BrainBlog

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

Building a Search Engine of the Brain, Slice by Slice By BENEDICT CAREY The New York Times Published: December 22, 2009 "The dissection of the brain of H. M., an amnesiac, has opened the door to a much more ambitious project." Read the full article

The conference homepage: American Epilepsy Society Conference

A feature article in today's New York Times : Promoting the Car Phone, Despite Risks By MATT RICHTEL The New York Times Published: December 7, 2009 "Industry pioneers have long been aware of the risks of multitasking behind the wheel, but still marketed cellphones to drivers." Read the article

The Man Who Couldn't Remember PBS NOVA February 2009 transcript

The web feed for the continued brain slicing of Patient H.M. suggests that, to the music of Stan Getz, "Primary visual cortex has surfaced. The end is in sight!" :-) If you have not yet watched some of the web stream, give it a look at this time! http://thebrainobservatory.ucsd.edu/hm_live.php Thank you Brain Observatory for providing this live feed of an historic couple of days in neuroscience and neuropsychology! Here is the transcript of an interview that NPR completed with the director of The Brain Observatory at this time last year, December 2008: transcript

The Twitter tag for the Patient H.M. brain slicing has sprouted up as #HM . Join the tweets and discuss!

From the Brain Observatory website at the end of last night's work: "We have reached the corpus callosum. The team is resting for the night. The brain will be safe surrounded by our chillers until tomorrow morning. The cutting will resume again at 8AM PST. "Tomorrow will be a big day - We will try to cover the medial temporal lobes and the area surrounding the hippocampus." The Brain Observatory Today at 0800 PST, 1100 EST, 1600 GMT. === Today's New York Times article by Benedict Carey about the brain sectioning: Dissection Begins on Famous Brain Read here

The sectioning of Patent H.M.'s brain begins today and will be streamed online live at the following location: http://thebrainobservatory.ucsd.edu/hm_live.php === H.M. recollected Famous amnesic launches a bold, new brain project at UCSD BY SCOTT LAFEE, SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE MONDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2009 AT 12:04 A.M. Read the article

Surgery for Mental Ills Offers Hope and Risk By BENEDICT CAREY The New York Times Published: November 27, 2009 "Hundreds have undergone brain surgery for problems like depression, anxiety, even obesity." Read the article

Inside the mind of an actor (literally) How does an actor engage with the part they are playing? Fiona Shaw undergoes a brain scan while reciting TS Eliot to help shed some light on the mystery Stuart Jeffries The Guardian Tuesday 24 November 2009 [snip] The experiment is the latest in which Scott has explored the different ways our brains control our voices. "In the past, I've worked with impressionists to see what happens in their brains when they impersonate people's voices. The literature in psychology on faces is huge, but there's a lot less work on voices – partly because when we talk about speech, we go straight to focusing on language itself. "Fiona is going to perform some lines from a text she's familiar with [Shaw performed Eliot's epic poem 13 years ago in a production directed by Deborah Warner, and will reprise that performance at Wilton's music hall in London next month]. She's conveying different people by the way they speak, and we...

Broadcast on The BBC World Service . Available on podcast here . Body, memory, perception. Gormley, Mayer-Schoenberger, Lotto 14 Nov 09 Thu, 12 Nov 09 Duration: 49 mins "We like nothing better than talking about ourselves so this week’s Forum with Bridget Kendall casts a spotlight on the human brain and human form. One of Britain’s best known sculptors Antony Gormley looks at why we need to peel back our skin in order to understand our own humanity. He also conducts an experiment inviting all BBC listeners to close their eyes and connect with deep space beyond. Information technology professor Viktor Mayer-Schoenberger offers a vista of a future nightmare world where humans may be in danger of losing the capacity to forget as digital memories become so efficient at keeping our data for ever. And we peer inside our brains with neuroscientist Beau Lotto who reveals the illusion of perception and shows - with a little help from bees - why we see the way we do."

New in the world of pig cognition research, interesting results: Pigs Prove to Be Smart, if Not Vain By NATALIE ANGIER The New York Times Published: November 10, 2009 "Recent discoveries from the nascent study of pig cognition offered evidence that pigs were quick learners, slow to forget and similar to humans in many ways." Read the article

The Short Life of a Diagnosis By SIMON BARON-COHEN, Op-Ed Contributor The New Yotk Times Published: November 10, 2009 "Asperger syndrome and autism should be thoroughly tested before being lumped together in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders." Read the Op-Ed piece

A Dream Interpretation: Tuneups for the Brain By BENEDICT CAREY The New York Times Published: November 10, 2009 "A new theory suggests that dreams are a warm-up for the day ahead." Read the article