Brain

In animals, the brain (enkephale) (Greek for “in the skull”), is the control center of the central nervous system, responsible for behavior. The brain is located in the head, protected by the skull and close to the primary sensory apparatus of vision, hearing, equilibrioception (balance), sense of taste, and olfaction (smell).

Cholesterol drug statins may reduce heart’s atrial fibrillation

Special issue of JACC features intriguing link between statins and Atrial Fibrillation (AF) prevention, tools to ensure the highest-quality AF care, and more. – When we’re young, a racing heart often means love is in the air. If you’re a “baby boomer,” it might mean you’ve just joined the 2.2 million Americans who have atrial fibrillation (AF), an irregularity in the heart’s rhythm that grows more common as we age and markedly increases the risk for stroke.

Do animals think like autistic savants?

Autism gives special insight into the inner workings of the animal mind. – When Temple Grandin argued that animals and autistic savants share cognitive similarities in her best-selling book Animals in Translation (2005), the idea gained steam outside the community of cognitive neuroscientists.

Music listening improves stroke patients’ recovery

Music listening improves stroke patients’ recovery

Listening to music in the early stages after a stroke can improve patients’ recovery, according to new research published online in the medical journal Brain – Researchers from Finland found that if stroke patients listened to music for a couple of hours a day, their verbal memory and focused attention recovered better and they had a more positive mood than patients who did not listen to anything or who listened to audio books.

Stem cells may aid stroke recovery

Human embryonic stem cell-based therapies have the potential to help treat stroke disease. – Neural cells derived from human embryonic stem cells helped repair stroke-related damage in the brains of rats and led to improvements in their physical abilities, according to a new study by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine.

Herpes virus link to complications in pregnancy

Exposure to viral infection – especially viruses of the herpes group – may be associated with pregnancy-induced hypertensive disease (pre-eclampsia) and also with pre-term birth. – Viral infection with high blood pressure during pregnancy may lead to pre-term birth, revealed by researchers at Adelaide’s Women’s & Children’s Hospital and the University of Adelaide.

Heavy cell phone users subject to cancers

Cell Phone – Cancer Link Found by Tel Aviv University Scientist; A new study finds an association between heavy cell phone use and tumors – An Israeli scientist, Dr. Siegal Sadetzki, has found a link between cell phone usage and the development of tumors. Dr. Sadetzki, a physician, epidemiologist and lecturer at Tel Aviv University, published the results of a study recently in the American Journal of Epidemiology, in which she and her colleagues found that heavy cell phone users were subject to a higher risk of benign and malignant tumors of the salivary gland.

New MS drug rituximab shows promise for multiple sclerosis

Genentech Inc. and Biogen Idec Inc.’s cancer drug Rituxan (rituximab) reduced brain lesions in multiple sclerosis patients. – A drug therapy, using rituximab, dramatically reduced the number of inflammatory lesions that form along nerve fibers in brains of multiple sclerosis patients, revealed by researchers recently.

Stress in pregnancy may lead to schizophrenia in offspring

This population-based study suggests that severe stress to a mother during the first trimester may alter the risk of schizophrenia in offspring. This finding is consistent with ecological evidence from whole populations exposed to severe stressors and suggests that environment may influence neurodevelopment at the feto-placental-maternal interface. – Most societies believe that a mother’s psychological state can influence her unborn baby. Children of women who undergo an extremely stressful event-such as the death of a close relative-during the first trimester of pregnancy appear more likely to develop schizophrenia, according to a report in the February issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Pfizer’s anti smoking Chantix latest safety information

Pfizer’s anti smoking Chantix latest safety information

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a Public Health Advisory to alert health care providers, patients, and caregivers to new safety warnings concerning Chantix (varenicline), a prescription medication used to help patients stop smoking. – Chantix (varenicline), a prescription medication used to help patients stop smoking reported to have certain adverse effects like changes in behavior, agitation, depressed mood, suicidal ideation, and actual suicidal behavior. US FDA issued a Public Health Advisory to alert health care providers, patients, and caregivers.

Research suggests why scratching is so relieving

Researchers at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center have uncovered new clues about why scratching may be so relieving ? and why it can be hard to stop. – Researchers at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center have uncovered new clues about why scratching may be so relieving ? and why it can be hard to stop. This is the first study to use imaging technology to see what goes on in the brain when we scratch.

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