Study exposes major flaws in research on depression screening questionnaires – Research on detection of depression “forecasting yesterday’s weather,” say investigators

Par Hendrike 11:08, 3 May 2006 (UTC) (Travail personnel) [GFDL (www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) ou CC-BY-SA-3.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia CommonsAugust 16, 2011 – A new analysis, published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), reports that flawed research studies have exaggerated the degree to which depression screening questionnaires are able to accurately detect people with untreated depression. The number of untreated patients who would actually be detected using these questionnaires may be less than half the number predicted by existing studies. Continue reading

Children of depressed mothers have a different brain – MRI scans show their children have an enlarged amygdala

Amygdalae - there are two in your brain

August 15, 2011 – Researchers think that brains are sensitive to the quality of child care, according to a study that was directed by Dr. Sonia Lupien and her colleagues from the University of Montreal published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Continue reading

No room for inaccuracy in the brain

The map of your brain is dynamic
July 20, 2011 – Dr. Ed Ruthazer is a mapmaker but, his landscape is the developing brain – specifically the neuronal circuitry, which is the network of connections between nerve cells. His research at The Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital – The Neuro at McGill University, reveals the brain as a dynamic landscape where connections between nerves are plastic, changing and adapting to the demands of the environment. Continue reading

Montreal researchers awarded for pioneering research into music and brain plasticity

Music affects brain plasticity

July 20, 2011 – The 22nd annual Neuronal Plasticity Prize of the Fondation Ipsen has been awarded to Robert J. Zatorre (Montreal Neurological Institute, BRAMS Laboratory), Isabelle Peretz (University of Montreal, BRAMS Laboratory)  and Helen J. Neville (University of Oregon, Eugene, USA), for their pioneering research in the domain of “Music and Brain Plasticity”. Continue reading

RCM researchers uncover a new piece of the puzzle in the development of our nervous system

Ephrins help guide neuron growth in limbs

July 14, 2011 – Researchers at the Institut de recherches cliniques de Montréal (IRCM) are among the many scientists around the world trying to unearth our nervous system’s countless mysteries. A new piece of the puzzle was recently uncovered by Dr. Artur Kania, Director of the IRCM’s Neural Circuit Development research unit and Associate Professor at Université de Montréal’s Department of Medicine, and a postdoctoral fellow in his laboratory, Dr. Tzu-Jen Kao.

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New genetic clues for schizophrenia De novo mutations are more frequent

DNA sequence
Reading of a DNA sequence

July 11, 2011 – De novo mutations – genetic errors that are present in patients but not in their parents – are more frequent in schizophrenic patients than in normal individuals, according to an international group of scientists led by Dr. Guy A. Rouleau of the University of Montreal and CHU Sainte-Justine Hospital. Continue reading