Author: Julie

New formula for identifying disorder at younger age could mean earlier therapy, better tests

A Toronto research team has identified the formula for diagnosing autism spectrum disorder (ASD) at an earlier age. This will let patients receive therapies at an earlier age, while helping to create more advanced genetic diagnostic tests.

Published recently in Nature Genetics, the research unravels the autism code by creating a “genetic formula” that will help clinicians identify genetic mutations that have the highest and lowest likelihood of causing ASD. Continue reading →

Brenda Milner, an active researcher at the age of 95 at the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital (The Neuro) is a recipient of the prestigious Kavli Prize in Neuroscience for 2014.

The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters also announced Thursday winners in Astrophysics and Nanoscience. Milner shares the Neuroscience award with two other researchers. Continue reading →

Scientists control rapid re-wiring of brain circuits using patterned visual stimulation

In a new study, published in this week’s issue of the journal Science, researchers show for the first time how the brain re-wires and fine-tunes its connections differently depending on the relative timing of sensory stimuli. In most neuroscience textbooks today, there is a widely held model that explains how nerve circuits might refine their connectivity based on patterned firing of brain cells, but it has not previously been directly observed in real time. Continue reading →

New research published out of the University of Calgary’s Hotchkiss Brain Institute (HBI) uncovers a mechanism to promote growth in damaged nerve cells as a means to restore connections after injury. Dr. Doug Zochodne and his team have discovered a key molecule that directly regulates nerve cell growth in the damaged nervous system. His study was published in the prestigious journal Nature Communications, with lead authors Drs. Kim Christie and Anand Krishnan. Continue reading →

Why do we tend to forget earlier memories, especially those from childhood, as we get older? New research from The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) brings fresh insight into the mystery of infantile amnesia and begins to explain why we have no memories from our earliest years. Researchers demonstrate that new neuron formation, or neurogenesis, in the area of the brain where memories are stored, called the hippocampus, is associated with memory loss. Continue reading →

Mice and rats stressed by male experimenters; reaction may skew research findings.

Scientists’ inability to replicate research findings using mice and rats has contributed to mounting concern over the reliability of such studies.

Now, an international team of pain researchers led by scientists at McGill University in Montreal may have uncovered one important factor behind this vexing problem: the gender of the experimenters has a big impact on the stress levels of rodents, which are widely used in preclinical studies. Continue reading →

Researchers at the University of Toronto say a sleep disorder that causes people to act out their dreams is the best current predictor of brain diseases like Parkinson’s and many other forms of dementia.

“Rapid-eye-movement sleep behaviour disorder (RBD) is not just a precursor but also a critical warning sign of neurodegeneration that can lead to brain disease,” says associate professor and lead author Dr. John Peever. In fact, as many as 80 to 90 per cent of people with RBD will develop a brain disease.” Continue reading →

Researchers from the uOttawa Brain and Mind Research Institute have made an important discovery in stroke research that could significantly advance recovery for patients. Their findings were published in the prestigious journal Nature Communications on April 1, 2014.

When a person suffers a stroke, oxygen—a vital component for cell survival in the human brain—is cut off. This loss of oxygen not only causes immediate cell death in the primary stroke area, but also puts the cells in the surrounding areas at risk. If their ability to produce energy is not restored, they will eventually die. With this in mind, researchers worked to understand what happens to cellular energy production in affected cells and what could be done to help salvage them. Continue reading →

Two Simon Fraser University psychologists have discovered that our brains have an active suppression mechanism that helps us avoid distraction when we want to focus on a particular item or task.

Their study is the first to identify this mechanism, which they say could revolutionize doctors’ perception and treatment of attention-deficit disorders. Continue reading →

Findings could help scientists study pain-inhibited sexual desire in humans

“Not tonight, dear, I have a headache.” Generally speaking, that line is attributed to the wife in a couple, implying that women’s sexual desire is more affected by pain than men’s.

Now, researchers from McGill University and Concordia University in Montreal have investigated, possibly for the first time in any species, the direct impact of pain on sexual behaviour in mice. Their study, published in the April 23 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience, found that pain from inflammation greatly reduced sexual motivation in female mice in heat — but had no such effect on male mice. Continue reading →