New chemotherapy regimen prolongs survival in difficult-to-treat childhood brainstem gliomas
Barcelona, Spain: Childhood brainstem gliomas (BSGs) are rare but can be very difficult to treat successfully and they tend to have poor survival rates. However, a team of Spanish researchers have found that a chemotherapy regimen of irinotecan and cisplatin (I/C) produced rapid clinical responses...Anti-angiogenesis treatment improves hearing in some NF2 patients
...t significant tumor shrinkage or hearing improvement (he had lost all hearing prior to treatment), treatment alleviated headaches and nausea caused by brainstem compression, allowing him also to return to school. "This study has opened a new approach to research and understanding of these tumors," says Emm...Scripps Florida scientists devise accelerated method to determine infectious prion strains
...mann, a transgenic mouse line called Tga20 plays an important role, because it succumbs rapidly to prion disease. "The prions primarily target the brainstem and the thalamus of this transgenic mouse, explaining why these animals have a shorter incubation time than their normal counterparts," Lasmzas said. ...Treadmill Workouts Help Stroke Survivors
...reased by 3 percent in the group limited to stretching. And magnetic resonance imaging showed an increase of blood flow carrying more oxygen to the brainstem and cerebellum for those who worked on the treadmill. "The most important clinical aspect of the study is that it is saying recovery can occur long...SIDS Linked to Brain Chemical Dysfunction
...to occur in SIDS. "This mouse model is important. Causing dysfunction in brainstem serotonin can lead to death in a majority of affected animals," Marian Will... Serotonin is a neurotransmitter -- a chemical messenger -- that helps the brainstem communicate with nerve cells in the spinal cord and beyond. It is involved ...New research sheds light on the molecular basis of crib death
... imbalance of the neuronal signal serotonin in the brainstem is sufficient to cause sudden death in mice. T...systems. Victims of SIDS show alterations in those brainstem neurons that communicate using the signalling mole...unclear how changes in serotonin signalling in the brainstem of SIDS infants are involved in sudden death. The ...Lou Gehrig's protein found throughout brain, suggesting effects beyond motor neurons
...diagnosed based on muscle weakness and neurodegeneration of the upper and lower motor neurons that extend from the motor cortex to the spinal cord and brainstem motor neurons, which directly innervate voluntary muscles. For example, if you want to wiggle your big toe, the signal travels from the motor neuron i...St. Jude finds young age may give survival advantage to children with certain brain tumors
...ent biological properties also seem to play a role in the latter case. brainstem gliomas account for 10 to 15 percent of all brain tumors in children; and DPGs account for 80 percent of brainstem tumors in childhood. Although MRI revolutionized the diagnosis of DPG, no s...First look: Princeton researchers peek into deepest recesses of human brain
...ing functional magnetic resonance imaging to study brainstem activity in dehydrated humans. The scanning techni...ble to track changes in blood flow in areas of the brainstem associated with enhanced activity of the brain che..., D'Ardenne said. "We wanted to try because the brainstem is so important to activities in the rest of the b...Task Force Recommends Screening for Hearing Loss in All Newborns
... who test positive." The Task Force recommends screening using a two-step screening process that includes otoacoustic emissions followed by auditory brainstem response in those infants who fail the first test. Otoacoustic emissions check the inner ear response to sound and are measured by placing a very sens...St. Jude Finds Young Age May Give Survival Advantage to Children With Certain Brain Tumors
...rentiate between DPG -- a tumor that occurs in the brainstem -- and other tumors, which originate in the same a...ies also seem to play a role in the latter case. brainstem gliomas account for 10 to 15 percent of all brain ...rs in children; and DPGs account for 80 percent of brainstem tumors in childhood. Although MRI revolutionized t...Sports Legacy Institute Announces Findings of Forensic Examinations on Wrestler Chris Benoit's Brain
...ir connections. Frequent NFTs and NTs were distributed in all regions of the brain including the neocortex, the limbic cortex, subcortical ganglia and brainstem ganglia accompanied by loss of brain cells. Accumulation of abnormal Tau protein in the form of NFTs and NTs in the brain has been confirmed to cause ...Brain-computer interface, developed at Brown, begins new clinical trial
...ical neurotechnology. The research is focused not only on the ability to operate a computer but also to assist people with ALS, spinal cord injury and brainstem stroke to control their environment. "Through ongoing development and testing, it is hoped that these technologies will eventually help to improve ...Musicians have biological advantage in identifying emotion in sound
... her wordless utterance -- can mean very different things depending on the acoustic properties of the sound. The Northwestern researchers measured brainstem processing of three acoustic correlates (pitch, timing and timbre) in musicians and non-musicians to a scientifically validated emotion sound. The mus...A BBVA Foundation project comes up with a system enabling detection of cetacean hearing loss
... electrical impulse that can be detected with simple suction cup electrodes. These electrical pulses are called auditory evoked potentials or auditory brainstem responses (ABR), and incorporate a short latency time and duration. In the case of a rehabilitating stranded cetacean, this hearing analysis is vital ...Streamlining brain signals for speed and efficacy
...ensory neurons, which detect head movement; motor neurons, directing eye muscles to relax or contract; and so-called vestibular nucleus neurons in the brainstem that link the two. While the brevity of this circuit keeps reflex times short, it was less clear what qualities of the circuit ensure that eye vel...Stroke and SIDS in Alaska topics of neuroscience conference
...l Harris, an ABNP neuroscientist. "The work that I do tests a leading theory which suggests that infants are made vulnerable to SIDS, in part, through brainstem abnormalities." "Cardiac arrest and stroke are the leading causes of adult disability and Alaska's arctic ground squirrel may lead to improved ther...Story ideas from Molecular & Cellular Proteomics
... the cerebral cortex and hippocampus, and degeneration of neurons in Parkinsons disease largely centers on an area in the back of the brain called the brainstem at least in the early stage of the disease. Jing Zhang and colleagues identified over 800 different proteins in a part of the cortex near the for...Last chance for media to register for ECCO 14 -- the European Cancer Conference
... cancer Breast cancer susceptibility gene predicts outcome and response to treatment in lung cancer Improved treatment for difficult childhood brainstem gliomas First molecular profiling of colon cancer patients accurately predicts survival Quality of life after endometrial cancer treatment can...Research finds music training 'tunes' human auditory system
...primary author of "Musical Experience Shapes Human brainstem Encoding of Linguistic Pitch Patterns." An old structure from an evolutionary standpoint, the brainstem once was thought to only play a passive role in au...methods to measure and graph the accuracy of their brainstem ability to track the three differently pitched "mi...A potential biological cause for sudden infant death syndrome
...en's Hospital Boston document abnormalities in the brainstem ?a part of the brain that regulates breathing, blo...to protect infants who have abnormalities in their brainstem serotonin system. The brainstem serotonin system is thought to help coordinate bre...St. Jude finds clues to hearing loss from chemotherapy
...ss, and it was not known which mutation each mouse had. Therefore, the St. Jude team screened more than 1,800 mice from 285 families using an auditory brainstem responses test. This test determines whether a particular mouse can respond to high frequencies by recording electrical activity from the hearing nerv...Neurosurgery Journal Issues Supplement Dedicated to CyberKnife Radiosurgery Experience
...ical structures. Colombo and his associated authors obtained high rates of tumor control, even for large lesions and lesions near the sensitive brainstem and optic nerves, with low levels of treatment-related complications over an average 30- month follow-up. The authors estimate that the ability to tre...Bio-Logic Systems, another Midwest life-science firm, flies under the radar
...use by hospitals, clinics, universities and physicians. The diagnostic procedures performed by the company's systems include: Automated auditory brainstem response testing Otoacoustic emissions testing (used for infant hearing screening) Evoked response testing (used for hearing diagnosis) Polys...