Category Archives: Neuroscience

Neuroscience

How Exercise May Support the Aging Brain – The New York Times

Rodent exercise also slows or halts aging-related declines in the animals brains, studies show, in part by strengthening specialized cells called microglia. Little understood until recently, microglial cells are now known to be the brains resident immune cells and hall monitors. They watch for signs of waning neuronal health and, when cells in decline are spotted, release neurochemicals that initiate an inflammatory response. Inflammation, in the short-term, helps to clear away the problem cells and any other biological debris. Afterward, the microglia release other chemical messages that calm the inflammation, keeping the brain healthy and tidy and the animals thinking intact.

But as animals age, recent studies have found, their microglia can start to malfunction, initiating inflammation but not subsequently quieting it, leading to continuous brain inflammation. This chronic inflammation can kill healthy cells and cause problems with memory and learning, sometimes severe enough to induce a rodent version of Alzheimers disease.

Unless the animals exercise. In that case, post-mortem exams of their tissues show, the animals brains typically teem with healthy, helpful microglia deep into old age, displaying few signs of continuous brain inflammation, while the elderly rodents themselves retained a youthful ability to learn and remember.

We are not mice, though, and while we have microglia, scientists had not previously found a way to study whether being physically active as we age or not would influence the inner workings of microglial cells. So, for the new study, which was published in November in the Journal of Neuroscience, scientists affiliated with Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, the University of California, San Francisco, and other institutions, turned to data from the ambitious Rush Memory and Aging Project. For that study, hundreds of Chicagoans, most in their 80s at the start, completed extensive annual thinking and memory tests and wore activity monitors for at least a week. Few formally exercised, the monitors showed, but some moved around or walked far more often than others.

Many of the participants died as the study continued, and the researchers examined stored brain tissues from 167 of them, searching for lingering biochemical markers of microglial activity. They wanted to see, in effect, whether peoples microglia appeared to have been perpetually overexcited during their final years, driving brain inflammation, or been able to dial back their activity when appropriate, blunting inflammation. The researchers also looked for common biological hallmarks of Alzheimers disease, like the telltale plaques and tangles that riddle the brain. Then they crosschecked this data with information from peoples activity trackers.

The rest is here:
How Exercise May Support the Aging Brain - The New York Times

Neuroscience

Pandemic worriers shown to have impaired general cognitive abilities – McGill Newsroom

The impairments observed may explain poor decisions about COVID-prevention measures

The COVID-19 pandemic has tested our psychological limits. Some have been more affected than others by the stress of potential illness and the confusion of constantly changing health information and new restrictions. A new study finds the pandemic may have also impaired peoples cognitive abilities and altered risk perception, at a time when making the right health choices is critically important.

Scientists at McGill University and The Neuro (Montreal Neurological Institute-Hospital) surveyed more than 1,500 Americans online from April to June, 2020. Participants were asked to rate their level of worry about the COVID-19 pandemic and complete a battery of psychological tests to measure their basic cognitive abilities like processing and maintaining information in mind. The data were then compared to results of the same tests collected before the pandemic.

For example, participants completed an information processing test where they were asked to match pairs of digits and symbols according to a fixed rule. Participants risk attitudes were measured using an economic decision task where they made a series of hypothetical choices between a certain option (e.g., a sure win of $75), and a risky option (e.g. a 25 per cent chance of winning $0 and a 75 per cent chance of winning $100).

The researchers found that those who experienced more pandemic-related worry had reduced information processing speed, ability to retain information needed to perform tasks, and heightened sensitivity to the odds they were given when taking risks. The pandemic group performed more poorly on the simple cognitive tasks than the pre-pandemic group. Also, participants in the last wave of data collection showed slower processing speed, lower ability to maintain goals in mind, and were more sensitive to risk than those in the first wave.

Interestingly, the study found that pandemic worry predicted individuals tendency to distort described risk levels: underweighting likely probabilities and overweighting unlikely probabilities. This suggests that worry related to COVID may have affected peoples decision-making style, which is crucial as it may influence peoples decisions about getting a COVID-19 vaccine.

The basic cognitive abilities measured here are crucial for healthy daily living and decision-making, says Kevin da Silva Castanheira, a graduate student in McGills Department of Psychology and the studys first author. The impairments associated with worry observed here suggest that under periods of high stress, like a global pandemic, our ability to think, plan, an evaluate risks is altered. Understanding these changes are critical as managing stressful situations often relies on these abilities.

The impact of stress and of worry on cognitive function are well known, but are typically studied in the laboratory setting, says Dr. Madeleine Sharp, a researcher and neurologist at The Neuro and study author. Here, were able to extend these findings by studying the effects of a real-world stressor in a large sample. An important future direction will be to examine why some people are more sensitive than others to stress and to identify coping strategies that help to protect from the effects of stress.

This study, published in the open access journal PLOS ONE, was funded with the help of a Canada Discovery Grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Canada Foundation for Innovation, Fonds de Recherche du Qubec Sant, and the G. W. Stairs Fund.

The Neuro

The Neuro The Montreal Neurological Institute-Hospital is a bilingual, world-leading destination for brain research and advanced patient care. Since its founding in 1934 by renowned neurosurgeon Dr. Wilder Penfield, The Neuro has grown to be the largest specialized neuroscience research and clinical center in Canada, and one of the largest in the world. The seamless integration of research, patient care, and training of the worlds top minds make The Neuro uniquely positioned to have a significant impact on the understanding and treatment of nervous system disorders. In 2016, The Neuro became the first institute in the world to fully embrace the Open Science philosophy, creating the Tanenbaum Open Science Institute. The Montreal Neurological Institute is a McGill University research and teaching institute. The Montreal Neurological Hospital is part of the Neuroscience Mission of the McGill University Health Centre.

See the original post:
Pandemic worriers shown to have impaired general cognitive abilities - McGill Newsroom

Neuroscience

Coffee and Cognitive Decline; Head Impact Injuries; Alzheimer’s Gene Therapy? – MedPage Today

Higher coffee consumption was tied to slower cognitive decline and less cerebral amyloid-beta accumulation over 126 months, an Australian study showed. (Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience)

Physical activity may promote synaptic and cognitive resilience by reducing pro-inflammatory microglial states. (Journal of Neuroscience)

Housework was linked to higher attention and memory scores and better sensorimotor function in older adults, independent of other types of regular physical activity. (BMJ Open)

White matter hyperintensities may capture long-term pathologies from repetitive head impacts, a study of deceased football players and other men suggested. (Neurology)

Also in Neurology: Danish epilepsy patients under age 50 had a nearly fourfold increased risk of all-cause mortality than their counterparts without epilepsy.

Japan's Kazuo Hasegawa, MD, PhD, a dementia researcher who later was diagnosed with the disease, died in Tokyo at age 92. (Wall Street Journal)

The Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) verbal component did not significantly contribute to total GCS score in mortality prediction of non-intubated encephalopathic patients. (Neurology)

To help people with long COVID, researchers need to decide which of 200 reported symptoms to study, a Wired writer observed.

Compared with placebo, teriflunomide (Aubagio) showed no significant difference in time to first confirmed clinical relapse in children with relapsing multiple sclerosis, the TERIKIDS study showed. (Lancet Neurology)

Gene-editing pioneer David Liu, PhD, of the MIT-Harvard Broad Institute, is investigating a possible therapy that installs a protective gene to prevent Alzheimer's disease. (Insider)

Judy George covers neurology and neuroscience news for MedPage Today, writing about brain aging, Alzheimers, dementia, MS, rare diseases, epilepsy, autism, headache, stroke, Parkinsons, ALS, concussion, CTE, sleep, pain, and more. Follow

Go here to see the original:
Coffee and Cognitive Decline; Head Impact Injuries; Alzheimer's Gene Therapy? - MedPage Today

Neuroscience

Putting Brains on the Witness Stand – The Regulatory Review

Neuroscientific evidence in the courtroom may test judges and standards of admissibility.

As the United States continues to bear witness to high-profile episodes of police violence, many have wondered: What was that officer thinking?

Although it might seem as if we can never know for sure, neuroscience has already entered criminal courtrooms, with some lawyers extolling the disciplines ability to peer into the subconscious. According to its proponents, neuroscientific evidence has the potential to promote just outcomes by making it easier to determine whether someone is lying.

Skeptics argue that neuroscientific evidence presents a host of concerns, including privacy and due process rights. Many neuroscientists point to a more basic issue.

Despite advances in understanding the human brain, neuroscience has yet to decipher the workings of mind. Technologies exist that produce accurate inferences about what someone is thinking. But devices that can actually read intentions and memoriesdevices that could probe a violent police officers mindare still the stuff of science fiction. For now, it largely remains up to judges to regulate what kinds of neuroscientific evidence make it into court.

The most common kind of neuroscientific evidencesometimes called neurobiological evidenceis information about a defendants brain health and function. This information usually takes the form of brain scans, neuropsychological tests, or medical history records. A physician or other expert can testify that a particular scan, test, or record indicates that a defendant is physically unable to form the requisite intent for the charged offense or as mitigating evidence at sentencing.

The connection between neurobiological evidence and the ultimate issue of a defendants mental state raises difficult questions. For example, even though a brain scan may be able to show, with high accuracy, that a certain defendant has significant brain damage, does this mean that the defendant is legally insane? The answer may depend on the location and extent of the brain damage, but it will also depend on how the judge construes the definition of legal insanity. Can the legal concept of recklessness be matched with a specific pattern of brain activity? Should neuropsychological tests influence determinations of a teenagers culpability?

Forensic neuroscience may present even thornier questions. This variety of neuroscientific evidence derives from EEG-based technologies which measure specific brain signals associated with memory recognition to detectat least in theorywhether a suspect has hidden knowledge of a crime. After decades on the fringe of neuroscience, brain fingerprinting may be poised to attain mainstream status in the near future.

It is largely up to trial judges to untangle these questions about the proper role of neuroscience in the courtroom. In the United States, the Federal Rules of Evidence and their state law counterparts regulate kinds of information that lawyers can introduce at trial. Expert testimony, such as neuroscientific evidence, is further governed by standards derived from two U.S. Supreme Court cases: Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals and Frye v. United States. Both standards serve as guidelines for weeding out unreliable scientific, technical, or otherwise specialized evidence.

The Daubert standard obliges judges to look at factors such as whether the method or theory used to generate the evidence has been tested, whether there is published peer-reviewed work about it, its error rate, whether there are any standards of operation, and whether it is generally accepted in the relevant field. Federal courts and many states use the Daubert standard.

Some states retain the older Frye standard, which simply requires judges to determine whether the method or theory is generally accepted in the relevant field. Of course, judges must also determine whether experts are qualified and whether their information is helpful to the trier of fact.

Many kinds of neurobiological evidencescans, tests, and medical recordshave a good chance of satisfying the Daubert test. They are well-validated, the subject of peer-reviewed work, tend to have low error rates, and have extensive and detailed standards of operation. Even brain fingerprinting may stand a chance; one U.S. court has already admitted it as evidence in a criminal case.

Yet Daubert, Frye, and related evidence rules have failed to catch faulty scientific evidence. In 2009, the National Academy of Sciences released a report calling for a reevaluation of commonly admitted forensic techniques, such as bite mark and fingerprint analyses. Despite widespread belief in their reliability, the Academy report indicated that few had solid scientific foundations. Indeed, over a hundred people convicted on the basis of these unreliable techniques have been exonerated.

Since the reports publication, various states and organizations have taken steps to remedy the use of bad science in criminal cases. Under Daubert and Frye, however, trial judges remain the final arbiters of what constitutes acceptable expert testimony. The Supreme Court has clarified that appellate courts should review decisions on the admissibility of expert testimony for abuse of discretiona low bar to clear.

Most neuroscientific evidence does rest on solid scientific foundations. And some studies have found that jurors, once thought to be easily swayed by the mere hint of science, may not find information about a defendants brain especially persuasive.

Since neurolaw is still an infant field, little empirical research exists on the potential limits and risks of putting brains on the witness stand for experts (and judges) to draw upon. Even if the science itself is not faulty, lawyers may call experts who overstate what that science can prove or frame a hotly debated opinion as the fields consensus.

These issues may not be unique to neuroscientific evidence. Toxic tort litigation, for example, is often a battle of the experts. Nevertheless, neuroscientific evidence carries distinctive risks. Being able to uncover that police officers memoriesor those of a robbery witness, or a teenage defendantcould be the difference between guilty and not guilty. That is a lot of stress to put on judges brains.

Here is the original post:
Putting Brains on the Witness Stand - The Regulatory Review

Neuroscience

Neuroscience research finds brain structure differences in men and women are not strongly linked to behavioral differences – PsyPost

Brain structure differences in men and women are only weakly linked to behavioral differences, according to new research that analyzed two large independent brain imaging datasets. The findings have been published in the journal Psychological Science.

The presence of sex differences in human behavior is well documented, but whether these behavioral differences are related to differences in male and female brain structure has been unclear. Previous research has indicated that sex differences in brain structure are, in fact, related to sex differences in behavior. But the new findings provide evidence that this relationship is mostly driven by brain size.

My background in neuropsychology and neuroimaging made me interested in this topic, i.e., whether sex differences in the brain are related to sex differences in behavior, explained study author Liza van Eijk, a psychology lecturer at James Cook University.

Sex differences have been found for behavior, for example, on average better visuospatial skills for males than females, and vice versa, on average better empathy skills found for females than males. Sex differences have also been found for disease and mental disorders, such as the higher prevalence for autism spectrum disorder in males vs. females, and vice versa, higher prevalence for depression in females vs. males.

In addition, several sex differences have been found in the brain, such as that male brains are on average 10-15% larger than female brains. The question that remained was whether sex differences in behavior could be related to sex differences in the brain, and if so, this relationship could provide insights for disorders that have shown sex differences.

The researchers used data from the Human Connectome Project and the Queensland Twin IMaging Study to examine individual differences in male and female brain structure. Both the Human Connectome Project and Queensland Twin IMaging Study used high-quality imaging technology to measure brain structure.

The studies also collected a variety of physical, neurocognitive, and behavioral data from participants, including but not limited to body mass index, intelligence, working memory performance, personality traits, and psychiatric symptoms. The combined sample included data from 2,153 adults.

To eliminate societal and cultural factors that could influence sex differences in behavior, van Eijk and her colleagues examined brain differences among individuals of the same-sex. In other words, they separately compared women to other women and compared men to other men.

Considering that women and men are subject to differential societal and cultural norms, we examined individual differences in brain structure along a male-female dimension, separately for each sex, van Eijk told PsyPost.

Depending on differences in genetic predispositions as well as exposure and sensitivity to sex hormones, some men will develop a more female-like brain whereas other men will develop a more male-like brain, and vice versa for women. Next, we also examined behavioral differences (such as personality and cognition) along a male-female dimension. Then, we looked at whether these brain and behavioral differences along a male-female dimension were related to one another.

The researchers found a statistically significant association between brain differences and behavioral differences, but the association disappeared after accounting for differences in brain size.

We (only) found a weak relationship between brain and behavioral sex differences, showing that brain structure differences in men and women are not strongly linked to behavioral differences and that likely many other factors play a role in behavioral sex differences, van Eijk explained. In addition, the weak relationship was mostly explained by differences in brain size, suggesting that future research examining the link between brain and behavior needs to carefully consider differences in brain size.

The study included a number of strengths, including its relatively large sample size. But, as with all research, the findings include a few caveats.

This is a correlational study, so therefore we cannot conclude anything about the direction of the effect, van Eijk told PsyPost. Further research is needed to determine whether sex (but also gender) differences in brain and behavior are the result of a common factor (e.g. masculinization of the brain early during gestation) and/or whether sex differences in the brain influence behavior, and/or vice versa, how these differences in behavior influence the brain.

In addition, it is unclear whether this relationship between sex differences in brain and behavior changes across the lifespan, in particular of interest are periods such as puberty and menopause, periods characterized by significant changes in sex hormone levels.

I believe it is important not to ignore sex differences in research, no matter how small, as examining these could provide new clues for behavior and disease showing sex differences in their prevalence or symptom expression, van Eijk added. However, it is important to acknowledge that individual differences are often larger than the sex differences observed and that sex differences found (whether in brain or behavior) do not provide any evidence for which sex is most superior.

The study, Are Sex Differences in Human Brain Structure Associated With Sex Differences in Behavior?, was authored by Liza van Eijk, Dajiang Zhu, Baptiste Couvy-Duchesne, Lachlan T. Strike, Anthony J. Lee, Narelle K. Hansell, Paul M. Thompson, Greig I. de Zubicaray, Katie L. McMahon, Margaret J. Wright, and Brendan P. Zietsch.

Read more:
Neuroscience research finds brain structure differences in men and women are not strongly linked to behavioral differences - PsyPost

Neuroscience

How does the brain create our perception of reality? – EurekAlert

WASHINGTON, D.C. New findings from studies in both people and animals are revealing clues about how sensory information and cognitive processes interact in the brain to produce our perception of the world. The findings were presented at Neuroscience 2021, the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience and the worlds largest source of emerging news about brain science and health.

Sensory inputs, such as sights, sounds, and touches, yield rich information about the external world. But our perception and interpretation of sensations are heavily shaped by cognitive processes such as attention, expectation, and memory. A better understanding of the neural basis of perceptual phenomena will help clarify both ordinary experiences such as the ability to pick a single voice out of a noisy background and disorders in which perception is altered such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, autism, schizophrenia, and Alzheimers disease.

Todays new findings show:

The neuroscience findings presented today demonstrate the importance of comparative brain studies in long-standing issues in human perception and cognition, said Sabine Kastner, a professor at Princeton University who studies visual perception and attention. These advances show how research in different model systems can come together to inform our understanding of the human brain, from the neurobiological mechanisms of perception to our subjective perceptual experiences.

This research was supported by national funding agencies including the National Institutes of Health and private funding organizations. Find out more about sensory perception and the brain on BrainFacts.org.

Mechanisms of Perception Press Conference Summary

PV Neurons Enhance Cortical Coding in the Cocktail Party Problem

Kamal Sen, kamalsen@bu.edu, Abstract P442.10

Body Ownership and the Neural Processes of Memory Encoding and Reinstatement

Heather Iriye, heather.iriye@ki.se, Abstract P505.02

The Neural Bases of Simulation in the Primate Brain

David Sheinberg, David_Sheinberg@brown.edu, Abstract P775.01

Closed-loop EEG-TMS Modulation of Frontal-occipital Communication Enhances Visual Perception

Nitzan Censor, censornitzan@tauex.tau.ac.il, Abstract P767.09

###

About the Society for Neuroscience

The Society for Neuroscience is the world's largest organization of scientists and physicians devoted to understanding the brain and nervous system. The nonprofit organization, founded in 1969, now has nearly 37,000 members in more than 90 countries and over 130 chapters worldwide.

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.

Go here to see the original:
How does the brain create our perception of reality? - EurekAlert

Neuroscience

Harvard Neuroscientists Explore the Science of Acupuncture – SciTechDaily

Researchers have discovered neurons needed for acupunctures anti-inflammatory response,

Acupuncture is a traditional Chinese technique that has been used for millennia to treat chronic pain and other health problems associated with inflammation, yet the scientific basis of the technique remains poorly understood.

Now, a team of researchers led by neuroscientists at Harvard Medical School has elucidated the underlying neuroanatomy of acupuncture that activates a specific signaling pathway.

In a study conducted in mice and published October 13, 2021, in Nature, the team identified a subset of neurons that must be present for acupuncture to trigger an anti-inflammatory response via this signaling pathway.

The scientists determined that these neurons occur only in a specific area of the hindlimb regionthus explaining why acupuncture in the hindlimb works, while acupuncture in the abdomen does not.

This study touches on one of the most fundamental questions in the acupuncture field: What is the neuroanatomical basis for body region, or acupoint, selectivity? said lead investigator Qiufu Ma, HMS professor of neurobiology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

One area of particular interest to the research team is the so-called cytokine stormthe rapid release of large quantities of cytokines that frequently drives severe, systemic inflammation, and can be triggered by many things, including COVID-19, cancer treatment, or sepsis.

This exuberant immune response is a major medical problem with a very high fatality rate of 15 percent to 30 percent, Ma said. Even so, drugs to treat cytokine storm are lacking.

In recent decades, acupuncture has been increasingly embraced in Western medicine as a potential treatment for inflammation.

In this technique, acupoints on the bodys surface are mechanically stimulated, triggering nerve signaling that affects the function of other parts of the body, including organs.

In a 2014 study, researchers reported that electroacupuncture, a modern version of traditional acupuncture that uses electrical stimulation, could reduce cytokine storm in mice by activating the vagal-adrenal axisa pathway wherein the vagus nerve signals the adrenal glands to release dopamine.

In a study published in 2020, Ma and his team discovered that this electroacupuncture effect was region specific: It was effective when given in the hindlimb region, but did not have an effect when administered in the abdominal region. The team hypothesized that there may be sensory neurons unique to the hindlimb region responsible for this difference in response.

In their new study, the researchers conducted a series of experiments in mice to investigate this hypothesis. First, they identified a small subset of sensory neurons marked by expression of the PROKR2Cre receptor. They determined that these neurons were three to four times more numerous in the deep fascia tissue of the hindlimb than in the fascia of the abdomen.

Then the team created mice that were missing these sensory neurons. They found that electroacupuncture in the hindlimb did not activate the vagal-adrenal axis in these mice. In another experiment, the team used light-based stimulation to directly target these sensory neurons in the deep fascia of the hindlimb.

This stimulation activated the vagal-adrenal axis in a manner similar to electroacupuncture. Basically, the activation of these neurons is both necessary and sufficient to activate this vagal-adrenal axis, Ma said.

In a final experiment, the scientists explored the distribution of the neurons in the hindlimb. They discovered that there are considerably more neurons in the anterior muscles of the hindlimb than in the posterior muscles, resulting in a stronger response to electroacupuncture in the anterior region.

Based on this nerve fiber distribution, we can almost precisely predict where electrical stimulation will be effective and where it will not be effective, Ma explained.

Together, these results provide the first concrete, neuroanatomic explanation for acupoint selectivity and specificity, Ma added. They tell us the acupuncture parameters, so where to go, how deep to go, how strong the intensity should be.

He noted that while the study was done in mice, the basic organization of neurons is likely evolutionarily conserved across mammals, including humans.

However, an important next step will be clinical testing of electroacupuncture in humans with inflammation caused by real-world infections such as COVID-19. Ma is also interested in exploring other signaling pathways that could be stimulated by acupuncture to treat conditions that cause excessive inflammation.

We have a lot of tough chronic diseases that still need better treatments, he said, such as inflammatory bowel syndrome and arthritis. Another area of need, he added, is excessive immune reactions that can be a side effect of cancer immunotherapy.

Ma hopes that his research will ultimately advance scientific understanding of acupuncture and provide practical information that can be used to improve and refine the technique.

Reference: A neuroanatomical basis for electroacupuncture to drive the vagaladrenal axis by Shenbin Liu, Zhifu Wang, Yangshuai Su, Lu Qi, Wei Yang, Mingzhou Fu, Xianghong Jing, Yanqing Wang and Qiufu Ma, 13 October 2021, Nature.DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-04001-4

The work was primarily supported by the National Institutes of Health (grant R01AT010629), and partially supported by Harvard/MIT Joint Research Grants Program in Basic Neuroscience and the Wellcome Trust (grant 200183/Z/15/Z). For further information on salary support for the researchers, please refer to the paper.

Read more:
Harvard Neuroscientists Explore the Science of Acupuncture - SciTechDaily

Neuroscience

Whats the connection between migraine headaches and military service? – Norton Healthcare

Jeremy Jackson has served five tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. Over the years Jeremy has survived mortar blasts, roadside bomb attacks and a Humvee rollover. Now posted to Fort Knox, Kentucky, as an operations supervisor, Jeremy is one of many whose military service appears connected to headaches and migraine.

The Department of Veterans Affairs reports that veterans are more likely to experience migraine and headaches than non-veterans. Nearly a third of veterans who served a one-year deployment to Iraq were diagnosed with migraine or showed signs of the condition.

Jeremy started developing migraine after a roadside bomb attack in 2008. The issue got progressively worse, and by 2011, he experienced several migraine attacks per month.

Now, I average anywhere from one to three migraine [episodes] a week, and I have headaches every single day, he said. The only thing I can do is go lie down. When the migraine really kicks in, theres a tendency of getting cold sweats, the throbbing and all that in your head, and then it makes you nauseous, and then I start throwing up.

Brian M. Plato, D.O., headache neurologist with Norton Neuroscience Institute, is seeing more and more service members in the Norton Neuroscience Institute Headache Center.

We have a lot of veterans who are referred into our practice, and they all have very different, but similar stories, Dr. Plato said. Many had exposures to a direct head injury, or many of them are around a lot of blasts. I think a lot of people dont understand the consequences of being near a blast.

Many dont recognize that their brain was affected, so it can be months or years before they get treatment, according to Dr. Plato.

Our providers of migraine and headache care are now available with Norton Telehealth and shorter wait times for appointments.

Call (502) 899-6782

Over the past several years, new migraine medications have become available. Preventive treatments for migraine can include oral medications, monthly injections and Botox, which is done every three months. There also are medications that can ease the symptoms once a migraine strikes.

Jeremy, who also has been diagnosed with an acquired brain injury, takes medication and receives Botox for his migraine symptoms. The treatment helps, but the condition is still an issue for him.

With the Botox, I probably have one migraine a week instead of three or four, he said.

While the medication doesnt always stop a migraine once it starts, it often will prevent the nausea and vomiting.

Even with medications and current treatments, theres still no cure for migraine. But Dr. Plato is optimistic, as interest in the condition is growing.

I wish that I could say that there was some revolutionary treatment that was just around the corner, but that wouldnt be true, he said. Treatments that have been developed over the past several years are making researchers recognize that this is a condition with a high level of disability that affects many people. And so I think that youre going to see significant progress on this over the next five to 10 years.

For Jeremy and his fellow service members who experience migraine attacks, that progress cant come soon enough.

Fighting overseas, I never thought I would end up with an enemy in my own head, he said. And I know many others in the same boat. We just want it to get better.

Continued here:
Whats the connection between migraine headaches and military service? - Norton Healthcare

Neuroscience

Understanding the brain: Why we sleep, dream, and remember – Iowa Now

While packing boxes to move to Iowa City in 2017, Ted Abel found a paper from his high school AP biology course. On it was a comment from his teacher saying they hoped he would maintain his interest inneurophysiology.

It reminded the University of Iowas Roy J. Carver Chair in Neuroscience just how long ago he became interested in the mysteries of thebrain.

It was very early on that I became interested in neuroscience, says Abel. Its astounding that no matter how complex it is, the brain gives rise to Jackson Pollock paintings, to novels, andphilosophy.

A native of the Philadelphia area, Abel applied to Swarthmore College at 16. He said his desired profession was neurochemist, but since there was no neuroscience course or major then, Abel didnt take a direct route into thefield.

I got interested in chemistry and physics first. It was that side of science and the ability to understand nature in quantitative terms that fascinated me, saysAbel.

A livestream of the lecture will be available here.

Abel graduated from Swarthmore College with a degree in chemistry in 1985. He continued his education at Cambridge and completed his PhD at Harvard, learning from several world-renowned scientists on theway.

I am thankful for my education and especially my mentors, says Abel. I was a Marshall scholar in Cambridge with Tim Hunt, learning some early molecular biology, and then in my PhD I worked with Tom Maniatis, who is considered the father of molecular biology. I was able to bring these molecular approaches into neuroscience as a postdoc when I worked with Eric Kandel at Columbia University. Both Tim Hunt and Eric Kandel went on to win the Nobel Prize in the early2000s.

It wasnt until later in his education that he began to ponder larger, more philosophical questions about the brain. Why do we sleep? Why do we dream? How do weremember?

Abel brought those questions with him to the University of Pennsylvania in 1998, where he began working as an assistant professor, eventually running one of the countrys oldest neuroscienceprograms.

Abel found a unique opportunity to further his research on sleep and memory in Iowa City, where he moved in 2018, as founding director of the Iowa NeuroscienceInstitute.

We have a university that has a century-old tradition of neuroscience research, education, and clinical care, says Abel. Former UI Dean Carl Seashore was one of the few people at a meeting for Freuds only visit to the United States. Its an extraordinarily collaborative neuroscience community at the University of Iowa, ranging from psychology to pharmacology topsychiatry.

When Abel presents the UIs 38th Presidential Lecture on Nov. 7, he will discuss research that is more than two decades in themaking.

One of the things Im trying to get across is the way in which our knowledge of memory and of sleep enables us to answer questions that philosophers have asked for centuries, Abelsays.

Abel, professor and chair of the Department of Neuroscience and Pharmacology in the UI Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine and director of the Iowa Neuroscience Institute, will deliver a lecture titled Its not a dream, its a memory, at 3:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 7, in the Iowa Memorial Union MainLounge.

Why is sleep and the brain an important topic to discuss in yourlecture?

Whats interesting is that there still is a view that sleep is for the weak and if you just suck it up, you can get through it. The thing weve found is that youcant.

I will talk about some experiments in mice where we are able to manipulate molecules in the brain to make them resistant to sleep deprivation. Normally sleep loss would impair memory, but if we rewire the brain, we can train animals, sleep deprive them, and their memory is notimpaired.

The other thing people dont realize is that the impact of staying awake all night is not just that youre going to have trouble the next day. Its that as youre sleep deprived, your body has metabolic, cognitive, and immunechallenges.

What challenges are still ahead in understanding the role of sleep andmemory?

The real challenge we have is translational researchgoing from the bench to the bedside. We have done really well from the bedside to the bench. If we have a patient that has an alteration in a particular gene or a problem in an area, we can model it at the bench, but coming back to treatments has been moredifficult.

One of the reasons that is an issue with neurological, psychiatric, and neurodevelopmental conditions is that they occur across the lifespan and we dont have a marker or a sign that signals future conditions or complications. We have made dramatic improvements in our treatment of heart disease, for example. That is not necessarily because we can better measure plaque in arteries; its because we know that hypertension 10 years before is a marker of developing heartdisease.

In the brain, we dont have those measures that signal future conditions. However, sleep may be one of those measures to help us identify neurological, psychiatric, and neurodevelopmental conditions in thebrain.

How have humans sleep habits changed over time, and how does this change the way sleep isstudied?

When you look at the 1950s to now, we are sleeping about 1.2 hours less a day now, and the pandemic, with all the related stress, has made that worse. We are way below what health experts say we need. It varies across life and for each person because sleep is not a single phenomenon. In humans, when we first go to sleep at night, we go into non-REM sleep. Thats a deep sleep, and later in the night you have REM sleep, and that is a lighter sleep. We can more easily be woken up from REM sleep. If you always get up early, you are going to lose your REM sleep. You may think you are getting enough sleep, but you might be missing a part and not completing the types of sleep youneed.

What do you hope to convey in your lecture? What do you hope people take away fromit?

Our knowledge of memory and sleep, while built upon the technical advances driven by investments like the Iowa Neuroscience Institute and the BRAIN Initiative, enables us to answer age-old questions that have been with humanity from the beginning: Why do we sleep? Why do we dream? And how do we remember? My lecture will seek to answer some of thosequestions.

What does it mean to you to have been chosen to deliver the presidentiallecture?

Its a tremendous honor. Its a chance to speak to the broad communitystudents, faculty, staff, and also the Iowa City communityand talk generally about the impact that neuroscience has had on our understanding of the brain. Its also a chance to describe the tremendous impact that the Iowa Neuroscience Institute has had on the community since its founding five yearsago.

See original here:
Understanding the brain: Why we sleep, dream, and remember - Iowa Now

Neuroscience

The Neuro Impact Factor – How just a glance at OOH can have a lasting impact – AdNews

The outdoor industry,as restrictions ease and foot traffic increases, is preparing to improve the connectionbetween advertisers and audiences, and provide metrics for measuring impact.

The Neuro Impact Factor, a world first, coming out of the Outdoor Media Associations (OMA) neuroscience study in partnership with Neuro-Insight, will be launched to market in January.

The OMA will be holding its firstOUT-FRONT event on Tuesday, November 9, to talk more about the Neuro Impact Factor and other innovations to be launched in 2022.

The research, using the largest media neuroscience study of its kind, used eye-tracking and brain-imaging technology to provide over one million points of data on how out-of-home (OOH) signs impact the subconscious.

By measuring peak moments in long term memory encoding and emotional intensity in the brain, Neuro-Insight was able to evaluate the effect of an outdoor sign at just a glance.

More than 2,000 people took part in the study and their responses to more than 800 classic and digital signs were recorded and analysed.

Campaigns seen on classic signs fall within the range of memory encoding, similar to a 30 second radio commercial or a 15 second television spot.Adding a digital aspect to an outdoor campaignwill mke it 63% more impactful.

"What we have accomplished in doing this research is going beyond the how many part of the equation that comprises mature media measurement," says Peter Pynta, CEO at Neuro-Insight.

"With the Neuro Impact Factor, we have brought in a quality dimension in a scalable way. We finally have three parts of the triangle of reach, frequency and now impact."

Armed with the Neuro Impact Factors key metrics-- memory and emotion -- the outdoor industry can provide new insights alongside the best-in-class audience measurement found in MOVE, to help agencies and advertisers make scientifically informed decisions when planning their OOH campaigns.

"This research is a game-changer for out-of-home. Not only have we provided undeniable, scientific proof of the subconscious impact of advertising, but we have also shown that just one glance at one of our signs is sufficient for brand messages to elicit an emotional response that encodes into long term memory," saysCharmaine Moldrich, OMA CEO.

"Whats more, it introduces a qualitative measure that will be added in January 2022 to our audience measurement system, MOVE, giving agencies and clients yet another tool to help them plan and buy their out-of-home campaigns."

The findings of the study were launched in September via a virtual event hosted by OMA CEO Charmaine Moldrich and featuring guest speakers Neuro-Insight CEO, Peter Pynta, neuroscience academic Professor Joel Pearson and followed by a Q&A with MOVE 2.0 Lead, Grant Guesdon, Managing Partner of Avenue C and Outdoor Futures Council Chair Pia Coyle, and Head of Out of Home at Dentsu, Emma Hegg.

"This is another step toward attribution and understanding the value of out-of-home," says Moldrich.

"These results will inform the development of a new currency that advertisers and agencies can use alongside reach and frequency reports.

"The Factor will be exclusive to MOVE, and the first qualitative metric in the world to unite validated real-world effectiveness with the quantitative metrics available in the system."

Have something to say on this? Share your views in the comments section below. Or if you have a news story or tip-off, drop us a line at adnews@yaffa.com.au

Sign up to the AdNews newsletter, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for breaking stories and campaigns throughout the day.

Read the rest here:
The Neuro Impact Factor - How just a glance at OOH can have a lasting impact - AdNews