A study at Örebro University in Sweden indicates that mobile phones and other cordless telephones have a biological effect on the brain. It is still too early to say if any health risks are involved, but medical researcher Fredrik Söderqvist recommends caution in the use of these phones, above all among children and adolescents. Few children who regularly use mobile phones use a headset ...

A new study is taking a closer look at the benefits versus risks for lung cancer patients to undergo preventative brain radiation therapy as a means to stop cancer from spreading to the brain. Study results show that while preventative brain radiation for patients with non-small cell lung cancer — the most common form of lung cancer — does reduce the chance of developing brain metastas...

Inflammatory response of brain cells — as indicated by a molecular imaging technique — could tell researchers more about why certain neurologic disorders, such as migraine headaches and psychosis in schizophrenic patients, occur and provide insight into how to best treat them, according to two studies published in the November issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine. By using positron...

A study published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences provides a comprehensive comparative functional anatomy study in human and monkey brains which reveals highly similar brain networks preserved across evolution. An international collaboration co-led by scientists at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City examined patterns of connectivity to show that the precun...

A new study has found that chronic disruption of one of the most basic circadian (daily) rhythms — the day/night cycle — leads to weight gain, impulsivity, slower thinking, and other physiological and behavioral changes in mice, similar to those observed in people who experience shift work or jet lag. The research, presented at Neuroscience 2009, the annual meeting of the Society for N...

Besides their tremendous value in treating high cholesterol and lowering the risk of heart disease, statins have also been reported to potentially lower the risks of other diseases, such as dementia. However, a study in the October Journal of Lipid Research finds that similar statin drugs can have profoundly different effects on brain cells -both beneficial and detrimental. These findings reinforc...

Researchers have discovered that a primitive region of the brain responsible for sensorimotor control also has an important role in regulating emotional responses to threatening situations. This region appears to work in concert with another structure called the amygdala to regulate social and emotional behavior. Georgetown University Medical Center researchers have recently discovered that activa...

In a surprising reversal of long-standing scientific belief, researchers at the Mayo Clinic campus in Florida have discovered that inflammation in the brain is not the trigger that leads to buildup of amyloid deposits and development of Alzheimer`s disease. In fact, inflammation helps clear the brain of these noxious amyloid plaques early in the disease development, as seen from studies in mice th...

Keeping track of time is one of the brain`s most important tasks. As the brain processes the flood of sights and sounds it encounters, it must also remember when each event occurred. But how does that happen? How does your brain recall that you brushed your teeth before you took a shower, and not the other way around? For decades, neuroscientists have theorized that the brain "time stamps&quo...

Music serves as a natural and non-invasive intervention for patients with severe neurological disorders to promote long-term memory, social interaction and communication. However, there is currently no plausible explanation of its neural basis for why and how music affects physical and psychosocial responses. Origins of music perception in humans may have their foundation in animal communication c...