NEWS
Researchers develop drug delivery technique to bypass blood-brain barrier
Breakthrough could help countless patients with neurological conditions that are currently hard to treat Researchers at Massachusetts Eye and Ear/Harvard Medical School and Boston University have successfully shown neuroprotection in a Parkinson's mouse model using...
Synthetic Cannabis Treatment Tested on Humans
Experimental synthetic [Cannabis] therapy for epilepsy being tested on humans Zynerba Pharmaceuticals Inc. said Tuesday it has started the company’s first human testing of one of its experimental synthetic cannabinoid treatments. The Devon, Pa., specialty...
Study shows how synapses organization is controlled
Our ability to learn, move, and sense our world comes from the neurons in our brain. This information moves through our brain between neurons that are linked together by tens of trillions of tiny structures called synapses. Although tiny, synapses are not simple and...
Seizure control improves for TSC patients undergoing more extensive surgery
Children with the genetic disorder tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) often need epilepsy surgery for severe, uncontrollable seizures. A new study finds that seizure control is improved for patients undergoing more extensive surgery, reports the October issue of...
Potential epilepsy drug identified
Researchers have identified a new class of drugs that may prevent the development of a common and devastating form of epilepsy. Temporal lobe epilepsy is particularly debilitating because it strikes the areas of the brain responsible for memory and mood. As a result,...
Premature birth appears to weaken brain connections
Babies born prematurely face an increased risk of neurological and psychiatric problems that may be due to weakened connections in brain networks linked to attention, communication and the processing of emotions, new research shows. Studying brain scans from premature...
Glutamate imaging may guide surgery in ‘nonlesional’ epilepsy
Glutamate imaging may be capable of identifying the focus of epileptic seizures in patients who appear to have nonlesional epilepsy on standard imaging techniques, researchers report in Science Translational Medicine. The findings are based on just four patients, but...
Pediatric-Onset Auto-Immune Diseases Compared to Pediatric-Onset Epilepsy
Scientists calculate precise measurements of heritability in nine pediatric-onset autoimmune diseases Scientists have calculated more precise measurements of heritability--the influence of underlying genes--in nine autoimmune diseases that begin in childhood. The...
Survey Reveals Burden Of Seizure Clusters On Children With Epilepsy And Their Caregivers
Seizure clusters, a seizure pattern experienced by some patients with epilepsy, can have a profound impact on pediatric patients and their caregivers' quality of life, according to a recent survey conducted online in September 2014 by Harris Poll. The U.S. survey...
Epilepsy: Vimpat EU positive monotherapy Phase 3 results
UCB has announced positive results of a Phase 3 non-inferiority study designed to compare efficacy and safety of lacosamide to carbamazepine-CR (controlled release; retard tablets) as monotherapy in newly or recently diagnosed adult patients with partial-onset...
MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS: Onset Delayed by Sun?
A study of people with multiple sclerosis (MS) found that those who spent time in the sun every day during the summer as teens developed the disease later than those reporting not spending time in the sun every day. The study, which was published in the October 7,...
Mayo Clinic researchers awarded NIH grant to develop intelligent devices to track and treat epilepsy
Researchers at Mayo Clinic were awarded a $6.8 million, five-year federal grant from the National Institutes of Health to develop intelligent devices to track and treat abnormal brain activity in people with epilepsy. The grant, part of a presidential...
Training by repetition actually prevents learning for those with autism
Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) sometimes acquire a new behavior or skill only in a specific context, but they have difficulty transferring that learned skill or information to a new context. For example, children with autism can be taught what a dog...
Mindfulness-Based Therapy Promising for Resistant Epilepsy
Short-term mindfulness-based therapy significantly improves quality of life and reduces anxiety and seizures in patients with drug-resistant epilepsy, researchers in Hong Kong report. Their new study shows that patients with epilepsy receiving mindfulness therapy in...
Auras may not protect epileptic drivers
A new Yale co-authored study suggests that experiencing warning signs before seizures may not contribute to an epileptic individual’s driving safety. Yale researchers found that people with uncontrolled seizures who experienced “auras”- — reliable warning signs before...
The long anticipated structure of an ion channel reveals how excited neurons settle down
Within the brain, some neurons fire off hundreds of signals per second, and after ramping up for such a barrage, they need to relax and reset. A particular type of ion channel helps bring them down, ensuring these cells don't get overstimulated—a state that...
Anteroinferior encephalocele a rare but important epilepsy cause
Clinicians should actively search for anteroinferior encephaloceles in patients with treatment-refractory epilepsy, say researchers. Reporting in Neurology, Ritva Vanninen (Kuopio University Hospital, Finland) and team details a large series, of 23 patients, in whom...
Exergaming improves physical and mental fitness in children with autism spectrum disorders
A study conducted by The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston says games used for exercising can improve physical and mental fitness in children with autism spectrum disorders. The study, written by UTMB's Claudia Hilton, associate professor, Tim...
UCI researchers find biomarker for autism that may aid diagnostics
By identifying a key signaling defect within a specific membrane structure in all cells, University of California, Irvine researchers believe, they have found both a possible reliable biomarker for diagnosing certain forms of autism and a potential therapeutic target....
Genetic analysis supports prediction that spontaneous rare mutations cause half of autism cases
A team led by researchers at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) this week publishes in PNAS a new analysis of data on the genetics of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). One commonly held theory is that autism results from the chance combinations of commonly occurring...
