A combination of drugs widely used to treat infections caused by HIV appears to stop brain damage caused by the virus as well, according to a study published in the October 9, 2007, issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

Scientists have discovered how the gene mutation responsible for fragile X syndrome--the most common inherited form of mental retardation--alters the way brain cells communicate.

Crying is the only way a baby can express its feelings and needs. If the parents or caregivers cannot find the cause of the inconsolable crying of the infant, they might react sharply and shake the baby. The violent shake of the infant's head causes brain damage and, as a result, the infant stops crying. For this reason, this behaviour may be repeated in similar situations.

How the gene that has been pegged as a major risk factor for schizophrenia and other mood disorders that affect millions of Americans contributes to these diseases remains unclear. However, the results of a new study by Hopkins researchers and their colleagues, appearing in Cell this week, provide a big clue by showing what this gene does in normal adult brains.

A gene with reported links to schizophrenia and other mood disorders plays a broader role in the brain than scientists had previously suspected, according to a report published online by Cell, a publication of Cell Press, on September 6, 2007.

Researchers from the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center and Cambridge University in England have designed an automated means of continuously tracking potentially dangerous changes in blood flow to the brain in real time, a system that shows promise for preventing brain damage and death in children with head injuries.

Heavy alcohol use can lead to structural and functional changes in the brain.
New findings show that even when structural damage may not be apparent, brain activation can still be reduced.
Researchers refer to this alcohol-induced damage as “latent lesions.”

Cirrhosis of the liver is one of the most common and serious medical complications linked to alcoholism. Heavy alcohol use can also cause brain damage.
Cirrhotic alcoholics appear to have even more impaired brain function than non-cirrhotic alcoholics.

A group of neuroscientists and a philosopher have devised a series of novel experiments using virtual reality that could shed light on decades of clinical data pointing to cognitive and perceptual mechanisms involved in humans’ concept of self.

In the first study of its kind, researchers have discovered that in autistic individuals, connections between brain cells may be deficient within single regions, and not just between regions, as was previously believed.

When your body cranks up the heat, it’s a sign that something’s wrong—and a fever is designed to help fight off the infection. But turning up the temperature can have a down side: in about one in 25 infants or small children, high fever can trigger fever-induced (febrile) seizures.

The research group of Prof. Dr. Magdalena Götz at the Institute of Stem Cell Research of the GSF – National Research Centre for Environment and Health, and the Ludwig Maximilians University, Munich, has achieved an additional step for the potential replacement of damaged brain cells after injury or disease: functional nerve cells can be generated from astroglia, a type of supportive cells in the brain by means of special regulator proteins.