Category: News

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 →

Bruno Giros, PhD, a researcher at the Douglas Mental Health University Institute and a professor in the Department of Psychiatry at McGill University, has demonstrated, for the first time, the role that dopamine plays in a region of the brain called the hippocampus. Continue reading →

Imagine being a parent receiving news that your six-year-old child has a brain tumour that has no effective treatment, and is almost universally fatal. This is a harsh reality for the 30 children in Canada who are diagnosed each year with a rare paediatric cancer called diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG). Continue reading →

People with schizophrenia often misinterpret what they see and experience in the world. New research provides insight into the brain mechanisms that might be responsible for this misinterpretation. The study from the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital – The Neuro – at McGill University and McGill University Health Centre, reveals that certain errors in visual perception in people with schizophrenia are consistent with interference or ‘noise’ in a brain signal known as a corollary discharge. Continue reading →

It may now be possible to identify the first-stage Parkinson’s patients who will go on to develop dementia, according to a study conducted at the Institut universitaire de gériatrie de Montréal by Dr. Oury Monchi, PhD, and his postdoctoral student, Dr. Alexandru Hanganu, MD, PhD, both of whom are affiliated with Université de Montréal. These findings were published in the journal Brain. Continue reading →

Scientists have uncovered how inflammation and lack of oxygen conspire to cause brain damage in conditions such as stroke and Alzheimer’s disease.

The discovery, published today in Neuron, brings researchers a step closer to finding potential targets to treat neurodegenerative disorders. Continue reading →