Long-term Depression Elevates Stroke Risk in Older Adults

A Harvard University study has found that long-term depression in people over 50 could more than double their risk of having a stroke. The risk remains significantly high even after the depression eases.

Long term depression in 50s increases risk of stroke

Brain Imaging in Children with Neurological Disorders Links Language Delay to Chromosome Deletion

A study team of radiologists and psychologists has found that children born with DNA copy number deletions in a specific region on chromosome 16 previously linked to neurodevelopmental problems show measurable delays in processing sound and language [1].

Child in a MEG machine

 

Cocoa Flavanols Improve Speed of Memory Tasks in Older Adults

A new study finds that dietary cocoa flavanols — naturally occurring bioactive molecules in cocoa — can improve the speed of a memory task in healthy older adults.

Dietary cocoa flavanols

The Brain’s GPS System and the Nobel Prize for Medicine

nobel medal in medicine

On Monday, the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was announced [1]. The prize was awarded to a team of scientists for their discoveries of cells that constitute a positioning system — an “inner GPS” —in the brain that makes it possible to orient ourselves in space, demonstrating a cellular basis for higher cognitive function.

The prize of 8-million-Swedish-krona ($1.2-million USD) was divided, with one half to Dr. John O´Keefe, age 75, at at University College London and the other half jointly to a husband-and-wife team, Dr. May-Britt Moser, age 51, and Dr. Edvard I. Moser, age 52, at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, for discovering how the brain creates a map of the space around us and how we can navigate our way through a complex environment.

Protein Overload May Kill Brain Cells as Parkinson’s Progresses

Scientists may have discovered how the most common genetic cause of Parkinson’s disease destroys brain cells and devastates many patients worldwide.

Nerve cells, ribosomal protein