenty-eight of one hundred forty consecutive patients returned a HRQOL questionnaire at a mean of 36 months after selective amygdalohippocampectomy. Patients answered in two ways: with an absolute estimation (values 1-4) and with a self-rated relative change (-1, 0, +1) after surgery. RESULTS: Eighty patients were seizure- and aura-free (63.3% ILAE 1), 16 continued...

From today's New York Times : A Hands-On Approach to Studying the Brain, Even Einstein’s By SIOBHAN ROBERTS Published: November 14, 2006 HAMILTON, Ontario — Standing in her vaultlike walk-in refrigerator, Sandra F. Witelson pries open a white plastic tub that looks like an ice cream container. There, soaking in diluted formaldehyde, is a gleaming vanilla-colored brain: the curvy landscape of hills and valleys (the gyri and sulci) that channeled the thoughts of the late mathematician Donald Coxeter, known as the man who saved geometry from near extinction in the 20th century. “His brain is amazingly plump,” Dr. Witelson says. She ought to know. Here at McMaster University, where she is a neuroscientist with the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine, Dr. Witelson has a collection of 125 brains. They are all from Canadians: business people, professionals, homemakers, and blue- and white-collar workers. [ ... Read the full article ... ] - Anthony H. Risser | neuroscience | neuro...