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Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD) are neurodegenerative diseases that commonly occur in middle-aged people. Both ALS and FTD arise from neuronal degeneration through mechanisms that remain unclear. Dr. Yun-Ru (Ruby) Chen's team recently discovered a new pathological mechanism for neuronal degeneration using synthetic peptides. They also discovered that a disaccharide can increase neuronal survival and reduce degeneration. The result provides therapeutic strategies for future treatment. ALS and FTD differ in clinical symptoms, but they share many pathological features and genetic variations. Clinical data shows that more than 90% of ALS and about 70% of FTD patients are...

An artist's impression of amyloid plaques forming in the brain, which scientists hope to tackle as a way of treating Alzheimer's katerynakon/Depositphotos =================================================================== Research into what causes Alzheimer's and how it might be treated involves a number of possibilities, but one scientists are continually coming back to is brain plaques playing a central role in driving the disease. It follows that researchers are investigating ways to destroy these plaques or prevent them from forming, and scientists at the University of Tokyo have come up with a novel approach to this problem involving injectable, oxygenated atoms that are activated by infrared...

These findings may have implications for brain disease, disorders. Scientists at the Krembil Brain Institute, part of University Health Network (UHN), in collaboration with colleagues at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), have used precious and rare access to live human cortical tissue to identify functionally important features that make human neurons unique. This experimental work is among the first of its kind on live human neurons and one of the largest studies of the diversity of human cortical pyramidal cells to date. “The goal of this study was to understand what makes human brain cells ‘human,’ and...

New Western University research shows that neurons in the part of the brain found to be abnormal in psychosis are also important in helping people distinguish between reality and imagination. The researchers, Dr. Julio Martinez-Trujillo, principal investigator and professor at Western University's Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry and Dr. Diego Mendoza-Halliday, postdoctoral researcher at M.I.T., investigated how the brain codes visual information in reality versus abstract information in our working memory and how those differences are distributed across neurons in the lateral prefrontal cortex region of the brain. The results were published today in Nature Communications. "You can look...

Clarksburg, MD—Two different research groups have independently made the same important discoveries on how Alzheimer’s disease spreads in the brain, according to a February 2 New York Times story. The groups’ findings have the potential to give us a much more sophisticated understanding of what goes wrong in Alzheimer’s disease and, more importantly, what can be done to prevent or repair damage in the brain. The Times reported on the research teams of Bradley T. Hyman, MD, Ph.D., at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and Karen E. Duff, Ph.D., of Columbia University Medical Center in New York. Each research group...

In Europe, several robotic warplanes ( the Neuron, the Barrakuda and the Corax) are under development. These UACV (Unmanned Aerial Combat Vehicles) concepts began in the Untied States, but Europe wants to remain competitive with the U.S. military aircraft industry. All three programs include stealth features, and aim on playing in the same league as the American J-UCAS (Joint Unmanned Combat Aerial System). This program includes the Boeing X45C and the Northrop Grumman X47B Pegasus . These European projects are the first foreign competitors for the American robotic warplane work. The Neuron project is a six nation European effort, which...

BOSTON (AP) - For years, futurists have dreamed of machines that can read minds, then act on instructions as they are thought. Now, human trials are set to begin on a brain-computer interface involving implants. Cyberkinetics Inc. of Foxboro, Mass., has received Food and Drug Administration approval to begin a clinical trial in which four-square-millimeter chips will be placed beneath the skulls of paralyzed patients. If successful, the chips could allow patients to command a computer to act - merely by thinking about the instructions they wish to send. It's a small, early step in a mission to improve the...