Category: Brain

http://archpsyc.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1727437

Dr. Paola Dazzan and researchers at King’s College London have identified neuroimaging markers in the brain which could help predict whether people with psychosis respond to antipsychotic medicatins or not.

The team used MRI to scan the brains of 126 people – 80 who had experienced a first episode of psychosis and 46 healthy controls.  The scans were done shortly after the psychotic episodes, and the participants were assessed again 12 weeks later to see whether symptoms had improved after initial treatment with antipsychotic medications.
The researchers looked at a feature of the brain called “cortical gyrification” – the extent of folding or wrinkling of the cerebral cortex, the outermost sheet of brain tissue that plays a key role in memory, language and consciousness.  They found that people who did not respond to treatment had less gyrification in many brain regions – particularly in areas considered important in psychosis such as the temporal and frontal lobes.

http://www.frontiersin.org/Integrative_Neuroscience/researchtopics/Attism_The_Movement_Perspectiv/801

Rutgers and Indiana University researchers have developed a motion sensor that they claim can help diagnose and treat autism.

A movement tracker is attached to the individual, which senses “systemic signatures,” measuring each person’s movement as they respond to various screen images from a computer program showing 240 images a second.  This analyzes the importance of changes in movement and movement sensing, enabling the identification of stable capabilities in each individual, and highlights the impairments of a person’s movement system.  The screening tool can measure tiny fluctuations, determining exactly how an individual’s movement differs to that of a more typically developing child or adult.

The researchers claim that their work could potentially be used as an early therapeutic tool, helping autistic children learn and communicate more effectively.

http://www.uclb.com/news-and-events/news-post/avatar-therapy-helps-silence-voices-in-schizophrenia

Researchers at University College London and the Wellcome Trust have developed an avatar based system to enable those suffering from schizophrenia to control the voice of hallucinations.

The patient creates a computer-based avatar, choosing the face and voice of the entity they believe is talking to them. The system then synchronizes the avatar’s lips with its speech, enabling a therapist to speak to the patient through the avatar in real time. The therapist encourages the patient to oppose the voice and attempts to help them take control of their hallucinations.

Professor Julian Leff developed the therapy and is leading the project. He said: “Even though patients interact with the avatar as though it was a real person, because they have created it, they know that it cannot harm them, as opposed to the voices, which often threaten to kill or harm them and their family. As a result the therapy helps patients gain the confidence and courage to confront the avatar, and their persecutor.  We record every therapy session on MP3 so that the patient essentially has a therapist in their pocket which they can listen to at any time when harassed by the voices. We’ve found that this helps them to recognize that the voices originate within their own mind and reinforces their control over the hallucinations.”

http://www.salk.edu/news/pressrelease_details.php?press_id=623

Salk and Gladstone Institute scientists have found a way to untangle neural networks by enhancing a brain mapping technique that they first developed in 2007.

“These initial results should be treated as a resource not only for decoding how this network guides the vast array of very distinct brain functions, but also how dysfunctions in different parts of this network can lead to different neurological conditions,” said Salk professor Edward Callaway.

The researchers combined mouse models with a tracing technique known as the monosynaptic rabies virus system to assemble maps of neurons that connect with the basal ganglia, a region of the brain that is involved in movement and decision making.

“The monosynaptic rabies virus approach is ingenious in the exquisite precision that it offers compared with previous methods, which were messier with a much lower resolution,” explained Gladstone investigator Professor Anatol Kreitzer.  “In this paper, we took the approach one step further by activating the tracer genetically, which ensures that it is only turned on in specific neurons in the basal ganglia. This is a huge leap forward technologically, as we can be sure that we’re following only the networks that connect to particular kinds of cells in the basal ganglia from other parts of the brain.”