Reporting and commentary on brain science, arts education and immunology. http://www.dana.orgSat, 07 Nov 2009 12:38:35 EDTen-usCopyright 2009, Dana Foundation http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=23754Activity in a specific part of the hippocampus seems to predict who will develop schizophrenia and reflect the severity of symptoms, according to a new study that may pave the way for novel tests and treatments.2009-11-06T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=23752Brain cells spend far less energy sending electrical signals than previously thought, according to a new study that may change the way we look at brain scans.2009-11-05T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=23744At a neuroethics conference in Nova Scotia, panelists advised taking claims about neurotherapy and brain imaging with a grain of salt.2009-11-03T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=23732The condition known as congenital amusia may be caused when a specific connection between the temporal and frontal lobes of the brain is missing or degraded, according to new research.2009-11-02T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=23718Having musical skills can also help people pull out spoken words buried in a thicket of other chatter, a recent study suggests.2009-10-30T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=23710Memory problems occur in most people with heart disease, contradicting the conventional wisdom that heart-lung pumps are the cause, according to recent research.2009-10-26T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=23704Recording fine-grained electrical activity seems to predict a person’s responsiveness to one common drug, in an early trial.2009-10-23T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=23644Two studies outline ambitious methods to coax growth from nerve fibers after spinal cord injury, but also highlight the difficulty of getting around the body’s roadblocks to new nerve formation.2009-10-15T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=23596Walter G. Bradley explains why he thinks everyone should read his new book, why finding the right doctor is essential and how the Internet is changing the doctor-patient relationship.2009-10-08T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=23584Two years after the first human iPS stem-cell lines were created by reprogramming skin cells, researchers have developed lines covering more than 20 human diseases. These lines are helping scientists watch how disease changes cells in real time as well as investigate drugs to combat disease.2009-10-07T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=23540Doctors may soon be using a variety of brain scans to diagnose and treat Alzheimer’s long before major symptoms appear. Several new studies add to evidence that scanning technology is powerful enough to detect minor brain changes that appear early in the course of the disease.2009-10-02T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=23536Scientists are finding that leptin, the hormone that helps amplify feelings of fullness, may also alter pleasure pathways, in a finding that may pave the way for new obesity treatments.2009-10-01T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=23524Huntington’s disease appears to have destroyed, within a decade, grafts of neural tissue given to patients, a finding that adds to evidence that neurodegenerative diseases are less amenable to transplantation treatments than was once thought.2009-09-29T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=23566WILLIAM SAFIRE, 1929 2009 In memorium 2009 09 27 New York Times  William Safire, Political Columnist and Oracle of Language, Dies at 79  With sadness the2009-09-27T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=23506An experimental vaccine protected a modest percentage of people from HIV infection, the first-ever successful results from a vaccine against the virus that causes AIDS.2009-09-25T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=23462Recent research may lead to scientists developing new treatments for multiple sclerosis, writes columnist Ralph Steinman of Rockefeller University.2009-09-23T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=23404Habitual users abstaining from the drug show brain activity similar those addicted to alcohol and opiates, researchers find.2009-09-18T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=23396Dopamine neurons in the brain’s reward system motivate us to seek knowledge for its own sake, according to a new study2009-09-16T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=23372A class of Alzheimer’s drugs still in development may also reduce harmful beta-amyloid deposits that often appear in people who have suffered a traumatic brain injury.2009-09-11T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=23368Strengthening the immune system’s ability to destroy harmful proteins and reducing harmful inflammation once damage does occur both offer promising approaches against Alzheimer’s, according to several recent studies.2009-09-10T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=23352Beyond the conventional approaches of surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, this field desperately needs new ideas and applications. And if there is one area where participation in clinical trials is crucial, this is it, columnist Guy McKhann, M.D., writes.2009-09-08T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=23342People with severe depression see motion better but are worse at perceiving fine details, according to a new study that provides rare insights into how depression directly alters brain function.2009-09-04T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=23282Visual cortex neurons that have been deprived of input quickly start to “see” what neighboring neurons see, according to a new study.2009-09-02T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=23268In June, the first webposium for teaching artists—“Artists in the Classroom: What is the Role of the Teaching Artist?”—provided national and international reach: It drew almost 600 online participants, plus nearly 100 who attended in person.2009-08-31T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=23256Daily caffeine intake not only blocks the onset of dementia in mice, it can reduce symptoms after the fact—but only if consumed in substantial amounts, according to a pair of new studies.2009-08-27T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=23246An ion channel in brain cells opens when exposed to alcohol, according to a new study that offers potential new treatment options for addiction and epilepsy.2009-08-25T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=23216U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan’s Aug. 13 letter emphasizing the importance of arts education and outlining available federal funding may help preserve programs despite budget crises, arts supporters say.2009-08-19T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=23168A brain-imaging study by Swiss researchers highlights the apparent switching of control over the motor cortex during hypnotic “paralysis.”2009-08-14T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=23130Blocking an ion channel on the membrane of neurons can prevent or reduce induced seizures in mice prone to them, researchers find. The results suggest another pathway to creating drugs that could work for the many people with epilepsy who don’t find relief from current medications.2009-08-12T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=23108Older drivers can compensate for the natural declining of their brain's response times by exercising extra caution on the road—and by not multitasking.2009-08-06T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=22928In a Phase III clinical study, an antibody and two hormones that boost the immune system added to standard neuroblastoma treatment improved the chances that children would be cancer-free two years later.2009-08-06T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=22860A rare protein, when paired with the “mutant” huntingtin protein, leads to neuronal havoc in only and exactly the areas affected by Huntington’s disease, according to recent research.2009-08-03T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=22844The amygdala and striatum begin to fire together during learning that involves an emotional component, researchers have found, offering a partial explanation for why we remember some things easily and forget others.2009-07-31T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=22840Aggregates of tau, one of the hallmarks of Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases, may be able to spread in the brain like an infection—and researchers think that a similar mechanism might drive other common neurodegenerative diseases.2009-07-29T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=22836Preliminary results from the first clinical trial of stem cell therapy in the United States—for the treatment of a rare, fatal childhood neurological disorder—show the therapy is safe, but it’s too early to tell if it works.2009-07-28T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=22816A lack of parasitic worms in developed nations may contribute to autoimmune diseases such as Type 1 diabetes, a new genetics survey suggests.2009-07-22T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=22796A new study finds no evidence of mirror neurons in humans—a controversial claim that other experts are challenging both on interpretation and on experimental grounds.2009-07-20T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=22794After sleepers hear a mild noise or feel a light touch, their brain sends an electrical “stay asleep” signal, researchers report. How the sleeper figures out that the interruption is not a dangerous one is still a mystery.2009-07-17T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=22764New research shows how the brain learns smells. For the first time, the process that underlies this learning has been found in the olfactory bulb—but not in the way researchers expected.2009-07-14T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=22762Studies in primates over the past decade are illuminating some of the mysteries of our own speech.2009-07-13T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=22760A new research project aims to identify challenges, opportunities and information about a particularly elusive brand of educator: actors, professional musicians, working dancers and other artists who also juggle K-12 teaching gigs.2009-07-10T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=22740A large genetic study of people with narcolepsy suggests that mutations affecting immune function could lead to the sleep disorder.2009-07-08T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=22728Some psychiatrists argue that compulsive computer use should be added to the next Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V), scheduled for publication in 2012.2009-07-06T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=22722Neuroscience is increasingly pursuing questions about artistic expression even as artists commandeer scientific findings for their performances, panelists said during a recent roundtable.2009-07-02T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=22714Using pulses of light to control the activity of specific types of neurons, researchers can now show precisely how these neurons function in networks in the brain. These optogenetics methods, which use light-sensitive proteins to select and influence a neuron, are driving a wave of discoveries about long-misunderstood neural phenomena.2009-07-01T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=22654Children who have autism continue to use one of the brain’s “new learning” networks during a repetitive finger-tapping exercise when other children have switched mental control to their “automatic” networks, suggests recent research.2009-06-26T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=21760A summit this week aims to address one of the key sticking points in the budding neuroeducation field: how to bridge the large gap between brain scientists and educational researchers. - excerpts from the Dana Press Blog covering neuroeducation.2009-06-24T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=22504Belgian researchers have discovered some of the key neural differences between early risers and night owls.2009-06-23T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=22478A brain-imaging study of people in 58 families has found a pattern of thinning along the brain’s cortex that seems to be linked to the risk of depression.2009-06-22T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=22466Several recent news stories have emphasized the fact that baby boomers are reaching their 60s—an age at which dementia starts to appear in increasing numbers of people. Much less attention has been directed toward another age-related phenomenon: More and more people are living longer, into their 90s and beyond.2009-06-19T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=22474Teaching artists have an ambiguous but important role to play in modern education, panelists told about 600 people during a Web symposium on Friday.2009-06-19T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=22436A recent study shows that being exposed to two languages directly from birth enhances executive function in infants before they begin to talk.2009-06-18T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=22412Researchers find that toddlers diagnosed with autism show an unusual preference for synchrony—movements that match sounds—over movements made by living things. Testing how toddlers at risk for the disability react to movement could help doctors diagnose and treat autism earlier.2009-06-17T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=22398Opportunities to learn music and the visual arts remain similar to 1997 levels, a nationwide arts assessment indicates. But the survey was conducted in early 2008, before the economic crisis reached full swing.2009-06-15T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=22374How our brains react to stress in adulthood may be influenced by if and when we were stressed as children, suggests recent review of research in the area.2009-06-12T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=22338By electrically stimulating the spinal cord, researchers alleviated the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease in rats in a method less invasive than deep brain stimulation.2009-06-10T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=22332The research community lacks a means to translate results from the hundreds of mouse cancer studies that are ready for human application.2009-06-08T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=21982People who fight off HIV more effectively have many different kinds of antibodies against the virus, a finding that suggests that current single-target vaccine attempts may be off-base.2009-06-05T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=22310Using implanted electrodes, researchers for the first time have made real-time measurements of human brain cells’ responses to a fundamental learning signal.2009-06-04T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=22306Children who have had anesthesia two or more times by age 3 may be at a higher risk of developing learning disabilities later, new research suggests. This is the first human study to show such an association; it is not clear if anesthesia is the culprit or if other factors are at play.2009-06-03T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=22270Italian researchers have described a genetic mutation that seems to prevent the development of Alzheimer’s disease unless it is inherited from both parents.2009-05-29T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=22252Researchers and educators must collaborate to identify how arts training will contribute to the cognitive future of children in the 21st century.2009-05-26T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=22104Like a series of Christmas lights, the brain’s decision-making regions work in series, with damage hindering only things further up the line, according to a new study.2009-05-22T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=21860In an autopsy study of 36 people, researchers found that those who died by suicide and were abused or neglected as children had fewer stress-dampening brain receptors than non-abused people who died by suicide or people who died by accident.2009-05-21T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=21858An experiment using sleeping monkeys and an artificial paw suggests that scratching an itch slows down some neurons in the spinal cord—but only if there really is an itch.2009-05-20T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=21908The field of neuroeducation is in its infancy. In the past, many in neuroscience stayed away—the studies didn’t seem feasible. They are still hard to perform, but they can be done. What’s needed is a new type of transition person who can bridge the education and cognitive neuroscience fields.2009-05-18T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=21822Arts education influences learning and other areas of cognition and may deserve a more prominent place in schools, according to a wave of recent neuroscience research.2009-05-14T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=21768Commentary by Mariale Hardiman: The influence of the arts on cognition, thinking, and learning must be part of our  research agenda and become a central focus in educational policy-making.2009-05-12T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=21738Arts education causes “profound changes” in the brain and may improve cognition by enhancing the ability to focus attention, experts said at a recent neuroeducation conference.2009-05-11T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=21762Scientists speculate that arts learning may improve everything from math skills to attention and intelligence. The current research shows modest but promising links.2009-05-11T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=21740Jerome Kagan, Ph.D., of Harvard University, spoke about the importance of arts education in elementary schools during the Learning, Arts, and the Brain conference at Baltimore’s American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore on May 6, 2009. These are his prepared remarks.2009-05-11T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=21636Two groups of researchers have developed methods to create pluripotent stem cells, one using a virus, the other a snip of DNA.2009-05-07T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=21758Across the country, the economic crisis has ravaged state budgets, putting school arts curricula under even greater pressure than before. But educators at Johns Hopkins University hope that a meeting of prominent scientists and teachers can reaffirm the importance of the subjects—and lead to innovative new programs and teaching methods not just for the arts but for other subjects as well.2009-05-05T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=21622We don’t just see through colored glasses, we tweak the color of those spectacles to suit our expectations, suggests a new study of the visual system.2009-05-04T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=21538Giving people a dose of the blood-pressure drug propranolol appears to reduce their unconscious response to a learned fear of spiders, according to a new study.2009-05-01T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=21374As immunologists work to identify the potential virulence of the new swine flu strain and prepare a viable vaccine, outbreaks like these show how much guesswork is involved in producing our annual flu shot.2009-04-29T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=21214The brain draws on more than words, grammar and syntax when trying to decipher speech and writing; it actively anticipates and assumes meaning, according to experts.2009-04-24T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=21212A neuronal pruning process, designed to reduce clutter in the fast-growing brain in the early months of life, may be reactivated during aging to cause the brain-cell destruction seen in Alzheimer’s disease, propose Genentech researchers.2009-04-23T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=21102Moving from the laboratory bench to the operating room, Mahlon DeLong helped pioneer deep brain stimulation for treating movement disorders. Now he believes the technique has potential for many other diseases—and for solving some brain mysteries. Second of two parts.2009-04-17T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=21104On the eve of a symposium in his honor, Mahlon DeLong and colleagues explain how his work helped redefine what we know about the brain’s organization and function and led to startling new treatments for Parkinson’s. First of two parts.2009-04-16T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=21084Autism spectrum disorders may be rooted in a mix of genetic influences and environmental risk factors from early in prenatal development.2009-04-14T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=21078The memory-related brain region is larger in older people who are more aerobically fit, according to a new study. Now researchers are trying to determine if fitness levels cause the increase in volume.2009-04-13T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=21066Practice on working-memory games alters the concentration of dopamine receptors in the brain, suggests new research on healthy young men.2009-04-10T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=21010Mutated mice offer clues to the ear’s feedback system for dampening sounds.2009-04-08T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=20946Cutting calories by 30 percent for three months led to a significant improvement in memory in a group of elderly people, according to recent research.2009-04-03T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=20914Inflammation associated with seizures may make the brain more “leaky,” exacerbating the progression of epilepsy, scientists have discovered.2009-04-02T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=20898Mother rats pass their experience with alcohol to their offspring, who later in life perk up more than usual at the smell, studies suggest.2009-03-31T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=20876An experiment in which subjects had their facial muscles moved by a computer highlights a non-auditory pathway for perceiving speech.2009-03-30T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=20860DBS offers substantial advantages over medication for controlling Parkinson’s symptoms but presents a substantial risk of dangerous surgical complications, suggests a study that may also shed light on the best site for surgery.2009-03-27T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=20252A whiff of the hormone appears to help humans recognize faces of people they have seen, according to new research.2009-03-24T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=20236Using transcranial magnetic stimulation, researchers can trace the influence of attention on visual processing. In a recent study, scientists could see this influence shift between visual processing regions as people shifted their attention from one aspect of an image to another.2009-03-23T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=20190A new study shows that babies can sense when the beat is off, suggesting that rhythm may be innate—or one of the very first things we learn.2009-03-20T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=19742New insights into the death process do not invalidate the commonly used neurological standard, according to a new white paper being discussed March 12 and 13 at a meeting of the President’s Council on Bioethics. But not everyone agrees with the paper’s conclusions.2009-03-12T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=19786A recent investigation accuses an infamous and since-retracted research paper on autism and vaccines of containing falsified data. Scientists agree that vaccines are safe and necessary. Commentary by Guy McKhann, M.D.2009-03-12T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=19714Combining genetic research with brain imaging, some researchers find links between levels of a neurotransmitter and measures of impulsivity and novelty seeking.2009-03-11T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=19678The vitamin we link with strong bones and teeth also seems to perform yeoman work for the immune system. Low levels of vitamin D have been linked to tuberculosis, multiple sclerosis, some cancers, cardiovascular diseases and diabetes.2009-03-09T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=19668A new drug that seems to mimic the effects of melatonin helped reset the sleep pattern of hundreds of study subjects. Whether it works better than melatonin itself is as yet unknown.2009-03-05T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=19662Sodium valproate taken during pregnancy may increase the risk of autism spectrum disorders in children, preliminary research suggests.2009-03-04T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=19590The author of Deep Brain Stimulation chats about the promises of the technology, its ethical implications and the colorful cast of patients and doctors she met while researching the book.2009-02-27T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=19636The nation's arts educators have exhibited creativity and optimism during the largest economic downturn in recent history, helping to buffer arts programs against budget cuts.2009-02-26T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=19618Some researchers seeking genetic clues to psychiatric diseases are looking to the new field of epigenetics, the study of changes in gene expression, not the underlying DNA sequence.2009-02-25T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=19598Scientists have found that simple blood tests can detect the contents of microvesicles—RNA-filled membrane sacs—shed by glioblastoma tumors. These RNAs can co-opt the molecular machinery of nearby cells to help the tumors grow.2009-02-24T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=19542Julia Chartove, a junior at Richard Montgomery High School in Rockville, Md., won the 6th annual D.C. brain bee—the second win as many years from that school.2009-02-20T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=19522The stimulant drug modafinil increases concentration by altering activity in part of the brain stem, a new study reveals.2009-02-18T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=19462A civilization-building game benefits many of the cognitive functions that naturally decline during aging, reveals one of the first studies looking at video games’ effects in older adults.2009-02-13T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/braininthenews/detail.aspx?id=19454The FDA has approved the first stem cell study in humans, to treat spinal cord injury.2009-02-11T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=19446Medical students under four weeks of stress before an exam had attention-shifting deficits and related signs of structural changes to their brains.  Four low-stress weeks after the exam, they were back to normal.2009-02-10T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=19432Recent studies offer a method for stunting the growth of brain tumors and potential new ways to sneak helpful drugs through this protective shield.2009-02-09T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=19404Researchers are now studying whether a single, early molecular mechanism triggers the two characteristic signs of Alzheimer’s in the brain.2009-02-05T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=19394The case of a woman with otherwise normal hearing who cannot recognize voices—including familiar ones such as her daughter’s—may shed light on the brain’s speech-processing centers.2009-02-04T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=19180The ability to grow human motor neurons from stem cells has revealed the importance of neuron-supporting astrocytes in ALS as well as potential new drug targets.2009-02-02T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=19170Babies categorize colors in the right hemisphere of their brains, while adults use their left hemispheres—a switch that may occur just from learning the words for colors, a new study suggests.2009-01-30T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=19164A new study is just the latest in a series suggesting that learning to play a musical instrument can improve a child’s skills in nonmusical cognitive areas.2009-01-28T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=19154An unresponsive car accident victim showed dramatic improvement after six weeks of treatment with transcranial magnetic stimulation. Was it the treatment or coincidence?2009-01-26T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=16898Studying people who stay sharp deep into their later years offers researchers a new angle on the process of diseases of memory and aging.2009-01-14T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=16386Researchers have found that dogs with a neurodegenerative disorder share a gene mutation similar to that for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in humans. Such dogs could be a good model for testing potential ALS therapies.2009-01-12T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=15142Studies of a person with “blindsight” illuminate the processes involved in the conscious perception of color.2009-01-08T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=14790One out of three people living with HIV may have associated neurological disease, from tremors to dementia. Researchers have now identified a route through which the virus wreaks havoc on brain cells.2009-01-05T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=14544Researchers use two forms of brain imaging to describe how dopamine in the amygdala influences anxiety.2008-12-31T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=14398Two new studies suggest that astrocytes—star-shaped glial cells—may directly participate with synapses to aid processes linked to learning and memory.2008-12-30T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=14360Nobel Prize winner Eric Kandel sees promise in a new strain of genetics and psychotherapy, if not new drugs, for psychiatric illnesses.2008-12-29T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=14350Troubled not just at night, insomniacs may be in a “state of hyperarousal” because they don’t have an adequate supply of a certain inhibitory neurotransmitter, according to new research.2008-12-24T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=14322A little of jolt of electricity to the scalp behind the ears appears to improve dexterity, according to a new study. The technique might hold promise for stroke victims and others needing to learn or relearn motor skills.2008-12-23T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=14290People with depression may have a new reason to cheer: In October, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration cleared the first transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) device for treating severe cases of the disorder.2008-12-19T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=14286Recovered memory syndrome may be largely discredited now, but the bad science that allowed that “false disease” to blossom to ruinous effect has infected other areas of psychiatry, including overdiagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder, prominent scientists warned recently.2008-12-17T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=14246A form of interferon may play a deciding role in whether—and where—immune cells attack and injure the central nervous system. This might help explain the range of symptoms different people with multiple sclerosis experience.2008-12-16T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=14244Along with sleep, the 24-hour “circadian” sleep/wake cycle may also be needed to keep memories from fading away, according to a new study.2008-12-15T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=14016New research presented at the Society for Neuroscience meeting reveals aspects of what happens in the brain of someone feeling intense love, as well as the sensory and molecular processes involved in love and mating. Reporting from the 2008 Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting2008-12-12T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=14012For most people, an itch is nothing more than a temporary inconvenience. For others, however, it’s a source of persistent, sometimes crippling irritation for which there is no good treatment. New research, announced in Washington, D.C., in November at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, is providing basic insights into what causes the distinct varieties of itch, how those sensations are transmitted to the brain and how itch and pain differ, bringing the possibility of true relief one step closer.Reporting from the 2008 Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting2008-12-11T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=14222Research Offers Hope for Headache Sufferers 2008 12 10 false Many2008-12-10T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=14018A decision follows what may feel like conscious deliberation, but research suggests that our choices take shape below the threshold of consciousness, with the brain rapidly integrating sensory input, memory and the probability of reward. Moreover, this decision-making machinery is easily disrupted by drugs, sleep deprivation and damage to brain regions essential to the process. Reporting from the 2008 Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting2008-12-10T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=14010Probably the best known effect of addiction on the brain is its subversion of the “mesolimbic” reward-and-motivation circuitry—a mesh of connections that include midbrain neurons that send and receive dopamine and the region known as the striatum. At this year’s Society for Neuroscience meeting, researchers acknowledged that the mesolimbic reward circuit is only one area influenced by addiction; also affected are the insular cortex, or insula, and the prefrontal cortex, which normally mediate self-awareness and help to restrain impulsive behavior.Reporting from the 2008 Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting2008-12-09T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=14020Recent advances in “brain-computer interfaces” include a technique that can distinguish individual finger movements. Reporting from the 2008 Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting2008-12-08T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=14008The growing disparity between public and scientific understanding of “forensic neuroscience” was one of several pressing issues that brought nearly 200 people to Washington, D.C., Nov. 13-14 for the first annual meeting of the Neuroethics Society.2008-12-04T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=13958One of marijuana’s best known side effects is hunger, and the discovery of the brain-cell receptor that mediates this effect has led to the development of nearly a dozen drugs meant to block it and thereby treat obesity. However, it is now clear that CB1, the cannabinoid receptor targeted by these therapies, is responsible for much more than “the munchies,” and tweaking it can do harm as well as good.2008-12-03T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=13966A brain-imaging study supports the growing body of evidence that education levels and some form of intellectual activity can delay the onset and decrease the impact of Alzheimer's disease.2008-12-02T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=13984Arts Chairman Leaves a Proud Legacy in His Wake: I hope the coming changes in Washington will advance and strengthen all of the positive accomplishments at the NEA. The next appointed chairperson after Gioia steps down in January (as described in the Washington Post article “Arts Agency Chairman Is Moving On”) will inherit a revitalized agency. Hopefully, they will recognize Gioia’s legacy as the wind at their back and continue to champion his important vision.2008-12-01T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=13956What we see with our eyes is retouched by attention even before it reaches our visual cortex, suggests a new study.2008-11-28T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=13960Results of a major trial released this month show that the use of the statin rosuvastatin (trade name Crestor) reduced the incidence of fatal and nonfatal stroke by 48 percent, compared with use of a placebo, and lowered the incidence of heart attack. Rosuvastatin lowers the level of general inflammation in the body as well as lowering LDL or “bad” cholesterol, the study showed.2008-11-26T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=13950Researchers have discovered that an enzyme once used to label spinal neurons in laboratory tests also appears to function as a potent and long-lasting treatment for chronic pain, at least in animal tests. Although it is too early to tell whether the same strategy will work in humans, the finding could open up a new approach to pain therapy.2008-11-24T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=13916November column by Guy McKhann: Brain imaging studies, usually with fMRI because it is cheaper, more readily available and faster than PET, are increasingly used in studies of brain behavior. 2008-11-20T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=13822Economists have observed for decades that participants in auctions tend to bid more than is predicted by traditional theories of rational economic behavior. A recent  "neuroeconomics" study in Science, combining modern brain-imaging technology with behavioral experiments, blames this seemingly irrational behavior on an auction’s social context.2008-11-19T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=13878The Mark Morris Dance Group presented their ongoing dance program for Parkinson’s patients Nov. 15 before a workshop audience of scientists and guests at the 2008 Society for Neuroscience meeting in Washington, D.C. The group, headed by renowned dancer and choreographer Mark Morris, has been teaching “Dance for PD” classes for six years at its location in Brooklyn, N.Y., in conjunction with the Brooklyn Parkinson’s Society.Reporting from the 2008 Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting2008-11-18T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=13854Neurologists exploring deep brain stimulation (DBS) treatment face serious ethical challenges because of the technique’s preliminary nature and widespread public misconceptions, experts said at a Nov. 13 public forum on the technique.2008-11-17T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=13850The birth of new neurons throughout life in many brain areas has raised hopes for treating brain diseases by transplanting young, healthy cells into injured or diseased parts of the brain. But it shouldn’t be taken for granted that the replacement neurons will form the right connections, a new study has found.2008-11-16T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=13876Blog reports from the 2008 Neuroethics Society annual meeting, Nov. 13-14 in Washington, D.C.2008-11-15T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=13820Oxygen-carrying blood vessels may also serve as sensors for the immune system, and what they sense may differ depending on where they are in the body, recent research suggests.2008-11-12T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=13698Most people take for granted their ability to listen to a single voice in a space crowded with other voices. But this “cocktail party effect,” a form of selective auditory attention, is far beyond the capability of machine-based auditory systems, and scientists have spent decades trying to understand how the brain accomplishes the feat.2008-11-11T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=13798Paul McHugh outlines his leading role in fighting—and eventually winning against—this recovered memory movement in the Dana Press book Try to Remember: Psychiatry’s Clash Over Meaning, Memory, and Mind. But as he points out in this Q&A with Dana journalist Aalok Mehta, psychiatry is beginning to repeat its mistakes, and both the public and the medical community should take heed of why things went so badly awry 15 years ago.2008-11-10T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=13780One form of extended psychotherapy produces better results than shorter-term therapies, an analysis of 23 studies suggests.2008-11-07T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=13778Delivering an influenza (flu) vaccine deep into the lung may not only increase the body’s immune response to the vaccine but may do so at a far lower dosage, suggests a study by scientists at the University of Melbourne, published in the Sept. 24 issue of Mucosal Immunology.2008-11-06T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=13776A new study suggests that immature neurons in the dentate gyrus could contribute to—and help provide new treatments for—mental disorders such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.2008-11-05T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=13746On Wednesday, October 29, 2008, the Harvard Mahoney Neuroscience Institute presented Emmy Award–winning journalist and interviewer Charlie Rose with the 2008 David Mahoney Prize. The presentation followed a symposium on memory and mental disorders featuring Harvard University provost and neuroscientist Steven Hyman and Nobel Laureate Eric Kandel, moderated by Rose. At the symposium, Kandel introduced the award recipient. The following is his written transcript.2008-11-03T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=13744Memory nourishes human existence and informs every aspect of cognition, but its key role in a wide range of mental disorders—such as post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, addiction and schizophrenia, in addition to Alzheimer’s disease—often goes unreported. Eminent neuroscientists Steven E. Hyman and Eric R. Kandel explored the mysteries and dysfunctions of memory at a symposium Oct. 29 at the Pierre Hotel in New York, organized by the Harvard Mahoney Neuroscience Institute and moderated by Emmy Award–winning journalist Charlie Rose.2008-11-03T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=13722Researchers use a poker game to describe the subliminal instrumental conditioning they have demonstrated for the first time in the human brain.2008-10-31T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=13704Mind over Medicine A New Look at The Placebo Effect -- Studies of the effects of suggestion help researchers map basic brain pathways affecting pain, endurance and response to disease2008-10-30T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=13700In dyslexia, it’s not the words that stump you. It’s the sense, the meaning of the whole sentence. The neurological basis for that disconnect is one of the findings reported in a recent study published in Cerebral Cortex. 2008-10-29T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=13620Scientists are just beginning to get a handle on how to study, diagnose and treat childhood brain disorders such as autism, bipolar disorder and learning disabilities, two prominent researchers in the field said at a panel discussion Oct. 22.2008-10-27T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=13600Elite basketball players possess superior strength, stamina and coordination. They also appear to have highly developed mirror neurons that enable them to anticipate the actions of other players, according to Italian researchers.2008-10-24T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=13578Profit Motive The Business of Neurotech Neuroethics Q&A With Martha Farah — Here she explains how some companies are rushing to cash in on recent neuroscience developments and why that might not be so good for consumers.2008-10-22T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=13560The controversial industrial chemical known as Bisphenol A (BPA), to which most people are routinely exposed, blocks a normal process of synapse formation in the brains of monkeys, even at a dose currently labeled as “safe” by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), report Yale researchers.2008-10-21T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=13514“There are sex differences in the frequencies of a variety of psychiatric and neurologic disorders, which we believe, in part, reflect sex differences in the brain,” says Jill Goldstein. “One also sees sex differences across a number of tissues in the body that we believe are associated with sex differences in the risk for other disorders, such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes.”2008-10-20T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=13524Obesity is associated with a reduced ability to feel “rewarded” by food, especially in people whose reduced sense of reward stems from a particular gene variant, according to a study published Oct. 17 in the journal Science.2008-10-17T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=13512An old Russian antihistamine drug known as Dimebon has arrested the cognitive and behavioral decline of people with Alzheimer’s as measured on standard tests, according to the results of a medium-sized clinical trial in Russia. A larger clinical trial outside Russia is now under way, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has indicated its willingness to accept minimal data from that trial to begin the review and approval process for marketing Dimebon in the United States to people with Alzheimer’s.2008-10-16T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=13482Incidental Findings When Science Stumbles into Medicine Neuroethics Q&A with Judy Illes. Illes is an expert on how to deal with unintentional discoveries of medical conditions when such discoveries crop up during neuroscience research.2008-10-15T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/braininthenews/detail.aspx?id=13506In democracy or brain science, if you’re not participating, don’t complain about what occurs! Commentary by Dr. Guy McKhann.2008-10-14T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=13490Stem cells can drastically reduce the amount of damage following a stroke by limiting the body’s natural “overreaction” to the trauma, a new animal study has found.2008-10-13T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=13476Exhaustive genetic analyses of two of the deadliest types of cancer—including the most common kind of brain tumor—suggest that the disease is far more complicated and varied than previously believed.2008-10-10T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=13426Q&A interview with Steven Hyman: At the inaugural meeting of the Neuroethics Society in November, Steven Hyman provost of Harvard University and a neurobiologist at Harvard Medical School, will speak on how to treat mental illness in children.  2008-10-07T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=13404A postmortem study of Alzheimer’s patients given an amyloid vaccine eight years ago shows that the vaccine cleared amyloid plaques from their brains but failed to reduce the progress of their dementia.2008-10-03T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=13366Long-running studies of Vietnam veterans have shed some light on how people respond to traumatic brain injury (TBI) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and revealed some of the links between the two conditions, according to three high-profile researchers. But much of the underlying biology remains unknown—especially for blast-related injuries not often seen in Vietnam—limiting treatment options for those injured in the current wars.2008-09-29T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=13364Neuroethics Q&A: Hank Greely Delves Into Forensic Neuroscience, including controversial new lie-detection technologies and how neuroscience may change the treatment of criminal behavior.2008-09-29T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=13362Visual attention in monkeys is regulated in part by a set of brain-cell receptors known as muscarinic acetylcholine receptors, researchers in the United Kingdom report. The unexpected result represents a significant advance in the study of attentional processes that is likely to energize the young field, scientists say.2008-09-29T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=13294Several Alzheimer’s drugs may be approved in a few years, but research suggests some simple lifestyle changes now may also help ward off the disease, suggest several studies reported at the Alzheimer’s Association’s recent International Conference.2008-09-25T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=13280Hypothermia—a sometimes dramatic lowering of body temperature that can be deadly—has become something of a boon for scientists seeking better ways to curb brain damage after cardiac arrest and brain injury.2008-09-19T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=13276For the first time, researchers have recorded the spontaneous activation of neurons specific for certain memories in human subjects as they are about to experience those memories.2008-09-18T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=13274Treadmill exercise not only improves the mobility and health of people who have had strokes but also seems to “rewire” the brain—even years after the damage—according to a new study.2008-09-16T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=13238Sophisticated neuroimaging techniques allow scientists to delve into how the brain makes mystical experience possible and what happens to the brain during a religious episode.2008-09-08T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=13228A mutation in the anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) gene can cause a rare inherited form of the childhood nerve cancer neuroblastoma, according to a new study. Abnormal ALK also seems to play a significant role in the more common form of the disease, paving the way for new screening methods and treatments, report researchers in an article in the August 24 edition of Nature.2008-09-05T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=13006A new observational study has drawn wide media coverage for its suggestion that the taking of cholesterol-lowering statins may help to prevent Alzheimer’s and other dementia-related conditions. Previous observational studies also have associated statin use with an apparent reduced risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s.2008-09-04T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=13122Scientists at the Yerkes National Primate Center in Atlanta have reported the development of genetically engineered monkeys that carry the mutant gene for Huntington’s disease. The work represents a major development in preclinical research, especially as applied to neurodegenerative diseases—for which transgenic monkeys should make much more accurate models than transgenic mice.2008-08-28T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=13120The long-term use of psychostimulants such as cocaine or methamphetamine leaves deep marks on the brain, with associated chronic symptoms that can range from anxiety and impaired memory to intense drug cravings. Some researchers have described this addiction process as the flipping of a neurochemical “switch,” in which repeated drug use forces key synapses in the brain to undergo a more or less permanent change from one state to another.2008-08-26T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=13088Researchers in the emerging scientific field of hedonics are finding that the neural pathways for both pain and pleasure have much in common.2008-08-21T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=13066Determining how the brain takes raw input from the optic nerves and generates the experience of seeing things amounts to the reverse-engineering of a mechanism that has evolved over hundreds of millions of years.2008-08-19T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=13022Music training improves cognitive functions such as spatial perception and memory and may be useful in rehabilitating people suffering from neurological damage, new research reveals.2008-08-12T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=12996Despite some high-profile setbacks, promising results from preliminary clinical trials have left Alzheimer’s researchers optimistic about new treatments down the road.2008-08-07T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=12992To help sort through vast amounts of data and broach disciplinary boundaries, neurologists are increasingly turning to simulated neural networks, which have already helped to map the inner wiring of the brain and unravel how it processes language.2008-08-06T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=12930The race is on to create mice with mutant genes for TDP-43, a protein some researchers suspect abnormally clumps in people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in a fashion similar to amyloid clusters in Alzheimer’s.2008-07-31T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=12896A modified chemotherapy drug is allowing scientists to focus their positron emission tomography scans more precisely on immune cells - a potential boon to understanding certain cancers and autoimmune disorders.2008-07-29T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=12874Pavlov’s dogs, hearing a bell just before mealtime, learned to associate it with food so strongly that the mere sound of it would make them salivate. But what if the food had followed the bell only half of the time? Outcomes in the real world often involve such risks and ambiguities, and in the past few years neuroscientists have begun to find out how the brain tracks them.2008-07-24T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=12916 Dana Press Blog Many voices, one message 2008 07 22 I felt a flurry of warm fuzzies at the sight of all the Dana Press and Dana2008-07-22T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=12854Abnormalities among a trio of receptors on chromosome 7 affect brain size and behavior—and appear to be associated with a higher risk of schizophrenia, according to new research.2008-07-22T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=12918Dana Press Blog Working to rewire broken spines 2008 07 16 Though he works now in research and basic science, former clinician James Fawcett can’t stop thinking2008-07-16T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=12832Separate groups of researchers report using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to map the parts of the brain involved in processing social rewards such as increases in reputation or status. Their results suggest that the human brain is highly sensitive to cues about social hierarchies and treats social rewards in a manner similar to monetary rewards.2008-07-16T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=12920Dana Press Blog Switching fear off—and on again The common term “extinction” may be the wrong word for what happens when we overcome our learned fears,2008-07-15T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=12922 Dana Press Blog Artful neuroscience 2008 07 14 Here at FENS 2008, the Forum of European Neuroscience meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, this week, we’ve been treated to the2008-07-14T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=12788A new report that dysfunctional neurons in the serotonin system of mice causes most of them to die has created a stir among researchers into sudden infant death syndrome, or SIDS. The team of researchers who conducted the study reports that defective serotonin neurons periodically depressed the heart rate and temperature in the mice in a way reminiscent of findings in babies who died of SIDS. In many of those infants, doctors have found problems with neurons that produce serotonin, a neurotransmitter vital to respiration, heart rate, temperature regulation and other autonomic (normally unconscious) functions.2008-07-07T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=12738Researchers have proposed that abnormalities in a nervous-system protein known as DISC1 might be a cause of many cases of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and depression.2008-07-02T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=12740A recent study by researchers at the University of Washington and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories suggests that random errors in the genome, many of them targeting glutamate pathways, may contribute to schizophrenia. The results have potential implications for how scientists should study the neurobiological effects behind the disorder as well as how they approach the design of new drug and other interventions.2008-07-02T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=12742Flurizan, a drug that reduced the production of apparently harmful amyloid in laboratory and animal experiments, has failed to show a significant benefit in a large-scale, “Phase III” trial in about 1,700 people with Alzheimer’s disease. Its maker, Myriad Pharmaceuticals of Salt Lake City, indicated that it would discontinue development of the drug.2008-06-30T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=12638Interview: Christof Koch is the Troendle Professor of Cognitive and Behavioral Biology at the California Institute of Technology, where he manages a large neurobiology and  engineering laboratory known as the “klab.” A leading proponent of the idea that consciousness—subjective experience—is a neuroscientific problem, not merely a metaphysical one, Koch has been conducting research in this area for two decades.2008-06-26T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=12640Recent observational studies have kept alive the hypothesis that the long-term use of ibuprofen and related anti-inflammatory drugs could delay or prevent Alzheimer’s disease. But it is unlikely that they will ever be formally sanctioned as Alzheimer’s preventives, and despite two decades of research no one really knows how—or even if—they work against the disease.2008-06-19T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=12642The drug companies Elan and Wyeth, in a news release June 17, provided a summary of results from an early, “Phase 2” clinical trial of their jointly developed passive vaccine, composed of a monoclonal antibody known as bapineuzumab.2008-06-19T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=12620James P. Allison has spent much of his career making a case for moving immunologists into the mainstream of cancer therapy. Now drugs that goose the immune system to build defenses against cancers are in promising human trials.2008-06-11T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=12592Marijuana’s side-effects, from memory-impairment to apparent addiction, have kept it on the wrong side of the law for decades. But drugs that lack those side-effects, while mimicking marijuana’s favorable effects on the brain, have attracted the attention of major pharmaceutical companies and are now nearing clinical trials.2008-06-06T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=12590Another large study has confirmed that people with Parkinson’s disease are significantly more likely to report a history of pesticide exposure than are people who do not have the disease.2008-06-04T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=12494Elena Perry, a sophomore at Richard Montgomery High School in Rockville, Md., began displaying her neuroscience knowhow at the Washington, D.C.-area Brain Bee in February, where she bested 19 students and won $250 and a trip to the National Brain Bee. On May 26, she won the international prize.2008-05-30T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=12482Three Dana Alliance members have been awarded the first Kavli Prize in Neuroscience. Thomas M. Jessell of Columbia University and Pasko Rakic of Yale University, both members of the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives, and European Dana Alliance for the Brain member Sten Grillner of the Karolinska Institute in Sweden were cited for their pioneering work in the areas of nanoscience, neuroscience and astrophysics.2008-05-29T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=12478Although the prognosis of patients with malignant glioma and other brain cancers has improved during the past decade, therapies currently under development are likely to improve the treatment of this devastating disease. The pre-clinical and clinical studies outlined here are highly promising.2008-05-29T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=12468Researchers at the Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore have found that children with ADHD show different patterns of brain activity when they try to inhibit their movements than do typically developing children.2008-05-27T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=12434Differences in diet and behavior that are good for us in other ways also turn out to be associated with big changes in risk for developing serious brain diseases.2008-05-23T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=12466Learning, Arts, and the Brain: A conversation with Michael S. Gazzaniga on the release of a series of 3-year studies he spearheaded on art's effects on cognistion2008-05-22T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=12398 Senator’s Brain Tumor May Be Difficult to Treat 2008-05-21 Related Links: The DANA Guide to Brain Health: Brain Tumors Sen. Ted Kennedy has a malignant brain tumor known as glioma, according to a diagnosis made Tuesday by doctors at Massachusett2008-05-21T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=12158For more than a decade, one of the most important tools for researching amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) has been the so-called SOD1 mouse. But after follow-on research did not confirm earlier findings, faith in the SOD1 mouse has been seriously weakened.2008-05-19T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=12154For a number of reasons, therapeutic cloning techniques are unlikely to be very useful in treating Parkinson’s disease.2008-05-14T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=12156Two groups of researchers have reported proof-of-principle demonstrations of a new, high-resolution imaging technology that uses infrared lasers to harmlessly penetrate the skin and illuminate special nanoparticle “beacons” inside the body. Scanning2008-05-12T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=12088There’s a lot going on in the brains of focused players, said the two scientists on a panel with famed ballplayer Bobby Thomson on April 24, 2008.2008-04-29T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=12082But some recent studies examining its neurobiological mechanisms have led to new hypotheses about sleep.2008-04-28T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=12006Testosterone:Researchers suggests hormone replacement might help raise mood in some men.2008-04-18T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=11978From tying shoelaces to turning screwdrivers to clacking away at laptops, we humans would be lost without our tools. What is it about our brains that gives us this facility? 2008-04-16T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=11918Where in the brain is intelligence?From autopsies of famous Russians to a new model based on imaging studies, scientists keep looking.2008-04-04T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=11686The Nielsen Company, an advertising services conglomerate that provides the famous “Nielsen ratings,” recently announced that it is getting into the controversial new field of “neuromarketing.” 2008-03-25T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=11690The goal of “pharmacogenomics,” or the science of using genetic information to predict drug response—is not so far-fetched. A series of recent discoveries has nudged researchers closer to that goal, including a new report identifying a genetic variation that predicts response to many antidepressants.2008-03-21T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=11688“Addiction is a brain disease expressed as compulsive behavior,” said psychologist Alan Leshner during a lecture on the science of addiction on March 4 at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.2008-03-13T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=11576According to a recent brain-imaging study at the Baylor College of Medicine in Texas, the social troubles seen in autism might be caused, at least in part, by a person’s failure to make a proper mental model of the self in a social environment.2008-03-10T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=11570Teachers and parents are logging in to discuss NBC News correspondent Robert Bazell’s video report on the connection between the arts and other forms of learning. The news report, based on the findings of the Dana Arts and Cognition Consortium, focused on the work of one of its seven research leaders, Harvard psychologist Elizabeth Spelke.2008-03-06T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=11510A vaccine developed by a Harvard researcher appears to have partly reversed Alzheimer’s-like signs, including cognitive impairments, in aged vervet monkeys in a nine-month trial.2008-03-04T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=11810Research Consortium Finds New Evidence Linking Arts and Learning 2008-03-04 Washington, D.C. Learning, Arts and the Brain online version of full report   Learning, Arts and the Brain full PDF (2 MB)   Webcast of panel discussing the results of the report  2008-03-04T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=10904A recent trial in monkeys suggests that at least one major side effect of sleep loss can be reversed with a drug based on a naturally occurring hormone in the brain.2008-02-29T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=11178Gene therapies are slowly making their way towards the clinic, and one of the first major applications of the technique could be the treatment of chronic pain.2008-02-21T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=11110Teens Go Head to Head at New York City Regional Brain Bee 2008 02 13 Tension was high at The Rockefeller University. Four competitors remained in2008-02-13T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=10798It is widely agreed that the disorder, which kills certain dopamine-producing cells, can result from an imbalance between toxic and protective mechanisms within those cells.  Some researchers continue to focus on dopamine itself as a possible factor in triggering this fatal imbalance.2008-02-12T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=10804Twenty students from 12 high schools in Maryland and the District of Columbia participated in the local Brain Bee. The bee heralds the coming of Brain Awareness Week, an international campaign to increase public awareness about the progress and benefits of brain research.2008-02-11T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=10658Researchers in Spain studying a rare form of epilepsy have discovered that the metabolic mechanisms that could give neurons energy may also play a role in neurodegenerative diseases.2008-02-01T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=10598A drumbeat of bad news hurts prospects for cholesterol lowering drugs to show promise against Alzheimer's disease.2008-01-17T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=10572New research suggests errors in processing, not mutations on parent's genes, may offer more clues to what causes autism.2008-01-11T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=10506Scientists suggest that the brain’s neuroplasticity, or ability to rewire itself after injury to compensate for functional losses, is behind visual-restoration therapy's success.2007-12-31T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=10494While some people with Parkinson's disease have obtained great relief by using deep brain stimulation (DBS), a few also grow more impulsive, as though they have lost the ability to stop and consider their options before making a decision. Researchers at the University of Arizona have devised an experiment that may shed some light on how DBS interferes with what they call the brain’s “hold-your-horses” signal.2007-12-28T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=10402The recent failure of what had been seen as the most promising HIV vaccine in clinical development has forced experts and other leaders to rethink AIDS prevention efforts at a time when the HIV epidemic continues to rage in the United States and worldwide.2007-12-17T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=10358Donald Pfaff, Ph.D., is head of the Laboratory of Neurobiology and Behavior at Rockefeller University and the author of many scientific articles and books. But his new book, The Neuroscience of Fair Play: Why We (Usually) Follow the Golden Rule, is written for the general reader.2007-12-05T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=10100Children with autism have difficulty with motor tasks, such as tying their shoes, riding a bike, or playing baseball. New research suggests that differences in the white matter of the brain may explain why.2007-11-19T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=10090Despite two decades of trying, the development of a vaccine against HIV remains an elusive goal.2007-11-16T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=10080Education in the arts may or may not lead to higher math scores, but the skills it does foster are just as necessary, say symposium panelists.2007-11-15T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=9554Depression was the focus of the latest in a series of conversations between Tenzin Gyatso, the Dalai Lama of Tibet, and neuroscientists. During a daylong conference on Oct. 20, 2007, at Emory University in Atlanta, researchers described depression's effect on the body and its persistence throughout life. They also presented findings that suggest that some forms of meditation may offer protection from or treatment of the illness.2007-10-26T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=9534The capacity for free will is said to reside in the brain’s frontal lobes, which enable us to decide what actions we will take. Now researchers have discovered a spot in the frontal lobes that could be called the home of our “free won’t.”2007-10-24T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=9528Radiation is sometimes the only viable therapy for people diagnosed with cancers of the brain and nervous system. In some cancer treatment centers, stereotactic radiosurgery using highly focused radiation beams has replaced surgery as the standard form of treatment. But even when radiation does as intended and removes the cancer, it sometimes introduces new problems.2007-10-22T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=9286Michael Gazzaniga, a neuroscientist known for bringing hard science into the realm of law and ethics, posed sweeping philosophical questions in a lecture titled “Brains, Minds and Social Process.” Gazzaniga gave the lecture at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, D.C.2007-10-12T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=9266A team of researchers in Germany have identified which regions of the brain allow pain to affect cognitive thought, work that furthers the understanding of the interactions that take place in the brain.2007-10-11T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=9204Pietro Vichi "Pete" Domenici, a longtime advocate for brain research and mental health, planned to announce on Thursday that he would retire from the U.S. Senate after 35 years, citing health issues including early dementia.2007-10-04T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=9172Recent research has revealed that certain neurons in the brain become "excited" by glucose, but it has been unclear how or why the action of those glucose-sensing neurons is significant. New evidence from an international team of researchers shows that a gene active in those neurons interacts with fat and glucose in ways that suggest a brain link in disorders such as diabetes and obesity.2007-10-01T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=9082Visual processing demonstrates the brain’s ability to integrate data from various regions into conscious perceptions. A stroke, a tumor or other form of brain damage can disrupt this integration and produce all sorts of deficits, including an inability to recognize faces.2007-09-28T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=9080Children who have a greater ability to resist peer pressure also have stronger connections among regions in their frontal lobes and other brain areas, according to a study conducted by Tomáš Paus at the University of Nottingham in England.2007-09-19T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=9024Ralph Steinman's discovery and continuing description of a "missing link" in the human immune system have changed the field, colleagues say. In 2007, his work also has earned him a Lasker Prize, one of the most prestigious in the world.2007-09-16T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=9020Buffalo Bills tight end Kevin Everett talks with the press after the team's initial minicamp for the 2005 season at Ralph Wilson Stadium in Orchard Park, New York on April 29. (Photo by Mark Konezny/NFL/Getty Images) More information: The Miami Project to Cure Par2007-09-14T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=9016For more than a century, great minds in psychology, medicine and philosophy have searched for the stuff of which memories are made. Earlier this year, an interdisciplinary research team led by Gary Lynch, a professor of psychiatry and human behavior at the University of California, Irvine, may have discovered physical evidence of the neurobiological basis of a memory.2007-09-10T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=8886By expanding their search from single genes to clusters of interacting genes, researchers at the Mayo Clinic have created a model that appears to give highly accurate predictions of who will develop Parkinson’s disease and at what age. Their method may translate to the study of other complex diseases as well.2007-08-22T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=8876When coping with negative images, people with clinical depression show different—and sometimes opposite—activity in some brain circuits that regulate emotion than people without the illness, according to a new study. And the harder they consciously try to quell their negative emotional responses, the less successful they appear to be.2007-08-16T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=8862University of Calgary philosophy professor Walter Glannon has collected and shaped many of the seminal papers in the growing field of neuroethics into a logical, readable primer for the public and policymakers. This is a question-and-answer with the editor.2007-08-15T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=8840Biotech entrepreneur Avi Kremer, who has ALS, wins accolades for the work of his nonprofit research organization seeking a cure for the progressive disease.2007-08-13T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=8822Results of an early clinical trial for an investigational ovarian cancer vaccine illustrate both the promise and the limitations of immunotherapy approaches to treating cancer.2007-08-08T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=8792Six years after being kicked in the head repeatedly during a mugging that left him unable to walk, talk, feed himself or respond to people, a 38-year-old man has improved with the help of electrodes implanted deep in his brain.2007-08-01T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=8788Often, the cause of a seizure is visible on a magnetic resonance imaging scan, but sometimes, as in the case of Chief Justice John G. Roberts, the source of the irritation remains unknown. Because this is his second seizure, doctors are likely to look more aggressively for its cause.2007-08-01T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=8600While scientists and drug-makers work to bring new antibacterial treatments to the market in response to the emergence of drug-resistant tuberculosis, some researchers are trying another approach: a vaccine.2007-07-18T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=8558Using x-ray crystallography, researchers in Switzerland have defined the atomic structure of an important connection in the development of tuberculosis infection for the first time. With such an atomic blueprint, drug makers may have a new target for one of the world's deadliest diseases.2007-07-06T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=8158Researchers reported progress on several potential drug therapies for people with Alzheimer's disease during the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference on Prevention of Dementia in Washington, D.C., this week.2007-06-14T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=8082To Keep Your Smarts, Exercise More than Just Your Brain 2007 06 05 Why do some people, as they age, “keep their smarts”—that is, they maintain2007-06-05T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=8008A lifetime of paying attention to the background may have trained some senior citizens to tamp down part of their brain’s ability to see the foreground, suggest researchers in Illinois and Singapore.2007-06-04T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=8330Nicky Pentilla story on transforming arts teaching for the June 2007 issue of Arts Education in the News.2007-06-01T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=8332Sidebar to accompany Nicky Pentilla story, "Lesson for Educators: Practice What You Teach" in the June 2007 issue of Arts Education in the News.2007-06-01T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=8010Thomas Waldmann, a clinical immunologist at the National Cancer Institute, is the 2007 recipient of the American Association of Immunologists-Dana Foundation Award in Human Immunology Research. The award recognizes excellence in 'translational' research.2007-05-30T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=7972 With the seduction all of that technology offers, what can invite and inspire today’s youth to live in the real world?2007-05-23T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=7748The fact that we remember nearly nothing from our infancy and early childhood does not mean we created no memories then. It’s just that we forgot.2007-05-14T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=7722Imaging Provides Insight, Leaves Room for More 2007 05 11  “B uild a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door.”2007-05-11T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=7270For neurosurgeon and immunologist Kevin Tracey, now director and chief executive of the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, the case of baby Janice, scalded by hot water just before her first birthday, was one of the ones a doctor never forgets.  In his book Fatal Sequence: The Killer Within, he recounts her medical story to explain the spiral of sepsis, an immune system over-response to infection, and how a body getting the best of care—and recovering—can suddenly and fatally veer off track.2007-05-03T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=7014Web Welcome A Message from Foundation Chairman William Safire 2007 04 23 Here is the new online home of the Dana Foundation, a philanthropy active in advancing2007-04-23T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=6106Neuroscientist Nancy C. Andreasen discusses the genius of her longtime friend, the late Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.2007-04-16T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=6722"Is an immune abnormality causing autism, is autism causing immune abnormalities, or is something else causing both?" was the question of the day at a recent workshop at the California Institute of Technology.2007-04-05T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=5200Old dogs can indeed learn new tricks, so don’t be so quick to write off your older workers, say a panel of workplace and neuroscience experts.2007-03-30T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=6980Media coverage isn’t the only answer to revitalizing arts in the schools, but it offers potent means to help ensure that the generation in school today will become, for the arts, “the found generation.”2007-03-15T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=8338Dr. Ralph Steinman commentary from the March 2007 issue of Immunology in the News. Ralph Steinman, M.D., is professor and senior physician at The Rockefeller Institute in New York City. He serves as scientific consultant for the Dana Foundation and scientific advisor for Immunology in the News. 2007-03-01T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=4934Brain Health editors aim for accessibility Paperback, CD ROM of Dana Guide a reference for the rest of us 2007 01 22 Does aging always mean2007-01-22T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=5508In recent years, while arts organizations have asked how the arts can increase the well-being of young people in distressed circumstances, a growing number of health organizations have come at the question from the other direction.2007-01-15T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=4936Cranial Calisthenics? Specialized brain workouts raise skepticism among scientists 2007 01 11  The common desire to stay mentally sharp, particularly in life’s later years, is giving rise2007-01-11T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=4938The brain emergency that recently felled U.S. Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., was due to a congenital arteriovenous malformation (AVM). AVM is “a tangle of blood vessels in your brain,” said Dr. E. Sander Connolly, one of two vascular surgeons at Columbia University Medical Center who specialize in surgery involving AVMs.2006-12-18T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=4940At Ease With One’s ‘Living Zoo’ Q& A with 'Resistance' author Norbert Gualde 2006 11 14 French immunologist Norbert Gualde, M.D., is most interested in the how2006-11-14T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=3368In his latest book, “Mind Wars: Brain Research and National Defense,” bioethicist Jonathan Moreno describes the range of brain-related research U.S. military agencies such as the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) are paying for.2006-10-24T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=5194Immunology is emerging as the "fourth weapon" in the medical fight against cancer, joining surgery, radiation and chemotherapy in the physician's arsenal, leading experts say.2006-09-29T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=5198Recent news that a United Kingdom woman considered to be in a vegetative state showed specific, apparently responsive, brain activity adds to the debate over when awareness ends.2006-09-08T13:00:00 http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=5650Luckily, Terry Wallis eventually became more than an amazing story for our research group: he became our study patient, and he has educated us along the way.2006-07-03T13:00:00