BrainBlog

In Map of Brain Junction, Avenues to Answers By NICHOLAS WADE The New York Times Published: December 20, 2010 "Researchers have identified the components of a critical part of the brain’s architecture: the synapse, or junction where one neuron makes a connection with another." Read the article

Gina Kolata has written a fine piece in The New York Times : Early Tests for Alzheimer’s Pose Diagnosis Dilemma By GINA KOLATA The New York Times Published: December 17, 2010 "Since there is no treatment, doctors wonder if they should tell people, years earlier, that they have the disease, or a good chance of getting it." Read the article

A broadcast of a recent presentation at the National Institutes of Health: Watch the presentation Air date: Monday, November 29, 2010, 12:00:00 PM Time displayed is Eastern Time, Washington DC Local Category: Neuroscience Description: Neuroscience Seminar Series Animal studies show that the adult brain shows remarkable plasticity in response to learning or recovery from injury. Non-invasive brain imaging techniques can be used to detect systems-level structural and functional plasticity in the human brain. This talk will focus on how brain imaging has allowed us to monitor healthy brains learning new motor skills and to assess how damaged brains recover. For example, structural and diffusion MRI shows that learning to juggle changes not only grey matter but also white matter in healthy brains. In patients recovering after a stroke to one side of their brain, functional MRI and transcranial magnetic stimulation provide evidence for increased recruitment of areas in the healthy side o...

An interesting report posted on the medGadget blog: Read the blog post

From earlier today: Listen to BBC Radio Wales Science Cafe Episode "Around 40,000 people in Wales suffer from Alzheimer's Disease. Adam Walton explores the latest research by Welsh scientists to combat the most common form of dementia."

Out of Our Brains By ANDY CLARK December 12, 2010, 3:47 PM A New York Times blog "Andy Clark wonders: are devices like iPhones and Blackberries actually becoming extensions of our thinking selves?" Read the full posting

From the NIH: Impaired clearance, not overproduction of toxic proteins, may underlie Alzheimer’s disease 09 December 2010 In Alzheimer's disease, a protein fragment called beta-amyloid accumulates at abnormally high levels in the brain. Now researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health have found that in the most common, late-onset form of Alzheimer’s disease, beta-amyloid is produced in the brain at a normal rate but is not cleared, or removed from the brain, efficiently. In addition to improving the understanding of what pathways are most important in development of Alzheimer's pathology, these findings may one day lead to improved biomarker measures for early diagnosis as well as a new approach to treating this devastating disorder. Many believe that accumulation of abnormal levels of beta-amyloid in the brain initiates a cascade of events leading to the death of brain cells and ultimately to dementia. In the rare, early-onset forms of Alzheimer's that are link...

A report from FierceBiotech : Roche provides update on leading late-stage pharmaceutical pipeline New data on medicines with the potential to redefine standard of care highlighted at Investor event Posted December 9, 2010 "Roche (SIX: RO, ROG; OTCQX: RHHBY) today will provide an update on its leading late-stage pipeline comprising twelve new molecular entities in key therapeutic areas. The London investor event will focus on major progress that has been achieved in recent months with Roche's late-stage pipeline assets in the areas of oncology and CNS, as well as on further development plans of these potential breakthrough medicines." read the full report

NIH to offer new clinical research opportunity Initiative to partner with Lasker Foundation NIH Press Release, 09 December 2010 The National Institutes of Health has launched a new program in conjunction with the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation that will provide medical doctors with funding for patient-focused, clinical research projects. The goal is to bridge the widening gap between cutting-edge research and improved patient care. The initiative, called the Lasker Clinical Research Scholars Program, enables exceptional clinical researchers in the early stages of their careers to first spend 5 to 7 years at the NIH Clinical Center, the world's largest hospital dedicated to patient-oriented research, in Bethesda, Md. Upon successful completion of this first stage, the scholars would be offered the opportunity to remain at the NIH as senior clinical research scientists or to apply for up to four years of independent financial support at a university or other external research inst...

Dr. Suzanne Corkin's book about Patient H.M. will be published sometime next year. I am so looking forward to it. Make sure you add it to you wish list for must-have reads!

Jiang RS, Su MC, Liang KL, Shiao JY, Wu SH, & Hsin CH. A pilot study of a traditional Chinese version of the University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test for application in Taiwan. American Journal of Rhinol Allergy. 2010 Jan-Feb;24(1):45-50. BACKGROUND: The 40-item University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test (UPSIT) is the most widely used smell test in the world. Presently, culturally modified versions of this test are available in 12 languages. This study describes the first assessment of a prototype traditional Chinese version of the UPSIT (UPSIT-TC) for administration in Taiwan. The goals were to determine the efficacy of specific items for testing Taiwanese subjects and to establish normative adjustments to allow for the use of North American norms. METHODS: The American version of the UPSIT and the UPSIT-TC were administered to 40 healthy Taiwanese subjects on two test occasions separated from one another by 2 weeks. One subject was excluded because of in...

"The Drug Deadlock" Nature 11 November 2010 Download the article

A fine little piece in the New York Times about Patient H.M. and his performance on crossword puzzles. No Memory, but He Filled In the Blanks By BENEDICT CAREY Published: December 6, 2010 "A man who had brain tissue removed in 1953 stunned researchers over the years by learning some new facts and maintaining his addiction to crossword puzzles." Read the article

Bartko SJ, Vendrell I, Saksida LM, & Bussey TJ A computer-automated touchscreen paired-associates learning (PAL) task for mice: Impairments following administration of scopolamine or dicyclomine and improvements following donepezil. Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2010 Nov 18. RATIONALE: Performance on the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery touchscreen paired-associates learning (PAL) test is predictive of Alzheimer's disease and impaired in schizophrenia and chronic drug users. An automated computer touchscreen PAL task for rats has been previously established. A pharmacologically validated PAL task for mice would be a highly valuable tool, which could be useful for a number of experimental aims including drug discovery. OBJECTIVES: This study sought to investigate the effects of systemic administration of cholinergic agents on task performance in C57Bl/6 mice. METHODS: Scopolamine hydrobromide (0.02, 0.2, and 2.0 mg/kg), dicyclomine hydrochloride (M(1) receptor a...

TED Talk: Gero Miesenboeck reengineers a brain July 2010 Watch the talk here "In the quest to map the brain, many scientists have attempted the incredibly daunting task of recording the activity of each neuron. Gero Miesenboeck works backward -- manipulating specific neurons to figure out exactly what they do, through a series of stunning experiments that reengineer the way fruit flies percieve light."

FDA rejects a new epilepsy drug from Valeant, GSK FierceBiotech 02 December 2010 Read FierceBiotech article here === Earlier blog post on topic, from 12th August: here ===

An interesting half-hour lecture available as a YouTube video, as described here: Acting and Cognitive Science by Psychcentral.com.

A writing workshop for people with neurological disorders: Write Your Life

Brainy times come to the American Museum of Natural History in NYC, opening today: Brain: The Inside Story http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/brain/about.php

From the BBC Radio 4 show, "Case Study": HM - The Man Who Couldn't Remember Broadcast on 11 August 2010. Listen to the programme

From FierceBiotech , an interesting report: Full article: Top 10 Phase III Failures of 2010

From an NIH press release: NIMH's Dr. Mortimer Mishkin to be awarded National Medal of Science 12 November 2010 National Institutes of Health intramural researcher Mortimer Mishkin, Ph.D., will be awarded the National Medal of Science at a White House ceremony later this month. Mishkin is chief of the National Institute of Mental Health’s (NIMH) Section on Cognitive Neuroscience, and acting chief of its Laboratory of Neuropsychology. He is the first NIMH intramural scientist to receive the medal, which the President presents each year for outstanding contributions to science. Mishkin is among 10 recipients this year. "I'm hugely honored. I also feel very happy because it reflects on the support I’ve received from NIH/NIMH all these years," said Mishkin, who has worked at the NIMH Intramural Research Program on the NIH campus in Bethesda, Md. since 1955. In a series of meticulous studies spanning more than five decades, Mishkin and colleagues discovered much about how ...

Here is a link to a set of listed neuroblogs for the conference. Each blog can be accessed from this page. SfN Neuroblogs

The SfN annual meeting begins tomorrow. You can access the website at: http://www.sfn.org/am2010/ . The tweet hashtag is #SfN10. See the right-hand column for a feed of this hashtag.

A very readable piece from Gina Kolata of the New York Times: Doubt on Tactic in Alzheimer’s Battle By GINA KOLATA The New York Times Published: August 18, 2010 "The failure of a promising Alzheimer’s drug highlights the gap between diagnosis and treatment." Read the full article

Audio available from The BBC : Listen From the show's webpage: "Neurobiologist Professor Colin Blakemore was a war baby brought up in devastated Coventry. His two-up two-down home had the first TV in the street on which he lived next door to relatives and a family of ten. As an only child, his parents were able to cash in an insurance policy of £16 which enabled him to go to the local grammar school where he proved himself to be more of an artist and actor than a scientist. Producer: Smita Patel."

From FierceBiotech FDA panel backs new epilepsy drug from GSK, Valeant August 12, 2010 — 7:41am ET By John Carroll "GlaxoSmithKline and Valeant got a solid endorsement for their new epilepsy drug Potiga (ezogabine) from the FDA's panel of experts, putting them on track to a likely approval. The experts unanimously agreed that the drug would benefit epilepsy patients whose meds couldn't stop seizures. And they agreed that careful monitoring would flag patients who experience an inability to urinate while taking the drug." Read the full article

From The New York Times Patricia Neal, an Oscar Winner Who Endured Tragedy, Dies at 84 By ALJEAN HARMETZ Published: August 9, 2010 Patricia Neal

Available for viewing and downloading from the NIH: It Takes Tau to Tangle : Plaques, Tangles and Neurodegenerative Disease by Karen Duff 23 June 2010 link

From UCLA: Obituary: Paul Satz Obituary: Paul Satz, 77, psychiatry professor, founder of UCLA neuropsychology program By Mark Wheeler June 25, 2010 UCLA Paul Satz, a UCLA professor emeritus of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences and the founder of the neuropsychology program at UCLA's Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior and Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital, died June 20, in Lihue, Hawaii, after a long battle with cancer. He was 77. One of the founders of the discipline of neuropsychology, Satz was widely recognized for his groundbreaking research on brain–behavior relations. During his tenure at UCLA (1981–2002), he established the UCLA Neuropsychology Program and helped turn it into one of the world's largest and most successful training programs for clinical neuropsychologists. The author of more than 300 publications, Satz's scientific contributions to the understanding of normal and abnormal brain development had — and continue to have — a major imp...

The ICAD Alzheimer's Disease conference begins tomorrow, the 10th, in Honolulu. Details about the conference can be found at http://www.alz.org/icad/ Tweeters there will be using the hashtag #ICAD.

Coming to The See Further Fest (Celebrating 350 years of The Royal Society): "A Perfect MInd" .

The British Psychological Society Research Digest blog has been very generous in interviewing BrainBlog for its current series of peeks into the lives of psychologists and neuroscientists who write blogs. Read the article Thank you!

Part one (of five) from today's New York Times : The Anosognosic’s Dilemma: Something’s Wrong but You’ll Never Know What It Is (Part 1) By ERROL MORRIS June 20, 2010, 9:00 PM Read the article

NCDEU is an annual conference that presents advances in treatment and in clinical trials for a number of psychiatric conditions. It is a relatively small conference with a nicely organized agenda of workshopa, presentations, and poster sessions. The website for the conference can be found here , which includes the program.

Off to the NCDEU conference in Florida. More from there!

From The New York Times : Fred Plum, Neurologist Who Helped Coin ‘Persistent Vegetative State,’ Dies at 86 By LAWRENCE K. ALTMAN Published: June 11, 2010 Read the full article

Military Still Failing To Diagnose, Treat Brain Injuries by T. CHRISTIAN MILLER and DANIEL ZWERDLING. Includes a link to the NPR All Things Considered presentation.

Have some favs? Vote at the Dana website: http://danapress.typepad.com/weblog/2010/06/what-are-your-favorite-books-about-the-brain.html Fun!

From the 17th of May, 2010: Network Neuroscience - Connectivity and Dynamics of the Human Brain by Dr. Olaf Sporns View the presentation "Nervous systems are complex networks of interconnected neural elements that engage in spontaneous or evoked dynamics. Recent advances in the quantitative analysis and modeling of complex networks have provided new insights into the architecture of brain, structural and functional connectivity ¬ its small-world topology, efficient information flow, low wiring cost, modularity, and hubs. This talk provides an overview of this emerging field, with an emphasis on how complex network approaches can reveal structure/function relationships in the human brain."

An NIH news release: NIH-Supported Study Looks for Earliest Changes in the Brain That May Lead to Alzheimer's Disease 02 June 2010 Read the news release

Study raises questions about military's brain injury assessment tool BY KATHERINE MCINTIRE PETERS 24 May 2010 next.gov.com

Recently, from The Telegraph : Prof. Richard Gregory of the University of Bristol

From The Guardian : Maps of the mind: The Lion's Face How do you write an opera about dementia? Poet Glyn Maxwell on the moving journey that produced The Lion's Face Glyn Maxwell guardian.co.uk Tuesday 25 May 2010 21.46 BST "Three years earlier, I had been asked by the composer Elena Langer to write a libretto for an opera about Alzheimer's. My first thoughts about the disease were mostly wrong. Knowing nothing about the subject, I did what poets do: I tried out some verse-forms – villanelles, pantoums, ghazals. I was falling into the trap of substituting the patterned oddities of poetry for the dire incoherences of dementia, looking for lyricism by default. "The more I learned, the better the poems became. The Institute of Psychiatry in south London's Denmark Hill opened its doors to Elena and me. We talked to scientists and researchers, saw x-rays and brain scans. We met care-givers, psychologists, music and drama therapists. We saw good care homes where we...

The videostream of the conference is quite good (requires RealPlayer), so drop in if you want to watcht the conference. Some good presentations so far. Conference homepage

A reminder that tomorrow (Monday) you can watch the conference online. Information, including the programme, can be found at http://consensus.nih.gov/2010/alz.htm . If you tweet, the hashtag for the conference is #NIHAlz

From the NIH: NIH State-of-the-Science Conference: Preventing Alzheimer's Disease and Cognitive Decline - Day 1 View event: You will be able to view the event at http://videocast.nih.gov when the event is live. Air date: Monday, April 26, 2010, 8:30:00 AM Time displayed is Eastern Time, Washington DC Local [snip] Description: For many older adults, cognitive health and performance remain stable, with only a gradual and slight decline in short-term memory and reaction times. Others, however, progress into a more serious state of cognitive impairment or into various forms of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease. In addition to investigating the causes and potential treatments for Alzheimer’s and other dementias, researchers are focused on finding ways to prevent cognitive decline. Many preventive measures for cognitive decline and for preventing Alzheimer’s have been suggested, but their value in delaying the onset and/or reducing the severity of decline or disease is unclear. B...

From the BBC: The results: Brain training games don't make us smarter Read article From Nature News : Read press release Watch (in the UK): "Can You Train Your Brain?" BBC One 21st April, 2100 hrs: Description

From CBC News : Virtual reality added to soldiers' rehab 19 April 2010 Read the article

A news release from the NIH: Targeting the Blood-Brain Barrier May Delay Progression of Alzheimer's Disease 12 April 2010 Researchers may be one step closer to slowing the onset and progression of Alzheimer's disease. An animal study supported by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), part of the National Institutes of Health, shows that by targeting the blood-brain barrier, researchers are able to slow the accumulation of a protein associated with the progression of the illness. The blood-brain barrier separates the brain from circulating blood, and it protects the brain by removing toxic metabolites and proteins formed in the brain and preventing entry of toxic chemicals from the blood. "This study may provide the experimental basis for new strategies that can be used to treat Alzheimer’s patients," said David S. Miller, Ph.D., chief of the Laboratory of Toxicology and Pharmacology at NIEHS and an author on the paper that appears in the May...

From the BPS Research Digest blog: BPS Research Digest: Is this the first ever direct evidence for human mirror neurons? The blog entry includes a link to the paper's abstract.

The annual conference of the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) takes place from the 10th to the17th of April 2010, in Toronto. Conference homepage

Windsor neuropsychologist Dr. Byron Rourke to receive The Order of Canada next week. Read the article in The Windsor Star

Chen Y, Li YS, Wang ZY, Xu Q, Shi GW, & Lin Y. [The efficacy of donepezil for post-stroke aphasia: a pilot case control study.] Zhonghua Nei Ke Za Zhi. 2010 Feb, 49(2), 115-118. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the efficacy of donepezil for post-stroke aphasia. METHODS: Sixty patients with acute post-stroke aphasia were divided into treatment group and a control group. All patients had been treated for secondary prevention according to the guideline. The treatment group received donepezil hydrochloride (5 mg/d) for 12 weeks. The efficacy of treatment was measured by comparing the changes of scores of Western Aphasia Battery (WAB) between baseline and 12 weeks later. RESULTS: Compared with the baseline, the changes of scores of all items of WAB and Aphasia Quotient (AQ) in both group after 12 weeks follow-up were great, however, the change of AQ was significantly greater in donepezil group (34.14 +/- 17.70)than that in control group (20.69 +/- 17.26)(P = 0.004). The patients in donepezil gr...

Goetz CG. Scales to evaluate psychosis in Parkinson's disease. Parkinsonism and Related Disorders. 2009 Dec; 15 Suppl 3, 38-341 Hallucinations and psychotic behaviors are a frequent non-motor aspect of Parkinson's disease and its treatment. These behaviors usually do not occur in the presence of the physician and are therefore difficult to rate. Further, because of their bizarre nature, hallucinations are frequently underreported by patients, and caregivers are often unaware of them until they become problematic. A number of scales have been developed for rating these behaviors, most of them borrowed or adapted from assessment tools used in other psychotic disorders like schizophrenia. In the latter disorders, however, hallucinations and psychosis are phenomenologically different than the typical hallucinations of Parkinson's disease. The Movement Disorder Society Task Force on Parkinson's Disease Rating Scales has completed a systematic critique of scales used in cl...

From HealthGrades : Download a copy of the report

Kashdan TB, & Rottenberg J. Psychological flexibility as a fundamental aspect of health. Clinical Psychology Review. 2010 Mar 12. Traditionally, positive emotions and thoughts, strengths, and the satisfaction of basic psychological needs for belonging, competence, and autonomy have been seen as the cornerstones of psychological health. Without disputing their importance, these foci fail to capture many of the fluctuating, conflicting forces that are readily apparent when people navigate the environment and social world. In this paper, we review literature to offer evidence for the prominence of psychological flexibility in understanding psychological health. Thus far, the importance of psychological flexibility has been obscured by the isolation and disconnection of research conducted on this topic. Psychological flexibility spans a wide range of human abilities to: recognize and adapt to various situational demands; shift mindsets or behavioral repertoires when these strategies ...

The Novel Tech Ethics research team at Dalhousie University, where today's Neuropsychology Abstract of the Day originated: Novel Tech Ethics website From the homepage: "The Novel Tech Ethics research team led by Françoise Baylis and based at Dalhousie University, focuses on novel technologies that promise transformation. These technologies challenge us to explore the social, political, and cultural understandings of the self, and to reexamine our ethical obligations to others, including those with whom we will not co-exist. "Currently, the Novel Tech Ethics research team has a particular focus on neural, genetic, and reproductive technologies. Grant-funded projects in these areas address the concerns of the individual, the community and the species. Academic exchanges, public discussion and debate contribute to our understanding of these issues and also help to inform public policy." Among other features at the website, podcasts of presentations for their 2009 conf...

Outram SM. The use of methylphenidate among students: The future of enhancement? Journal of Medical Ethics. 2010 Apr, 36(4), 198-202. Novel Tech Ethics, Dalhousie University, 1234 LeMarchant Street, Halifax NS B3H 3P7, Canada. During the past few years considerable debate has arisen within academic journals with respect to the use of smart drugs or cognitive enhancement pharmaceuticals. The following paper seeks to examine the foundations of this cognitive enhancement debate using the example of methylphenidate use among college students. The argument taken is that much of the enhancement debate rests upon inflated assumptions about the ability of such drugs to enhance and over-estimations of either the size of the current market for such drugs or the rise in popularity as drugs for enhancing cognitive abilities. This article provides an overview of the empirical evidence that methylphenidate has the ability to significantly improve cognitive abilities in healthy individuals, and exa...

Last week, the Pew Internet & American Life Project released a report about individuals with chronic diseases and their use of the Internet to obtain and share information. The report is available at the link below: Pew Report on Chronic Disease and the Internet From the summary: "The deck is stacked against people living with chronic disease. They are disproportionately offline. They often have complicated health issues, not easily solved by the addition of even the best, most reliable, medical advice. "And yet, those who are online have a trump card. They have each other. This survey finds that having a chronic disease increases the probability that an internet user will share what they know and learn from their peers. They unearth nuggets of information. They blog. They participate in online discussions. And they just keep going. "

Study Evaluating Rebif, Copaxone, and Tysabri for Active Multiple Sclerosis (SURPASS): ClinicalTrials.gov Description === Corporate press release ===

Tam F, Churchill NW, Strother SC, & Graham SJ. A new tablet for writing and drawing during functional MRI. Human Brain Mapping. 2010 Mar 24. Writing and drawing are understudied with fMRI, partly for lack of a device that approximates these behaviors well while supporting task feedback and quantitative behavioral logging in the confines of the magnet. Consequently, we developed a tablet based on touchscreen technology that is accurate, reliable, relatively inexpensive, and fMRI compatible. After confirming fMRI compatibility, we conducted preliminary fMRI experiments examining the neural correlates of a widely used pen-and-paper neuropsychological assessment, the trail making test. In two subjects, we found left hemisphere frontal lobe activations similar to the major results of a previous group study, and we also noted individual differences mostly in the right hemisphere. These results demonstrate the utility of the new tablet for adaptations of pen-and-paper tests and suggest p...

From today's Observer : Colin Blakemore: how the human brain got bigger by accident and not through evolution Oxford neurobiologist Colin Blakemore tells Robin McKie why he thinks a mutation in the human brain 200,000 years ago suddenly made us a super-intelligent species Robin McKie 28 March 2010 The Observer Read the article

Bueti D, Bahrami B, Walsh V, & Rees G. Encoding of temporal probabilities in the human brain. Journal of Neuroscience. 2010 Mar 24, 30(12), 4343-4352. Anticipating the timing of future events is a necessary precursor to preparing actions and allocating resources to sensory processing. This requires elapsed time to be represented in the brain and used to predict the temporal probability of upcoming events. While neuropsychological, imaging, magnetic stimulation studies, and single-unit recordings implicate the role of higher parietal and motor-related areas in temporal estimation, the role of earlier, purely sensory structures remains more controversial. Here we demonstrate that the temporal probability of expected visual events is encoded not by a single area but by a wide network that importantly includes neuronal populations at the very earliest cortical stages of visual processing. Moreover, we show that activity in those areas changes dynamically in a manner that closely acco...

From The Dana Foundation Blog : Battle of the Brains

Several days ago, the CDC released a report entitled, "Traumatic Brain Injury in the United States: Emergency Department Visits, Hospitalizations, and Deaths, 2002-2006" - available as a .pdf (and .doc) download. Download the report

C-SPAN Video Library: Carl Zimmer's "Soul Made Flesh: The Discovery of the Brain" : Watch the Talk From 23 February 2004, "Carl Zimmer talked about his book, Soul Made Flesh: The Discovery of the Brain--and How it Changed the World, published by The Free Press. The book examined the way the brain has been perceived throughout history."

Santoro A, Siviero P, Minicuci N, Bellavista E, Mishto M, Olivieri F, Marchegiani F, Chiamenti AM, Benussi L, Ghidoni R, Nacmias B, Bagnoli S, Ginestroni A, Scarpino O, Feraco E, Gianni W, Cruciani G, Paganelli R, Di Iorio A, Scognamiglio M, Grimaldi LM, Gabelli C, Sorbi S, Binetti G, Crepaldi G, & Franceschi C. Effects of donepezil, galantamine and rivastigmine in 938 italian patients with Alzheimer's disease: A prospective, observational study. CNS Drugs. 2010 Feb 1; 24(2): 163-176. doi: 10.2165/11310960-000000000-00000. Department of Experimental Pathology, University of Bologna, Via S. Giacomo 12, Bologna, Italy. Acetylcholinesterase inhibitors (AChEIs) have been used to improve cognitive status and disability in patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, while the efficacy of AChEIs (i.e. how they act in randomized controlled trials) in this setting is widely accepted, their effectiveness (i.e. how they behave in the real world) remains controv...

An interesting post at MindHacks about their presentation for the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Scientific Research in Learning and Education: Lords, Ladies, and Video Games The posting also provides a link to the presentation's PowerPoint file. Enjoy!

Here is the website for the "Beauty and the Brain" exhibit discussed in the previous posting: Walters Art Museum

A good read from The Dana Foundation Blog : Gazing with New Eyes Enjoy!

Visit The Dana Foundation's website: Brain Awareness Week

Doody RS, Pavlik V, Massman P, Rountree S, Darby E, & Chan W. Predicting progression of Alzheimer's disease . Alzheimers Res Ther. 2010 Feb 23; 2(1):2. [Epub ahead of print] Alzheimer's Disease and Memory Disorders Center, Baylor College of Medicine, 6501 Fannin Street, NB302, Houston, TX 77030, USA. ABSTRACT: INTRODUCTION: Clinicians need to predict prognosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD), and researchers need models of progression to develop biomarkers and clinical trials designs. We tested a calculated initial progression rate to see whether it predicted performance on cognition, function and behavior over time, and to see whether it predicted survival. METHODS: We used standardized approaches to assess baseline characteristics and to estimate disease duration, and calculated the initial (pre-progression) rate in 597 AD patients followed for up to 15 years. We designated slow, intermediate and rapidly progressing groups. Using mixed effects regression analysis, we e...

Elfgren C, Gustafson L, Vestberg S, & Passant U. Subjective memory complaints, neuropsychological performance and psychiatric variables in memory clinic attendees: A 3-year follow-up study. Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics. 2010 Mar 6. [Epub ahead of print] Department of Geriatric Psychiatry, Clinical Sciences, Lund University Hospital, SE-221 85 Lund, Sweden. The aims were to evaluate the cognitive performance and clinical diagnosis in patients ( PMID: 20211500 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

From King's College London: Innovative Partnership for Pain Research 10 Mar 2010, PR 48/10 "King’s has partnered with Pfizer to create an open innovation laboratory for pain research. As part of the partnership, a small team of Pfizer scientists will be based at the Wolfson Centre for Age-Related Diseases to conduct research in pain biology." read the full article

From the King's College London website: Seminar: The computer as the third actor in the clinical consultation 17 Mar 2010, 12:45-13:45, 6th Floor Seminar Room, Capital House, Guy's Campus Speaker: Dr Simon de Lusignan Speaker institution: St George's University of London Full information

Today's recommended read deals with an important neuropsychological assessment issue in the domain of aging and the potential to identify the presence of cognitive problems that might (emphasis on "might" - such findings in a screen are not definitive) be part of the onset of a dementing disease process. The issue has implications, as well, for applications in CNS clinical trials. Scharre DW, Chang SI, Murden RA, Lamb J, Beversdorf DQ, Kataki M, Nagaraja HN, & Bornstein RA. Self-administered Gerocognitive Examination (SAGE): A Brief Cognitive Assessment Instrument for Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and Early Dementia. Alzheimer Disease and Associate Disorders. 2010 January/March; 24(1), 64-71. OBJECTIVES: To develop a self-administered cognitive assessment instrument to facilitate the screening of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and early dementia and determine its association with gold standard clinical assessments including neuropsychologic evaluation. METHODS: A...

The British Psychological Society's Research Digest blog has an interesting posting today about how we respond socially to reminders about infectious disease: Reminder of disease primes the body and mind to repel other people

Today's recommended reading addresses proposed efficacy measures for use in clinical trials related to traumatic brain injury (TBI): Bagiella E, Novack TA, Ansel B, Diaz-Arrastia R, Dikmen S, Hart T, & Temkin N. Measuring Outcome in Traumatic Brain Injury Treatment Trials: Recommendations From the Traumatic Brain Injury Clinical Trials Network. Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation. 2010. BACKGROUND: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) involves several aspects of a patient's condition, including physical, mental, emotional, cognitive, social, and functional changes. Therefore, a clinical trial with individuals with TBI should consider outcome measures that reflect their global status. METHODS: We present the work of the National Institute of Child Health and Development-sponsored Traumatic Brain Injury Clinical Trials Network Outcome Measures subcommittee and its choice of outcome measures for a phase III clinical trial of patients with complicated mild to severe TBI. RESULTS: ...

Today's recommended reading deals with a very important issue in neuropsychological assessment: Loring DW, & Bauer RM. Testing the limits: cautions and concerns regarding the new Wechsler IQ and Memory scales. Neurology , 2010, 74(8), 685-690. Department of Neurology, Emory University, 101 Woodruff Circle, Suite 6000, Atlanta, GA, USA. 30322 The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) and the Wechsler Memory Scale (WMS) are 2 of the most common psychological tests used in clinical care and research in neurology. Newly revised versions of both instruments (WAIS-IV and WMS-IV) have recently been published and are increasingly being adopted by the neuropsychology community. There have been significant changes in the structure and content of both scales, leading to the potential for inaccurate patient classification if algorithms developed using their predecessors are employed. There are presently insufficient clinical data in neurologic populations to insure their appropriate ap...

A Little Black Box to Jog Failing Memory By YUDHIJIT BHATTACHARJEE The New York Times Published: March 8, 2010 "Researchers have tested the Sensecam , which contains a digital camera and an accelerometer, as an aid to people with Alzheimer’s disease and other memory disorders." Read the full article

Old Enemy Might Help to Prevent Alzheimer’s By GINA KOLATA The New York Times Published: March 8, 2010 "Harvard researchers are taking a new look at beta amyloid, which was thought to be a chief villain in Alzheimer’s whose function was that of a waste product in the brain." Read the full article

The Norwegian Neuropsychological Society/Norsk Nevropsykologisk Forening: Website From the homepage: "The Norwegian Neuropsychological Society (NNS) was formed in 1996 and professor Hallgrim Kløve was elected as NNA’s first chair. The aims of the Association are to promote neuropsychology in Norway, stimulate exchange of national and international communication among neuropsychologists, and stimulate development in neuropsychology as well as to provide information both internally and toward the public. "The NNS is an interest organisation that has its member base in the Norwegian Psychological Association. The regulations of the NNS comply with the regulations of the Norwegian Psychological Association. From 2007 we have formally been approved as an associated interest group with the Norwegian Psychological Association." Now, you can follow them on Twitter, too.

Available from BBC Radio 4 : In Our Time: The Infant Brain : Listen Here . Description, from the BBC source link: Melvyn Bragg and guests Usha Goswami , Annette Karmiloff-Smith and Denis Mareschal discuss what new research reveals about the infant brain. For obvious reasons, what happens in the minds of very young, pre-verbal children is elusive. But over the last century, the psychology of early childhood has become a major subject of study. Some scientists and researchers have argued that children develop skills only gradually, others that many of our mental attributes are innate. Sigmund Freud concluded that infants didn't differentiate themselves from their environment. The pioneering Swiss child psychologist Jean Piaget thought babies' perception of the world began as a 'blooming, buzzing confusion' of colour, light and sound, before they developed a more sophisticated worldview, first through the senses and later through symbol. More recent scholars such as the le...

From The New York Times : Hopes for Alzheimer’s Drug Are Dashed By ANDREW POLLACK Published: March 4, 2010 "The drug, called Dimebon, failed in its first late-stage clinical trial, dealing a blow to patients with Alzheimer’s and the companies developing the treatment, Medivation and Pfizer." Read the full article

A press release from earlier today by Pfizer: Pfizer And Medivation Announce Results From Two Phase 3 Studies In Dimebon (latrepirdine) Alzheimer’s Disease Clinical Development Program [snip] "About the CONNECTION Study "CONNECTION is a Phase 3, multi-national, double-blind, placebo-controlled safety and efficacy trial involving 598 patients with mild-to-moderate AD at 63 sites in North America, Europe, and South America. Patients had a mean age of 74.4 years and a mean score of 17.7 on the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) upon entry into the study. More than 40 percent of the patients enrolled were in the United States. In the study, patients were randomized to one of three treatment groups, receiving dimebon 20 mg three times a day (TID), dimebon 5 mg TID, or placebo TID for six months. The 5 mg arm was included in the study to help define the effective dose range for dimebon treatment. "No statistically significant improvements for the 20 mg TID group relative to ...

A program from the University of Pennsylvania: Take Your Brain to Lunch "Everything from education to warfare comes down to the workings of the human mind, and now the mind itself is being understood in terms of the brain. Come hear about the different ways that Penn Arts and Sciences faculty are studying this amazing three-pound organ and the insights it is offering on diverse human problems. "Martha Farah, Annenberg Professor of Natural Sciences in the Department of Psychology and Director of Penn's new Center for Neuroscience & Society, will lead conversations with Penn faculty members about the brain. So take your brain to lunch and enjoy some food for thought! All lectures are from 12:00 p.m. - 1:30 p.m. Light refreshments will be provided." For dates and topics, please see the UPenn webpage for the program

Today's recommended article to read; abstract from PubMed : Bergmans BA & De Strooper B. gamma-secretases: From cell biology to therapeutic strategies. Lancet Neurology . 2010 Feb; 9(2 ): 215-226. Department of Molecular and Developmental Genetics, VIB, Leuven, Belgium; Center for Human Genetics , Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Leuven, Belgium. Presenilins form the catalytic part of the gamma-secretases , protein complexes that are responsible for the intramembranous cleavage of transmembrane proteins. The presenilins are involved in several biological functions, but are best known for their role in the generation of the beta-amyloid (Abeta) peptide in Alzheimer's disease and are therefore thought to be important drug targets for this disorder. Mutations in the presenilin genes cause early-onset familial Alzheimer's disease, but mutation carriers have substantial phenotypic heterogeneity. Recent evidence implicating presenilin mutations in non-Alzheimer's dementia...

From The Times (UK): Fighting Alzheimer's with a touch of beauty A pioneering care project demonstates how literature, music, art and love can improve the lives of dementia sufferers 28 February 2010 The Times Margarette Driscoll [snip] "In other words, people who appear to be lost to the world can still be reached through art, literature and music — and love. At Hearthstone , a group of seven homes looking after some 220 people with Alzheimer’s that Zeisel had helped to found in Massachusetts, residents are encouraged to paint and are taken on regular outings to galleries. They have reading circles and a film club. “The development of new drugs to treat Alzheimer’s is helping people live a little bit longer,” says Zeisel. “What we’re asking ourselves is, how do we make that life worth living?”" [snip] read the full article

From Fierce Biotech : UCSF enters drug discovery agreement with Genentech Posted February 19, 2010 "The University of California, San Francisco has signed a partnership agreement with Genentech, Inc., a wholly owned member of the Roche Group, to discover and develop drug candidates for neurodegenerative diseases. "Through the agreement, Genentech will provide funding and its research acumen in neuroscience and will collaborate with UCSF to identify small molecules." Read the full article

From The Guardian : Sex hormone progesterone may save lives after brain injury A major clinical trial will test whether the female sex hormone can minimise damage and improve recovery after brain injury Ian Sample, San Diego guardian.co.uk Friday 19 February 2010 21.30 GMT An article about the proTECT III clinical trial. Read the article === Here is the ClinicalTrials.gov entry for this study: proTECT III ===

From FierceBiotech : GSK launches new specialist unit to research and develop medicines for rare diseases Issued: Thursday 4 February 2010, London UK Read the full article

From BBC Cambridgeshire : Alzheimers: Why Terry Pratchett feels good 15 February 2010 Read the full report

Fjell AM, Walhovd KB, Fennema-Notestine C, McEvoy LK, Hagler DJ, Holland D, Brewer JB, Dale AM; for the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative. CSF Biomarkers in Prediction of Cerebral and Clinical Change in Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer's Disease. J Neurosci. , 2010 Feb, 10; 30(6): 2088-2101. Center for the Study of Human Cognition, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, NO-0317 Oslo, Norway, Department of Neuropsychology, Ullevaal University Hospital, NO-0407 Oslo, Norway, and Departments of Radiology, Psychiatry, and Neuroscience, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093. Brain atrophy and altered CSF levels of amyloid beta (Abeta(42)) and the microtubule-associated protein tau are potent biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease (AD)-related pathology. However, the relationship between CSF biomarkers and brain morphometry is poorly understood. Thus, we addressed the following questions. (1) Can CSF biomarker levels explain the morpho...

TEDMED2010 website 26-29 October 2010 San Diego, California From the homepage: "Created by Marc Hodosh and Richard Saul Wurman, TEDMED celebrates conversations that demonstrate the intersection and connections between all things medical and healthcare related: from personal health to public health, devices to design and Hollywood to the hospital. Together, this encompasses more than twenty percent of our GNP in America while touching everyone's life around the globe."

From Carl Zimmer's The Loom : A report and picture of a brainy tattoo. :-) --- How do *you* spell brain?

Fish J, Wilson BA, & Manly T. The assessment and rehabilitation of prospective memory problems in people with neurological disorders: A review. Neuropsychological Rehabilitation , 2010 Feb, 4: 1-19. [Epub ahead of print] MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge, UK. People with neurological disorders often report difficulty with prospective memory (PM), that is, remembering to do things they had intended to do. This paper briefly reviews the literature regarding the neuropsychology of PM function, concluding that from the clinical perspective, PM is best considered in terms of its separable but interacting mnemonic and executive components. Next, the strengths and limitations in the current clinical assessment of PM, including the assessment of component processes, desktop analogues of PM tasks, and naturalistic PM tasks, are outlined. The evidence base for the rehabilitation of PM is then considered, focusing on retraining PM, using retrospective memory strategies, proble...

From the BBC : Patients with amygdala injury 'unafraid' to gamble 09 February 2010 "Californian scientists think they may have discovered the part of the brain which makes people fear losing money." Read the full article

From FierceBiotech : FDA approves Acorda's new MS drug January 22, 2010 — 4:49pm ET By John Carroll [snip] The FDA announced Friday afternoon that it has approved Ampyra (dalfampridine) extended-release tablets to improve walking in patients with multiple sclerosis. In clinical trials, patients treated with Ampyra had faster walking speeds than those treated with a placebo. This is the first drug approved for this use. [snip] Read the FierceBiotech full article

Novartis, Merck KGaA Pills Bring ‘New Horizon’ for MS (Update1) By Naomi Kresge Bloomberg 20 January 2010 "Jan. 20 (Bloomberg) -- The first oral medicines for multiple sclerosis from Novartis AG and Merck KGaA may offer patients who are willing to run the risk of infections and other side effects an easier route toward treating the debilitating neurological disease, according to three studies." (The drugs are immunosuppressive.) Read full article

International Neuropsychological Society 38th Annual Meeting February 3-6, 2010 Acapulco, Mexico Conference webpage: here

The Telegraph has a link to a series of Lumosity games: Available here

Start running and watch your brain grow, say scientists • Aerobic exercise triggers new cell growth – study • Region of brain affected linked to recollection Ian Sample, science correspondent The Guardian Monday 18 January 2010 20.41 GMT Read the article

Total Recall: A Journey From Vienna to Brooklyn and the Center of the Brain By A. O. SCOTT The New York Times Published: January 8, 2010 A review of the new movie, "In Search of memory" about Dr. Eric Kandel. [snip] "Ms. Seeger, a German filmmaker who occasionally appears on screen with Dr. Kandel and his family, gives only a sketch of his ideas and discoveries, but the basic information about axons, synapses and neurons is presented clearly and with enthusiasm. “In Search of Memory” is finally more concerned with the scientist than with his science, and in his particular memories rather than his insights into memory as such. This is hardly a criticism, since Dr. Kandel is an unusually engaging person with a pretty amazing biography." [snip] Read the review