ScienceDaily: Mind & Brain News

Researchers have shown in mice models of Alzheimer's disease, frontotemporal dementia, and dementia with Lewy bodies, that the intranasal administration of rifampicin and resveratrol in combination is safer and improves cognitive function more than rifampicin alone. The research results are expected to lead to the development of safe and effective nasal spray for the prevention of dementia.

Researchers have solved a decade-long mystery about a critical protein linked to Parkinson's disease that could help to fast-track treatments for the incurable disease. The research has produced a 'live action' view of the protein, called PINK1, in exquisite molecular detail. The discovery explains how the protein is activated in the cell, where it is responsible for initiating the removal and replacement of damaged mitochondria. When the protein is not working correctly, it can starve brain cells of energy, causing them to malfunction and -- in the long term -- die, as happens to dopamine-producing cells in Parkinson's disease. The discovery is the culmination of a project spanning eight years and provides the first detailed blueprint for the discovery and development of therapeutic agents that could help to slow or even stop the progression of Parkinson's disease.

The benefits of good education and lifelong learning extend into old age. The initial findings of a long-term study show that certain degenerative processes are reduced in the brains of academics. Their brains are better able to compensate age-related cognitive and neural limitations.

Researchers have developed a new neural network computational model that helps unravel the brain's complexity.

Prion diseases, such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD), are fast-moving, fatal dementia syndromes associated with the formation of aggregates of the prion protein, PrP. How these aggregates form within and kill brain cells has never been fully understood, but a new study suggests that the aggregates kill neurons by damaging their axons, the narrow nerve fibers through which they send signals to other neurons.