Neurology Diagnostics

Archive for the ‘Brain Diseases’ Category

Learn, reason, deduce … all are functions of the left hemisphere. The intellectual brain is related to the verbal. Logical intelligence.

Neurology .- The left brain is associated with logic, reason and scientific thought of a person, where information processing to transform it into words becomes the specialty of this “logical hemisphere.” There are several left-brain functions, including control of mathematics, logic, speech, writing, numbering … Common sense rules in people with dominance of this hemisphere.
What is responsible for the left hemisphere of the human brain?

The left brain, by analysis and logic-is responsible for processing the information to transform it into words. His specialty is to produce and understand speech sounds.

This part of the brain is related to the verbal, there are two structures associated with the development of language ability:

Broca’s area. This area deals with the speech, its analysis and understanding of language.
Wernicke’s area. Another important area related to language and is connected to Broca’s area through a bundle of nerve fibers.

As early as 1878 John Hughlings Jackson, British neurologist described the left hemisphere as “the center of the faculty of speech.”

Functions of the left hemisphere

While the right hemisphere of the brain is related to non-verbal expression, is more emotional, sensitive, intuitive and coordinates the left side of the body, the left uses the analysis, mathematics, logic, reasoning, and controls the coordination of right side of the human body. The functions of the left hemisphere human brain based on control:

Spoken language (spoken language).
The written language.
Scientific thinking (scientific skills).
The reasoning (logical reasoning).
The ability to learn.
The deduction.
The numeracy.
The logic grammar.

One can say that the two hemispheres of the brain , the left is analytical and sequential ie the “brain drain” or “logical hemisphere.”
How are the people who use more than the left hemisphere?

In right-handed people the left hemisphere is dominant and they use more dialectic and common sense.

Use the logical process and tend to reason everything point by point.
Before making a decision or, predominantly people of this hemisphere are well informed about it. Sometimes fail to know what they want for reasons too.
They are intellectual people , analytical and very detailed.
Understand everything based on logical principles.

It is the logical hemisphere and understands that thinks in words and numbers. He is in charge of seeking an explanation.

Coffee lovers and tea have a lower chance of developing the most common form of malignant brain tumor, a new study suggests. The results obtained from more than 500,000 adults in Europe, add to evidence of a recent study by the United States associated high intake of coffee and tea with a reduced risk of developing gliomas, a set of brain tumors responsible for 80 percent of malignant cancers in this area among adults. But this is not enough to prove that infusions provide such protection.

“It’s very preliminary. The study is not reason to change the consumption of coffee or tea,” said lead author Dominique Michaud, of Brown University’s Imperial College, London. And if both drinks had any direct effect on the risk of developing gliomas, would be small, and that brain tumors are rare.

In Europe, for example, annual fees are between 4 and 6 cases per 100,000 women and 6 and 8 cases per 100,000 men. The possibility of having a malignant brain tumor in life is less than 1 percent. Michaud said that if a higher consumption of coffee and tea protects some form of glioma, that would give scientists information about the causes of brain tumors.

The findings, published in American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, arising from an ongoing study in 10 European countries on potential risk factors for cancer. At baseline, 521,488 men and women between 25 and 70 years responded to questionnaires about their medical history, diet, exercise, smoking and other lifestyle factors.

Michaud’s team focused on more than 410,000 participants without cancer at baseline and with complete dietary information. During 8.5 years, only 343 were diagnosed with glioma and other 245, another generally benign brain tumor called meningioma. After dividing the participants into four and five groups, according to the consumption of coffee and tea at the beginning of the study, the researchers found no evidence of a dose-response relationship.

But the results changed when the researchers looked at two groups: those who consumed at least half a cup (150 ml) and those who drank less or nothing for both infusions. The more coffee / tea consumed were a third less likely to develop glioma, even after considering factors such as age and smoking. There was no association with the risk of developing meningioma.
According to Michaud, is not known why there is no evidence of a dose-response relationship between consumption of coffee / tea and risk of glioma. May be associated with difficulties in the accurate measurement of consumption of these beverages to the participants.

It is biologically plausible that coffee and tea influence the risk of developing glioma. For example, a recent experiment in the laboratory delayed the growth of a type of glioma called glioblastoma. In addition, coffee and tea contain antioxidants that protect body cells from damage that can cause cancer and other diseases.

Anyway, it is possible for coffee lovers and tea have other characteristics that might affect the possibility of developing glioma. These characteristics are unknown, as well as the causes of most brain tumors.

There are about 600 diseases that affect the brain. And it is striking that those who are more dangerous to our brain that tell us more. Parkinson, for example, takes 18,000 lives each year. This disease has taught us how the brain controls our body.

Knowledge of the mechanisms of memory are clear in Alzheimer’s disease. And by stroke researchers learned to keep isolated the damaged brain cells. In the most serious diseases are the best opportunities for science.

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Tension Headache

Among the various types of headaches, those caused by stress are the most common. These are due to the cervical spine loses its normal curvature, which can be caused by a combination of factors: bad posture (at work, sleep), falls, strokes, accidents, whiplash-type injuries, stress, stress, etc.

To compensate for this straightening of the cervical spine and keep the head in a normal position, the neck muscles are overworked, reaching into spasm and create strong contractions.

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The finding allows us to understand how memories are stored and how they change over time.

One study suggests that it is possible to identify the specific memory that a person is recovering from last episode, only on the pattern of brain activity. The results of work carried out by University College London, UK, published in the online edition of the journal Current Biology.

Explains Eleanor Maguire, head of the study, “we have observed brain activity in search of a specific episodic memory, and examine the trace of real memory. We found that our memories are represented permanently in the hippocampus. Now we’ve seen where they are we have a chance to understand how memories are stored and how they might change over time. “

The results are a continuation of an earlier discovery of the scientific team, which showed that one could identify where he was a person inside a virtual reality room in the same way.

The researchers showed ten people one of three very short films before a brain scan. Each film was played by a different actress and a daily scenario quite similar. For example, in one of the shorter a woman looking in her purse to find an envelope in a mailbox and threw in another one of them a different actress ended her coffee cup and threw in a trash empty.

The scientists scanned the brains of participants using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while calling on those who remember the movie, and then included the image data in a computer log designed to identify patterns of brain activity, memories associated with every film.

Finally, the authors showed that these patterns could be identified in separate fMRI data to predict exactly what movie I was thinking about a particular person when he passed through the scanner. Read the rest of this entry »

Some are very handsome, others not so and there’s plenty. But they all have one thing in common: when they look in the mirror, the image that it brings back is of someone ugly and deformed. They are people with body dimorphic disorder, a psychiatric condition that affects an estimated 1% to 2% of the population. A study just to verify that the brains of these individuals react differently to the contemplation of his own face.

Examples of images used in the study. (Photo: Archives of General Psychiatry) Know exactly what happens in the minds of those who suffer the condition is vital to help them move forward and leave behind the anxiety generated by their appearance. Many are unable to lead a normal, half requiring hospitalization at some point in their lives and about 25% attempt suicide.

Research published in the latest issue of Archives of General Psychiatry compared the brain areas were activated in 17 affected and 16 other healthy while viewing a photograph of themselves and another for a famous actor.

To tune a bit more on analysis of visual processing, scientists, University of California (United States) – Digital images were shown in three different resolutions: standard, in a format that highlights the details (spots, profile of the nose and eyes, hair) or a configuration in which only perceived the spatial relationship between different parts of the face and shape of it.

The medical imaging technique used was the fMRI, which allows observing in real time what brain areas are activated by performing a particular activity.

When individuals with body dimorphic disorder looked at his face, there was a hyper activation of brain structures related to the specific visual processing. This does not happen if they looked the picture of famous actor and healthy people do not happen or your own image or that of the celebrities. Read the rest of this entry »

The resoncia shows the modulation of brain activity of illiterates and literacy process.

A group of researchers identified brain regions modulated literacy, located where the expertise lies in the vocabulary and visual recognition.

The scientists conducted experiments to locate the footprint of learning to read and write public so the Spanish newspaper El Pais.

For this research were used functional MRI techniques in the brains of 63 volunteers Brazilian and Portuguese: 11 illiterate adults literate and 22 and 31 who learned to read and write for children.

The study found that literacy improves the function of speech, but do not yet know whether these changes in brain anatomy, decrease or no capacity, for example, to recognize faces.

Stanislas Dehaene researcher at the University of Paris-Sud and a group of leading scientists in their research published in the journal Science, which not only differences were found in the brain between the illiterate and literate, but also differences in those who learned adults. Read the rest of this entry »

Spinal nerves are small, like the body parts that go from the brain to the spine and extremities. They send messages to the skin and muscles. These complex messages from the brain to the arms and legs tell the muscles to move or feel sensation to the skin. When a nerve becomes pinched, it can cause a variety of symptoms of pain and tingling coldness.

A nerve that is very similar to a cable television cable. There are many small wires inside a large envelope. The strings carry messages, or small electrical impulses, to the end, just as the power cable brings a picture to your TV. This process must occur for the courage to stay healthy. If something causes pinched nerves, the nerves become inflamed and can no longer transport messages. The nerve starts to get sick. If you do not regain its ability to transfer, you begin to die. This causes the skin to feel numb and muscles to become weak. Cases

There are a number of compressed nerves. In general, the pinch occurs when there is pressure on the nerve from the surrounding tissue. This tissue may be bone or cartilage, muscle or tendon, or swelling of the nerve sheaths of tight places. Read the rest of this entry »

Positive effects of treadmill training in children with cerebral palsy

The treadmill training with or without partial suspension system achieves a positive weight on the role and spatial parameters of gait in children with cerebral palsy (ICP) and also seems to cause no adverse events.

However, in comparison with other methods of physical therapy, placebo or no treatment, the results of this study are, in most cases, not significant.

In this article, published in Journal of Neurology, included the results of randomized controlled trials or non-randomized controlled trials but autoemparejados from various databases.

Specifically, it included six articles and 127 participants were recruited.

In the systematic review the authors found some limitations that require careful reading of the information provided.

Of the constraints encountered, include the small number of items that recruit few patients, and in addition there is a large clinical diversity, many of these trials did not describe relevant data necessary for critical reading.

One of the most frequent causes of consultation is the dizziness. Vertigo is the sensation of things spinning around each other (objective vertigo) or a tour around things (subjective vertigo).

Dizziness is a feeling of instability, as one walks on cotton, in high and low. These can occur separately or together, and the vast majority of cases are of benign origin, ie, not a brain problem, but on one condition at the ear or vestibular nerve, which is carrying the information from ear to the brain.

The most common causes of vertigo or dizziness of non-cerebral origin (peripheral vestibular syndrome or SVP) are of viral origin (vestibular neuronitis, a viral inflammation of the nerve), at the microscopic mechanical disorders of the ear (benign paroxysmal positional vertigo), by increasing pressure of the endolymph which is a liquid in the internal system of the ear (Meniere’s disease), trauma (vertigo post TEC), infectious (syphilis) and others.

The SVP is often accompanied by severe nausea, vomiting, sweating, cold and long malaise. Depending on the cause, can last a couple of days, or chronic. It is with rest, light food and drugs that decrease the dizziness / vertigo (antivertiginosos) and drugs that reduce nausea (antiemetic) and the prognosis is generally good. Read the rest of this entry »