ScienceDaily: Mind & Brain News

New research suggests how a newly developed gene therapy can treat Dravet syndrome, a severe form of epilepsy, and potentially prolong survival for people with the condition.

Scientists have revealed harmful changes in supporting cells, called astrocytes, in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

Most noninvasive brain scanning systems use continuous-wave fNIRS, where the tissue is irradiated by a constant stream of photons. However, these systems cannot differentiate between scattered and absorbed photons. A recent advancement to this technique is time-domain (TD)-fNIRS, which uses picosecond pulses of light and fast detectors to estimate photon scattering and absorption in tissues. However, such systems are expensive and complex and have a large form factor, limiting their widespread adoption. To overcome these challenges, researchers have developed a wearable headset based on TD-fNIRS technology.

High school students who have trouble paying attention in class are more likely to admit to cheating, a new study shows.

Researchers recruited 100 women, 73 of whom they followed from the start of the third trimester to three months postpartum. They analyzed subjective and objective measures of sleep, biological rhythms, melatonin levels, and light exposure using a variety of tools, including questionnaires, actigraphs (wearable sleep monitors), laboratory assays, and other methods.

Researchers used high-resolution technologies to see how dopamine circuitry in mice is affected by addictive drugs. The results answered older structural questions, while raising new ones about plasticity and recovery in the brain.

A new study suggests that disgust sensitivity -- how intensely a person is repulsed by images, ideas or situations that could be considered really gross or merely unpleasant -- was affected by the pandemic, when concern about catching COVID increased sensitivity to disgust.

Some patients who develop new cognitive symptoms after a mild bout of COVID have abnormalities in their cerebrospinal fluid similar to those found in people with other infectious diseases. The finding may provide insights into how SARS-CoV-2 impacts the brain.

A new study shows that treatment with an immune-boosting protein called interleukin 7 (IL-7) in combination with radiation improves survival in mice with glioblastoma. The study in mice suggests promise for a phase 1/2 clinical trial that is investigating a long-acting type of IL-7 in patients with glioblastoma.

Patients with epilepsy must take medicine to manage seizures. Even then, only 65% are able to control their symptoms, rendering invasive surgery the only cure. Now, a research group has investigated a new stimulation paradigm that could cultivate greater resistance to epilepsy.

It is important that multiple sclerosis (MS) is diagnosed and treated as early as possible in order to delay progression of the disease. The technique of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) plays a key role in this process. A new MRI technique could pave the way to quicker assessment of disease activity in MS.

Disrupting circadian rhythms, which change naturally on a 24-hour cycle, has been implicated in heart disease, but it is unclear how it leads to the condition. A research team investigated the function of a certain protein on heart disease development in animal models and human patients.

Concussion can be hard to diagnose and track. It doesn't show up on routine brain scans, and there is no definitive diagnostic test. New research could lead to urine 'biomarkers' that could be used to diagnose concussion and monitor recovery. Using proteomics, researchers compared urine samples from college athletes with and without concussion. Two proteins thought to be involved in brain injury repair emerged as reliable concussion predictors.