In 1848, railroad worker Phineas Gage survived a severe brain injury when a tamping rod shot through his skull, resulting in significant behavioral changes. In a new study, reported May 16 in the open access journal PLoS ONE, researchers have used CT images of his skull in conjunction with MRI and connectomic brain imaging data of living subjects to reconstruct the injury and investigate which regions of the brain were affected to result in the behavioral changes.
cardiology
Study finds head impacts in contact sports may reduce learning in college athletes
A new study suggests that head impacts experienced during contact sports such as football and hockey may worsen some college athletes’ ability to acquire new information. The research is published in the May 16, 2012, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Positive feedback in the developing brain
(Medical Xpress) — When an animal is born, its early experiences help map out the still-forming connections in its brain. As neurons in sensory areas of the brain fire in response to sights, smells, and sounds, synapses begin to form, laying the neuronal groundwork for activity later in life. Not all parts of the brain receive input directly from the external world, however, and researchers have wondered how these regions build their wiring early in development.
Active lifestyle in elderly keeps their brains running
(Medical Xpress) — New research from Uppsala University, Sweden, suggests that an active lifestyle in late life protects grey matter and cognitive functions in humans. The findings are now published in the scientific journal Neurobiology of Aging.
Researchers say genes and vascular risk modify effects of aging on brain and cognition
Efforts to understand how the aging process affects the brain and cognition have expanded beyond simply comparing younger and older adults.