Articles about 'brain'

Researchers have identified the cause of chronic, and currently untreatable, pain in those with amputations and severe nerve damage, as well as a potential treatment which relies on engineering instead of drugs.

Rapid advances in neuroscience are driving a huge shift in our understanding of how the brain works and could improve both our cognitive abilities and our brain health, writes Professor Barbara Sahakian (Department of Psychiatry) on The Conversation website.

It's over a hundred years since the first case of Alzheimer’s disease was diagnosed. Since then we’ve learned a great deal about the protein ‘tangles’ and ‘plaques’ that cause the disease. How close are we to having effective treatments – and could we even prevent dementia from occurring in the first place?

Researchers have identified a new mechanism controlling brain development: that neurons not only ‘smell’ chemicals in their environment, but also ‘feel’ their way through the developing brain. 

Researchers have identified how alpha-synuclein, the protein associated with Parkinson’s Disease, enables communication between neurons in the brain, offering important clues about what may be happening to patients when the protein malfunctions.

Craniectomy – a surgical procedure in which part of the skull is removed to relieve brain swelling – significantly reduces the risk of death following traumatic brain injury, an international study led by the University of Cambridge has found. 

A specific gene expression pattern maps out which parts of the brain are most vulnerable to Alzheimer’s disease, decades before symptoms appear, and helps define the molecular origins of the disease.

The brains of teenagers with serious antisocial behaviour problems differ significantly in structure to those of their peers, providing the clearest evidence to date that their behaviour stems from changes in brain development in early life, according to new research led by the University of Cambridge and the University of Southampton, in collaboration with the University of Rome “Tor Vergata” in Italy.

The male and female brains have more in common than media reports often suggest, argues Julia Gottwald, a third year PhD student at the Department of Psychiatry. Writing in the student science magazine BlueSci, she explains what we understand about the similarities and differences in our brains and why this is an important area of research.

Hugh Hunt (Department of Engineering) discusses how we manage to stay upright on a bicycle.