BrainBlog

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

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