When first exposed to cocaine, the adolescent brain launches a strong defensive reaction designed to minimize the drug’s effects, Yale and other scientists have found. Now two new studies by a Yale team identify key genes that regulate this response and show that interfering with this reaction dramatically increases a mouse’s sensitivity to cocaine.
Psychology
A mechanism to improve learning and memory
There are a number of drugs and experimental conditions that can block cognitive function and impair learning and memory. However, scientists have recently shown that some drugs can actually improve cognitive function, which may have implications for our understanding of cognitive disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease. The new research is reported 21 February in the open-access journal PLoS Biology.
Being born in another country may protect against stroke for US Hispanics
New research finds foreign-born Hispanics now living in the United States appear to be less likely to have a stroke compared to non-Hispanic white people. The research was released today and will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 64th Annual Meeting in New Orleans April 21 to April 28, 2012. The research is also being simultaneously published in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association.
Study links babies’ colic to mothers’ migraines
A study of mothers and their young babies by neurologists at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) has shown that mothers who suffer migraine headaches are more than twice as likely to have babies with colic than mothers without a history of migraines.
Guideline: Monitoring spinal cord during surgery may help prevent paralysis
The American Academy of Neurology is issuing an updated guideline that recommends monitoring the spinal cord during spinal surgery and certain chest surgeries to help prevent paralysis, or loss of muscle function, related to the surgeries. The guideline, which was developed with the American Clinical Neurophysiology Society, is published in the February 21, 2012, print issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology and also in the Journal of Clinical Neurophysiology.