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Advances in MRI hold great promise for diagnosis and treatment of neurological disorders

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) uses a strong magnetic field and radio waves to create detailed, cross-sectional images of the organs and tissues within the body. This non-invasive method helps identify anomalies of the brain and spinal cord. Hospitals routinely use MRI machines with field strengths of 1.5 Tesla or 3 Tesla (T). The stronger the magnetic ...

September is World Alzheimer's Month

September 2018 is the seventh annual World Alzheimer’s Month, an international campaign to raise dementia awareness and challenge stigma. According to Alzheimer’s Disease International, someone in the world develops dementia every three seconds. Worldwide, there are over 50 million people living with dementia in 2018; if effective risk-reduction strategi...

Scientists Discover a New Type of Brain Cell in Humans

A team of 34 international scientists have discovered a new type of brain cell in humans that is not found in mice and other animals used to model human brains in experiments. Rosehip neurons are an inhibitory neuron that forms synapses with pyramidal neurons. According to Dr. Trygve Bakken, co-author of the article in Nature and a neuroscientist at the...

‘Functional Fingerprint’ May Identify Brains Over a Lifetime

Like the unique pattern of a fingertip can identify a person for a lifetime, researchers are exploring if the same is possible for the human brain through functional fingerprinting. “Functional fingerprinting”, a phrase coined by Damien Fair, associate professor of neuroscience and psychiatry at Oregon Health and Science University, is a method used t...

A Futuristic Look at Assessing Learning

“How do we enhance cognition?” Dr. Adam Gazzaley, who spoke at our 2017 BrainFutures Conference, is working relentlessly to find out. Gazzaley has identified key areas where he feels our education system is lacking, including poor initial assessments, lack of personalization, and a one-size-fits-all unimodal approach. Perhaps the greatest deficiency is that o...

How Untreated Depression Changes the Brain Over Time

Leaving depression untreated for too long may lead to neurodegenerative levels of brain inflammation, a recent study found. While the right amount of brain inflammation protects us from disease and helps repair the brain when it’s injured, "[g]reater inflammation in the brain is a common response with degenerative brain diseases as they progress, such as wi...

The Power of Meditation: What We Learned From the 12 Thai Boys

Can you imagine being trapped inside of a cave for two weeks, with no food and little oxygen? For most of us, our first reaction would be to panic. Twelve young boys trapped inside of a northern Thailand cave used a survival technique that most people wouldn’t have thought of—Buddhist meditation, a tool for achieving clarity and peace of mind, and liberati...

Brain Awareness Week

BrainFutures is proud to partner in Brain Awareness Week, the global campaign to increase awareness about the progress and benefits of brain research. Check out this Brain Brief on the Dynamic Interplay of Genetics, and learn more about education and events worldwide at www.dana.org/baw/ ...

12 Finalists to take part in the Brainnovations Pitch Contest

SharpBrains, a partner of BrainFutures, is proud and excited to announce the 12 groundbreaking startups that will get to pitch their idea and solutions at the Brainnovations Pitch Contest on December 6th, hosted during Day 2 of the 2017 SharpBrains Virtual Summit (December 5-7th). These are the 12 selected Finalists, together with their summary eleva...

FDA Permits Marketing of Mobile Medical Application for Substance Use Disorder

Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration permitted marketing of the first mobile medical application to help treat substance use disorders (SUD). The Reset application is intended to be used with outpatient therapy to treat alcohol, cocaine, marijuana and stimulant SUDs. The application is not intended to be used to treat opioid dependence. Learn the ful...