Neurology Diagnostics

Archive for the ‘News’ Category

Humans long ago trying to find out why we dream. In recent years, controversial studies have suggested that we process our memories dreaming. Now a new study suggests that dreams also have to do with learning to process what we just experienced.

Researchers found that people who dreamed about a maze game that had just played better the next play, compared to those not dreamed of the game.

“There are parts of the brain that actually reproduce the memory of walking through the maze, and that improve memory and lead to better performance,” said study coauthor Robert Stickgold, director of the Center for Sleep and Cognition, Faculty of Medicine of Harvard.

Dreams have always fascinated people. “We started thousands of years ago, thinking they were messages from God,” he said Stickgold. “Then came Freud, and said they were messages from our subconscious pernicious and immoral.”

Then, scientists thought that dreams were “random activation of nerves in the brain stem,” Stickgold said. Now, he said, “we started to say that at one level, as more or less have always known, do something to our memory.”

In the new study, published in the online edition of the April 22 issue of the journal Current Biology, the researchers asked 99 subjects to play a video game they had to find their way through a maze with the help of a three-dimensional description of it.
Participants then stayed awake for two hours, or took a nap. They played the maze game again five hours later.

Four participants reported having dreamed of the maze during nap time. They were among the most improved when they played the maze after the second time, ten times better than the others who took naps.

Then those who had dreams, what they learned while dreaming? It is not entirely clear how dreams are connected with the experience of playing the maze game, but Stickgold thinks “the process of dream reflects an underlying brain activity” that determines “which means the learning experience, learning how to do better “.

Another mystery: why the maze dreamed so few people? Less than ten percent of those who took naps did. In contrast, Stickgold said, about 86 percent of those who played a game of ski racing in the Alps dreamed it. Perhaps the game “is not sufficiently rich or attractive,” he said. He said that future research will try to find out why.

But for now, at least one brain researcher familiar with the study was unimpressed with the findings. “There is no convincing evidence that sleep has no effect on memory consolidation,” said Irwin Feinberg, professor resident who studies sleep at the University of California, Davis. Sleep is not clearly necessary for people to remember things he said.

But Stickgold says this is a misunderstanding of their research. “Nobody in the field suggests that we must sleep to learn things or retain memories,” he said.

The passage of time has a natural degeneration in the brain that means we can not remember things like the name of that movie or where we put our keys. But beware. The consumption of certain foods can slow the process. Here’s what we are:
1. Blueberries.
These small fruits contain anthologists, a pigment plant whose daily intake reduces the negative effects of age in our operations center. At the same time, prevents diseases like Alzheimer’s or dementia.
2. Apples.
Have high levels of quercetin, an antioxidant that protects the brain from degenerative disorders. It is present in the pulp and, in higher concentrations in the peel of the apple.
3. Spinach.
It contains a chemical called lutein, which protects brain cells from degenerative damage natural. It is also rich in folate, a vitamin that increases the speed of information processing and improves mental performance.
4. Celery.
One component, a compound called luteolin reduces the negative effects of aging and reduces the release of molecules that cause inflammation of the brain and cause memory loss.
5. Fish.
The salmon, tuna, trout or sardines provide omega-3 fatty acids necessary for the proper functioning of the nervous system. In addition, it also provides iodine, another ingredient that enhances the intellectual capacity.

For the first time stated that exposure to electromagnetic fields from mobile phones increases the risk of glioma. But scientists say the evidence is expressed possibility but is not conclusive.

The World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) said Tuesday that the filing emanating cell phones has a “possible” risk of brain cancer in humans, according to the latest research science.

WHO reported that radiofrequency electromagnetic fields used by mobile phones, “cause” cancer in humans. This warning was launched in conjunction with the IARC, based in Lyon (France), which assesses the risks of cancer and makes recommendations to the authorities. “There is some evidence of an increased risk of glioma,” or brain tumor, said Kurt Straif, chief scientist at IARC, but added that “so far provided no factual evidence that the use of cell phones cause cancer.”

The research began in 2004 found a 40% increase risk of brain tumors among users who used cell phones an average of 30 minutes a day for a period of ten years. Dr. Jonathan Samet of the University of Southern California (USA), leader of the group that has analyzed the issue, explains that “the accumulated evidence is strong enough to support a classification of these waves in Group 2B [possibly carcinogenic compounds]. ” He notes that “this means that there may be some risk of cancer by use of phones, but we still need to better analyze this relationship.”

Evidence and explanations

Straif explained that scientific evidence shows that the use of text messages and “hands free” offer “reduced exposure” to the filing of the cell. For its part, the WHO said that since the beginning of the nineties there is concern that cell phones can be “harmful” to consumers. Meanwhile, the Federal Communications Commission United States explained that the devices meet the highest rates of absorption by the body are safe.

For this recommendation on phones was a group of previous work with 31 scientists from 14 countries. IARC also conducts studies on snuff, alcohol, processed foods and certain drugs and chemicals.

Taking more than five cups of coffee a day may actually cause hallucinations, especially in people under great stress, this is the finding of a scientific study conducted in Australia

Scientists at La Trobe University in Melbourne have come to this conclusion by a study on the effects of caffeine on people and their relationship with stress.

A 92 volunteers were given various doses of caffeine. After dividing the participants according to their level of stress and caffeine consumption were asked to listen to a recording sounds confusing and, in turn, had to press a button when they believed hearing the Bing Crosby song “White Christmas” (White Christmas ).

The trick was that the song in no time it was introduced into the recording, but those with a higher stress levels and consumed more caffeine came to hear at least three times more than those who were more relaxed and had drunk fewer drinks with this stimulant.

Psychology professor Simon Crowe, author of the study, noted that “the combination of caffeine and stress increases the likelihood of an individual to experience symptoms of psychosis.”

On Friday 15 October, the FDA (Food and Drug Administration in the U.S. of America) approved the use of Botulinum toxin A for treatment of chronic migraine, months after being approved in the United Kingdom.
It is considered that a patient has suffered from chronic migraine headaches when more than half the days in a month, other than those most common forms of migraine that occur with occasional pain.
The importance of this announcement is that it provides official approval for this use and generates a new option to patients suffering from this terrible disease. The treatment is done every three months with injections at certain points of the head and neck. The mechanism of this drug is not fully understood, but one theory is that by inhibiting the release of certain neurotransmitters reduces neuronal activation of the nerves that transmit painful stimuli in migraine. Although not without potential adverse effects, approval of this drug generates a new treatment option for patients with chronic migraine.
It is important to clarify that there is no evidence of benefit in patients with episodic migraine. Specialized centers for some time had headache using botulinum toxin as a preventive but did so outside of the express instructions of the FDA, which generated many obstacles for patients and specialists. The most important clinical study on the subject was published in 2009, with more than 1300 patients in the U.S. and Europe, which had shown significant differences in the number of days with migraine, and indicators of quality of life in patients exposed to botulinum toxin.

The syndrome of Gilles de la Tourette (GTS) is a neurophysiology disorder, chronic idiopathic childhood-onset, which is characterized by both motor tics and vocal tics. It occurs worldwide and its clinical manifestations are similar regardless of country of origin. It is suspected that a genetic cause but has so far failed to demonstrate. A relationship between patients and redheads syndrome Gilles de la Tourette because it has been hypothesized that there has been an overrepresentation of this group in patients with hair color. An association between red and black patients melanocortin receptor 1 has been demonstrated, this being the only gene that explains the physiological variation in human pigmentation. Melanocortins are believed to relate to various diseases including pigmentary disorders, disorders of the adrenal loungers, obesity, anorexia, long-term nerve pain. The inheritance of Gilles de la Tourette is autosomal recessive mode of inheritance the same red color.

To explore this hypothesis, we sent 168 questionnaires to patients with SGT registered in Tourette Syndrome Association of Australia. In this study 22.13% (95% CI 8.8 to 19.4) of the population with the syndrome was a redhead. Australian normal population present this color of hair only 2-6%. The proportions of subjects in this study were redheads significativante higher in 5 of the 8 control groups. 55% of patients had at least one red-haired family. Of these, 33% were first-degree relatives, 24 were more distant relatives. Many patients have multiple relatives with GTS redheads, 90 patients had 181 red-headed families.

A total of 8 research projects have been under way in date and the Technical Secretariat of the SAN in order to compete for first aid neurological research on the SAN.
The list of projects eligible for the award by alphabetical order is:

“Cardiovascular Autonomic Dysfunction in Parkinson Disease” (Virgend de las Nieves Hospital of Granada)

“Study of Retinal toxicity in patients with refractory epilepsy undergoing long-term antiepileptic therapy with optical coherence tomography (Torrecárdenas Hospital de Almería)

“Study of the BDNF Val66Met polymorphism in Parkinson’s disease (Hospital Virgen del Rocío de Sevilla)

“Assessing the predictive validity and diagnostic utility of EUROTEST and Test Photos (Hospital Virgen de las Nieves de Granada)

“Ocular mitochondrial myopathies: Description epidemiological, clinical, pathophysiologically and mutational analysis of mitochondrial DNA of this disease in Spain. Genotype-phenotype correlation.” (Hospital Virgen del Rocío de Sevilla)

“Resistance to treatment with interferon beta in multiple sclerosis patients: Influence of exogenous IFNbeta on receptor expression and function of IFNAR and the role of the soluble fraction of the receptor (slFNAR-2) and blocking its biological activity (Carlos Haya Hospital Málaga)

“Safety and efficacy of intra-arterial injection of autologous stem cells from bone marrow in acute ischemic stroke (Hospital Virgen del Rocío de Sevilla)

“Assessing metabolic and cognitive changes in cerebral white matter in patients with fenilalaninemia treated with tetrahydrobiopterin. Andalusian population study of 32 cases (Hospital Infantil Virgen del Rocío de Sevilla)
The 8 projects will be evaluated by the Scientific Committee of the Company under the criteria set in the call guidelines.
The jury’s decision is final and will be announced at the annual meeting of the Society, held in Roquetas de Mar on 18-20 October 2007.

Andalusian Society of Neurology welcomes the high turnout achieved in the first call for neurological research grants from the SAN.

There are many things people can do in order to stay healthy in the workplace. Getting a CPR certificate may also look good on your resume and you may never know when you will need your skills and how they can change the world to help people. it is very important to make sure people know what they are doing when they are trying to perform first aid techniques on someone.

It is essential to remember about things like that and pay attention to what they are doing. It is not enough to read manuals and look at the pictures. It is important to see how everything works at Safety Group and train on good mannequins to receive the best results and find out the maximum information about the way this or that technique is performed. It is very important to pay attention to all those things and see how they are affecting life.