If someone has trouble remembering where the car keys or the cheese grater are, new research shows that a memory training strategy can help. Memory training can even re-engage the hippocampus, part of the brain critical for memory formation, the results suggest.
Psychology
Researchers discover way to block body’s response to cold
Researchers at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix, Arizona, in collaboration with Amgen Inc. and several academic institutions, have discovered a way to block the body’s response to cold using a drug. This finding could have significant implications in treating conditions such as stroke and cardiac arrest.
WU researchers breakthrough with minimally conscious state patients
(Medical Xpress) — Researchers from Western University have utilized their own game-changing technology previously developed for use with patients in a vegetative state to assess a more prevalent group of brain-injured patients, those in the minimally conscious state (MCS). Their findings were released today in Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Aspirin may counteract potential trans fat-related stroke risk in older women
Older women whose diets include a substantial amount of trans fats are more likely than their counterparts to suffer an ischemic stroke, a new study shows.
Your brain on dye: Imaging neuronal voltage with fluorescent sensors and molecular wires
(Medical Xpress) — Optically monitoring the brain’s neuronal activity can be accomplished in several ways, including electrochromic dyes, hydrophobic anions, calcium imaging, or voltage-sensitive ion channels. Fluorescence imaging is an attractive method due to its ability to map the electrical activity and communication of multiple spatially resolved neurons. While this complements traditional electrophysiological measurements, historically fluorescent voltage imaging has been limited by the difficulty of developing sensors that give both large and fast responses to voltage changes. Recently, however, scientists in the Department of Pharmacology and other areas in the University of California at San Diego’s Howard Hughes Medical Institute have designed, synthesized, and implemented fluorescent sensors in the form of photo-induced electron transfer (PeT)-based molecular wire probes for voltage imaging in neurons. Moreover, they have used these so-called VoltageFluor sensors to perform single-trial detection of synaptic and action potentials in cultured hippocampal neurons and intact leech ganglia.