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POPSWorld First: Brain Tissues from Stem Cells
continues: "In regenerative therapy, only a limited number of diseases can be cured with simple cell transplants. Transplanting tissues could raise hopes for greater functional recovery," the institute said in a statement. "Cultivated tissues are still insufficient and too small to be used to treat stroke patients. But study of in-vitro cultivation of more mature cortex tissues, such as those with six zones like in the adult human brain, will be stepped up," it said. The tissues could also serve as "a mini organ" for use in studying the cause of the Alzheimer's disease and developing vaccines, it said. Embryonic stem cells are harvested by destroying a viable embryo, a process that some people find unacceptable. Riken said cortex tissues were also obtained from "induced pluripotent stem cells," which are similar to embryonic stem cells but artificially induced, typically from adult cells such as skin cells. The research was led by Yoshiki Sasai at Riken Centre for Devel
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POPSDo we get wiser with age? "Is age a prerequisite for wisdom, though? We all know a few elderly people who lack wisdom, while we may know few young people that have wisdom in spades. People certainly aren't always at peak brainpower in old age; after all, when wrinkles begin appearing on the face, it usually means that wrinkles have started disappearing on the brain. The brain shrinks slightly with age, and aging leads to a normal decline in cognitive function that may eventually bloom into dementias such as Alzheimer's disease".
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POPSTowards a neuropsychology of religion: 'Doctrinal' rituals help create semantic memories of key concepts and emotional response through associative learning, while 'imagistic' rituals help create episodic memories of specific situations that may involve altered states of consciousness and the experience of other realities.
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POPSArtificial memory storage this is amazing. if it works it can be used not only for the sick, why not having an external hard drive to store memories, and new information, or to download some existing one, making space to newer? sounds intriguing, and yes it woulkd change human identity. But hey, why not?
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POPSInternet Searching May Boost Brain Over 50's can celebrate something - those of us who battle against wrong learnings to understand and operate these machines. Your brains are on fire. Relax and enjoy.
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POPSBrain surgery with a banjo In this case, the surgeons used the banjo to fine tune the treatment. Because of his tremors, Adcock no longer had the dexterity required for his characteristic fast picking style. He played the instrument during his operation so that the surgeons could pinpoint exactly where the electrodes would most effective.
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POPS"Miracle Cure For Alzheimer's Disease?" continues: The new study documents a dramatic and unprecedented therapeutic effect in an Alzheimer's patient: improvement within minutes following delivery of perispinal etanercept, which is etanercept given by injection in the spine. Etanercept (trade name Enbrel) binds and inactivates excess TNF. Etanercept is FDA approved to treat a number of immune-mediated disorders and is used off label in the study. Griffin and Mark are pioneers in the field of neuroinflammation. Griffin published a landmark study in 1989 describing the association of cytokine overexpression in the brain and Alzheimer's disease. "It is unprecedented that we can see cognitive and behavioral improvement in a patient with established dementia within minutes of therapeutic intervention," said Griffin. "It is imperative that the medical and scientific communities immediately undertake to further investigate and characterize the physiologic mechanisms involved. This gives all of us in Alzheimer's research a tre
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POPSToo many calories send the brain off kilter The researchers report that that increased activity of the IKKß/NF-?B pathway can be divorced from obesity itself -- infusions of either glucose or fat into the brains of mice alone led to this inflammatory brain reaction. Further studies revealed that this activity in the brain leads to insulin and leptin resistance. Insulin lowers blood sugar by causing cells of the body to take it up from the bloodstream. Leptin is a fat hormone important for appetite control. Moreover, the researchers found that treatments preventing the activity of IKKß/NF-?B in the animals' brains protected them from obesity.
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POPS Brain's Hub of Fear Found The results of the study, funded by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, Burroughs Wellcome Fund, the Center for Behavioral Neuroscience and the Yerkes Center, are detailed in the October issue of the journal Nature Neuroscience. The genetically engineered virus was injected into the amygdala of the mice by Emory graduate student Kimberly Maguschak. The amygdala is a part of the brain thought to be important for forming memories of emotionally charged events. "We found that after beta-catenin is taken out, the mice can still learn to fear the shocks," Maguschak said. "But two days later, their fear doesn't seem to be retained because they spend half as much time freezing in response to the tone." So it appears that beta-catenin is turned on in the amygdala to help in signaling during the learning process, Maguschak said.
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POPSProof that Vaccines Cause Micro-Vascular Strokes On October 6th, 2008, Dr. Moulden will release his detailed methodology proving that vaccines cause micro-vascular strokes. Listen to Dr. Andrew Moulden discuss the damage vaccines do to the human brain in these audio clips.
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POPSBrain Blogging, Thirty-Ninth Edition Looking for the latest cranial information? Search no further for info on the future of computer-assisted cognitive therapy, electrical brain stimulation for bad drivers, mad cow disease, and many more topics.
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POPSHappy Chocolate! This is great information. One Happy Chocolate is 11.5gm. Not sure the weight of B vitamins and amino acids but still, one chocolate a day may keep the Dr. away. See my Home Page for more information.
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POPSNew Treatment for Alzheimer’s Disease? In July 2003 some treatments for Alzheimer's treatments were brought to attention at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference on Alzheimer’s disease (ICAD 2008). Some of these treatments showed great potential.
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