Body cooling cuts in-hospital cardiac arrest patient deaths nearly 12 percent

(Phys.org) — Forced body cooling known as therapeutic hypothermia has reduced in-hospital deaths among sudden cardiac arrest patients nearly 12 percent between 2001 and 2009, according to a Mayo Clinic study being presented at the upcoming American Academy of Neurology 2012 Annual Meeting in New Orleans. The research is among several Mayo abstracts that will be discussed at the conference.

Specialized training of complex motor skills may induce sports-specific structural changes in the human brain

A new study, using brain imaging technology, reveals structural adaptations in short-track speed skaters’ brains which are likely to explain their extraordinary balance and co-ordination skills. The work by Im Joo Rhyu from the Korea University College of Medicine, and colleagues, is published online in Springer’s journal Cerebellum.

Increased production of neurons in hypothalamus found in mice fed high fat diets

(Medical Xpress) — A research team made up of people from a wide variety of biological sciences has found that mice fed a diet high in fat tend to see an increase in the number of neurons created in the hypothalamus, a region of the brain associated with regulating energy use in the body. The team, as they describe in their paper published in Nature Neuroscience, write that the increase in neurons occurs in a part of the hypothalamus called the median eminence, which lies outside the blood-brain barrier.