A landmark Australian and New Zealand intensive care study has provided vital information for the treatment of patients with brain injuries. The results of the SAFE-TBI Study, published today in the New England Journal of Medicine, confirm that the choice of resuscitation fluids affects the chances of patients with brain injury surviving.

Scientists know little about how the brain assigns cells to participate in encoding and storing memories. Now a UCLA/University of Toronto team has discovered that a protein called CREB controls the odds of a neuron playing a role in memory formation. The April 20 edition of Science reports the findings, which suggest a new approach for preserving memory in people suffering from Alzheimer's or other brain injury.

A study of how the brain of a premature infant responds to injury has found vulnerabilities similar to those in the mature brain but also identified at least one significant difference, according to neuroscientists and neonatologists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.