We are shaking things up with this round of Brain Blogging in our thirty-second edition. This time, we are stripping off the fat and giving you exactly what you want: short excerpts that highlight each article with a clear link to the blog.

If you were left out in this round, just leave a comment with your blog entry. Don’t worry, we’ll format it to match the blog carnival (or even include it in the main post). Read more →

Researchers at the MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease (MGH-MIND) and Washington University School of Medicine have recently shifted their focus of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) research from understanding the role that plaques and other neurological changes play in the progression of AD. Now they are looking at the time period and order in which plaques and neurological changes like dementia and senility occur in the progression of AD. Read more →

Despite the fact that functional MRI was discovered in the early 90’s, scientific research related to its clinical applications is still at an early stage. The first paper on the use of functional MRI (fMRI) in Alzheimer’s disease came out as late as 1999. Today, fMRI is being intensively studied in a number of other clinical areas like dyslexia, epilepsy, mood and anxiety disorders, pain management, rehabilitation after stroke and schizophrenia. Though the application of fMRI in routine neurological practice is still some years away, already our understanding of these disorders and knowledge about mapping progression and treatment effects with fMRI is rapidly progressing. Read more →

In an attempt to localize the part of the brain responsible for hunger, surgeons in Toronto inadvertently identified and stimulated a portion of the brain involving in memory and learning. This finding may lead researchers to develop new techniques for improving brain function in dementia.

The surgeon was attempting to implant a deep brain stimulator into the hypothalamus of an obese man, in order to curb his appetite by stimulating brain cells that suppress hunger. Read more →

Researchers are grappling with findings that people living with diabetes are less likely to have migraines, and vice versa. While the data has been made public about populations in several regions for quite some time now, for the first time a series of systematic studies and reviews conclude that these findings are not just a fluke. An entire region in Norway was sent a questionnaire. The 1,499 people who self reported to be living with any form of diabetes were found to have a significantly lower rate of migraines than those reporting to be non-diabetics. Read more →

Early studies are reporting the use of some drugs for high blood pressure may be protecting against Alzheimer’s disease, in animal studies according to Gulio Maria Pasinetti, M.D., Ph.D., of the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. Read more →