Analyzing structural brain changes in Alzheimer's disease Nov 17, 2009
The new research shows that changes in the brain's memory regions, in particular a region of the temporal lobe called the entorhinal cortex, offer sensitive measures of the early stages of the disease. "Loss of volume in the hippocampus is a consistent finding when using MRI, and is a reliable predictor of cognitive decline," said Anders M. Dale, PhD, professor of neurosciences and radiology at the UC San Diego School of Medicine, who led the study. (EurekAlert!)
Theory About Long And Short-term Memory Challenged By New Research Nov 13, 2009
Typically, amnesia is caused by injury to the hippocampi, a pair of brain structures located in the depth of the temporal lobes ... The team studied patients with a specific form of epilepsy called 'temporal lobe epilepsy with bilateral hippocampal sclerosis', which leads to marked dysfunction of the hippocampi. (Science Daily)
The Sense of Smell Nov 4, 2009
This region sits in the temporal lobe and keeps the odor-specific mitral cells separate. Pheromones, Estrogen, and the Loss of the Sense of Smell. (Suite101.com)
How the Ear Works Nov 3, 2009
The information from the ears are processed primarily in the temporal lobe. The primary auditory cortex is laid out to correspond with the tonotopic map of the cochlea. (Suite101.com)
To 1/10: 'Face to Face' photo exhibit Oct 20, 2009
Faces are so central to the human experience that we have evolved a special place in our brain - the fusiform face area on the ventral surface of the temporal lobe on the fusiform gyrus, down in the bottom gulley of our skulls - whose sole purpose is recognizing them. Phoenix Art Museum: 'Face to Face. (AZCentral -- Entertainment)
Monkey drumming suggests origin of music Oct 17, 2009
They found overlapping networks activated in the temporal lobe, which in humans is key to processing meaning in both speech and vision. "Monkeys respond to drumming sounds as they would to vocalizations," researcher Christoph Kayser, a neuroscientist at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tbingen, Germany, told LiveScience. (MSNBC -- Environment)
Yerkes researchers present at 39th Annual Society for Neuroscience Conference Oct 17, 2009
Through her research, she records neural activity in monkeys that have been trained to perform various types of memory tasks and investigates how changes in neuronal activity correlate with each monkey's ability to learn and remember in order to better understand how medial temporal lobe circuits support memory formation. Such understanding has the potential to make way for new therapies aimed at reducing or preventing memory loss that results from medial temporal lobe disease. (EurekAlert!)
How Much Sleep do We Need? Oct 15, 2009
Impairment of Temporal Lobe Function ... In a research study done during verbal learning tests on subjects after they were fully rested, functional MRI scans of their temporal lobes (the part of the brain that is associated with processing of language) showed that this area of the cerebrum was very active ... In subjects who had been deprived of sleep, however, similar MRI scans showed no such activity within the temporal lobes. (Suite101.com)
Center is Reaching Out to brain injury victims Sep 18, 2009
helen wrote on Sep 13, 2009 6:51 AM:" I have a son with temporal lobe damage from the time he was 3 he is now 34 is he able to go also.Will there be doctors there to speak to also. ". diane wise wrote on Sep 11, 2009 1:16 PM:" know that those attending will be blessed by Reaching Out!- so cool and essential to bring people with BI and their families together! I only wish I could attend but distance prevents... Any chance of a chapter in Chicago area?!ENJOY! AND BE BLESSED! ". (Slidell Sentry-News, LA)
Epilepsy: The Cause and Effect Sep 14, 2009
Temporal lobe epilepsy. What are the different types of seizures. (Suite101.com)
Ultra champion Sep 9, 2009
Tests found that the area of the brain the seizures were stemming from was her right temporal lobe, so she underwent a procedure known as a right temporal lobectomy. Doctors first sawed the side of her head open and placed electrodes onto her brain to induce a seizure, to make sure they had found the right area. (BBC News -- Americas)
Seizure makes lady think shes a dude Sep 4, 2009
The tumor is located in the right amygdala, with irregular activity seen in the surrounding right temporal lobe. The amygdala seems to play an important role in processing , including aspects like familiarity, emotional state, and sex, and past studies revealed that electrical stimulation of the temporal lobe triggered doubt about sexual identity. (MSNBC -- Health)
Problem With Close-Talking? Blame the Brain Sep 3, 2009
Evolution seems to have programmed this discomfort via a brain structure called the , a pair of almond-shaped brain regions deep within each temporal lobe, which control fear and the processing of emotion ... This is not something you could (ethically) do to a research subject, but scientists have been studying a 42-year-old woman who has such severe damage to her amygdalae due to a rare genetic condition called Urbach-Wiethe disease, which causes calcification in the temporal lobes that they... (Time.com)
Is Tetris Good For The Brain? Sep 2, 2009
The areas of the brain that showed relatively thicker cortex were the Brodmann Area (BA) 6 in the left frontal lobe and BA 22 and BA 38 in the left temporal lobe. Scientists believe BA 6 plays a role in the planning of complex, coordinated movements. (Science Daily)
Doctor: Despite Tumor, He Had High Quality of Life Aug 27, 2009
Gruber said the fate of a brain tumor patient depends on the tumor's "real estate." For example, if the tumor is located on the frontal or temporal lobe, then the patient's speech might be affected. Since Kennedy's tumor was on the left parietal lobe, he suffered seizures. (Fox News)
As Waistlines Widen, Brains Shrink Aug 26, 2009
Much of the lost tissue was in the frontal and temporal lobe regions of the brain, the seat of decision-making and memory, among other things. The findings could have serious implications for aging, overweight or obese individuals, including a heightened risk of Alzheimer's, the researchers said. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution -- Health)
Fragile period of childhood brain development could underlie epilepsy Aug 24, 2009
"During early childhood roughly between the ages of one and five the brain undergoes a period of major circuit remodeling," explains senior author Matthew Anderson, MD, PhD, a principal investigator in the Departments of Neurology and Pathology at BIDMC. "Our discovery that a familial form of temporal lobe epilepsy can develop at this point demonstrates the fragility of the brain during this critical period." ... Autosomal dominant lateral temporal lobe epilepsy (ADLTE) is characterized by... (EurekAlert!)
Formal Education Lessens Impact Of Alzheimer’s Disease -- Even If Brain Volume Is Already Reduced Aug 13, 2009
Perneczky R, Wagenpfeil S, Lunetta KL, Cupples LA, Green RC, Decarli C, Farrer LA, Kurz A. Education Attenuates the Effect of Medial Temporal Lobe Atrophy on Cognitive Function in Alzheimer's Disease: The MIRAGE Study. J Alzheimers Dis, 17:4 (August 2009). (Science Daily)
Formal education lessens the impact of Alzheimer's disease Aug 12, 2009
The results are published in the current issue of the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease ("Education attenuates the effect of medial temporal lobe atrophy on cognitive function in Alzheimer's disease: The MIRAGE Study," Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, August 2009) ... Reference: Perneczky R, Wagenpfeil S, Lunetta KL, Cupples LA, Green RC, Decarli C, Farrer LA, Kurz A. Education Attenuates the Effect of Medial Temporal Lobe Atrophy on Cognitive Function in Alzheimer's Disease: The MIRAGE Study. (EurekAlert!)
* When loved ones become imposters Aug 11, 2009
These frontal and midline areas communicate with regions of the brain that process memory and emotion, in the medial temporal lobe, buried deep beneath each ear. And studies strongly suggest that in delusions of identity, these emotion centers are either not well connected to frontal midline areas or not providing good information. (Taipei Times, Taiwan -- Sports)
Brain damage, expert says Aug 7, 2009
Dr. Joseph Wu, a psychiatrist at University of California, said the convicted triple murderer shows damage in his temporal lobe and likely suffered damage from a concussion in childhood and possibly another one later in life. "His temporal lobe is malfunctioning," Wu said, comparing Heyne's condition to faulty brakes on a car. (Florida Today)
Scientists Track Impact Of DNA Damage In The Developing Brain Jul 30, 2009
Overall changes in the hippocampus mimicked those found in the brains of adults with the seizure disorder known as temporal lobe epilepsy. In this study, the loss of Xrcc1 also resulted in seizures in mice. (Science Daily)
Oprah, Luke Skywalker And Maradona: New Study Investigates How Our Brains Respond To Them Jul 27, 2009
"Interestingly, in humans, the same "concept" of Marilyn can be evoked with other stimulus modalities, for instance by hearing or reading her name. Brain imaging studies have identified cortical areas in the human temporal lobe that are selective to voices and words. However, how visual, text and sound information can elicit a unique percept is still largely unknown.". The University of Leicester team in collaboration with UCLA and Caltech used presentations of pictures, spoken and written names... (Science Daily)
the Oprah neuron Jul 25, 2009
While doctors waited to pin down these seizures, the team recorded hundreds of electrical signals from individual neurons in the medial temporal lobe. This large area includes a structure involved in storing and retrieving memories, the hippocampus (). (Harper's Magazine)
HIV Infection And Chronic Drinking Have A Synergistic, Damaging Effect On The Brain Jul 24, 2009
"Immediate episodic memory is dependent on intact medial temporal lobe systems that have been shown to be affected in both HIV infection and chronic alcoholism," explained Sullivan, "whereas working memory is primarily associated with more frontally based systems that may not be as severely effected at this moderate stage of disease. Results showed that individuals were able to retain information over time, which suggests that retrieval of information was intact, whereas lower scores on... (Science Daily)
Brain Imaging And Proteins In Spinal Fluid May Improve Alzheimer's Prediction And Diagnosis Jul 16, 2009
Researchers led by Michael Ewers, PhD, senior research fellow at Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, and Harald Hampel, MD, MSc, Chair of Psychiatry, Trinity College Dublin, identified 345 ADNI participants (81 with Alzheimer's, 163 with amnestic MCI; 101 elderly healthy controls) on whom there was available data including (a) cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) concentration and ratios of Alzheimer's related proteins: total tau, phosphorylated tau (p-tau181), and... (Science Daily)
Number Of Patients With Dementia On The Rise Jul 14, 2009
Using PET scans, doctors can image the amount of glucose used by the brain to determine whether there s a difference in brain use by the frontal lobe, temporal lobe or the parietal lobe. PET gives the ability to make predictions as to those individuals who will go on from mild impairment of memory to developing Alzheimer s disease. (Science Daily)
Low Brainer: Ancient Skull Shows Early Primates Didn't Need Big Brains Jun 24, 2009
One of the big differences, Bloch and the other authors noted, was the large olfactory area of the brain along with the smaller parts of the temporal lobe, which helps with visual processing. "They were smell-first animals, rather than sight-first," unlike today's primates, Bloch says. (Scientific American)
Can Alzheimer's Be Cured? Jun 24, 2009
Recent research has pinpointed disruptions in specific memory networks in Alzheimer s patients, such as those involving the posteromedial cortex and medial temporal lobe, that appear distinct from normal aging. The larger point is that while Alzheimer s is still incurable it s not untreatable. (Scientific American)
Alterations in brain's white matter key to schizophrenia, UCLA study shows Jun 23, 2009
"We found that healthy subjects showed a normal and expected increase in measures indexing white matter integrity in the temporal lobe as they age," said Karlsgodt, "but young people at high-risk for psychosis showed no such increase that is, they fail to show the normal developmental pattern." ... The other important finding, she said, was that by looking at white matter integrity in the temporal lobe at people's first appointment, "we could predict how well they would be functioning 15... (EurekAlert!)
“What if God is a sham?”: Reporter seeks what is behind mystical experiences Jun 20, 2009
Or, as one researcher later suggested, had the temporal lobe of her brain been briefly hyperstimulated. This, he told her, likely induced the illusion of an unseen presence. (La Crosse Tribune, WI)
Measuring brain atrophy in patients with mild cognitive impairment Jun 17, 2009
"These fully automated and rapid methods of measuring medial temporal lobe volumes may help clinicians predict cognitive decline in their patients, and have the potential to influence how neurology is practiced." ... Medial temporal lobe atrophy has been associated with increased risk for conversion of MCI to Alzheimer's disease. (EurekAlert!)
Drug's epilepsy-prevention effect may be widely applicable Jun 2, 2009
Zeng L-H, Rensing NR, Wong M. The mammalian target of rapamycin signaling pathway mediates epileptogenesis in a model of temporal lobe epilepsy. The Journal of Neuroscience, May 27, 2009. (EurekAlert!)
Tokoloshe 'wired' into us? May 27, 2009
"Temporal lobe epileptics are known to have formed hallucinations that include a human form of varying sizes.". They said it had often been argued that the search for answers to age-old conundrums could not always be found in scientific study, and that beliefs "are just what they are" and should be left alone. (iAfrica.com)
Scientists Reaching Consensus On How Brain Processes Speech May 27, 2009
Both pathways begin with the processing of signals in the auditory cortex, located inside a deep fissure on the side of the brain underneath the temples - the so-called "temporal lobe." Information processed by the "what" pathway then flows forward along the outside of the temporal lobe, and the job of that pathway is to recognize complex auditory signals, which include communication sounds and their meaning (semantics). The "where" pathway is mostly in the parietal lobe, above the temporal... (Science Daily)
Is This Your Brain On God? May 21, 2009
Part 2: The God Spot (Temporal Lobe). Part 3: Spiritual Virtuosos (Parietal Lobe). (NPR)
Barbara Bradley Hagerty: Can Science Help Find God? May 17, 2009
And that all of this that I felt that day and the subsequent decade was a sham, that it was just brain chemistry, an electrical storm in my temporal lobe, a delusion ... As one of them, a comedy writer named Jeff Schimmel, said to me: "It's sad to think that my love for my fellow man is due to a temporal lobe gone awry. But I don't really care. I'm happier and a better person because of this.". (Time.com)
Human Brain Can Recognize Objects Much Faster May 4, 2009
Visual information flows from the retina of the eye up through a hierarchy of visual areas in the brain, finally reaching the temporal lobe. The temporal lobe, which is ultimately responsible for our visual recognition capacity and our visual perceptions, also signals back to earlier processing areas ... And recognition was evident within as little as 100 milliseconds, too fast for information to be relayed from the visual cortex to the temporal lobe and back again. (Science Daily)
Bloomington hospital to document brain surgery on Twitter Apr 30, 2009
The patient, undergoing the procedure on the left frontal temporal lobe, gave consent to the Tweets. Germanis said that live-Twittering the surgery is a way for the hospital to promote the wide range of procedures its doctors perform locally, as well as document the complexity of an actual brain surgery. (The Pantagraph newspaper)
Now Where Did I Leave My Car? How The Brain Translates Memory Into Action Apr 28, 2009
They focused on the hippocampus- an elongated, banana-shaped structure beneath the brain's temporal lobe. The hippocampus contributes to conscious memory. (Science Daily)
Genius locus Apr 19, 2009
Dr Snyder, however, has found that stimulating an area called the left anterior temporal lobe improves people s ability to draw things like animals and faces from memory. It helps them, too, with other tasks savants do famously well proofreading, for example, and estimating the number of objects in a large group, such as a pile of match sticks. (The Economist)
Effects Of Disease Severity On Autobiographical Memory In Semantic Dementia Revealed In New Study Apr 13, 2009
5, 2008) Neuroscientists continue to debate whether or not long-term memory always depends on a region of the brain called the medial temporal lobe, which contains the brain's memory-processing center, the. . (Science Daily)
Gorilla gets MRI at Bronx Zoo Mar 27, 2009
The findings indicated that Fubo's condition was caused by a lesion in the left temporal lobe of his brain. The specific cause of the problem has not yet been determined. (EurekAlert!)
Neuroscientists Identify Physiological Link Between Trial And Error And Learning Mar 27, 2009
For the past half century, scientists have examined the role of the brain's medial temporal lobe in learning. Previous scholarship has determined that a critical function of the medial temporal lobe is to successfully acquire new information about facts and events ("declarative learning") by making new associations between initially unrelated items ("associative learning") ... Specifically, they were interested in cell activity in a portion of medial temporal lobe called the hippocampus. (Science Daily)
Woman Hurt in Terror Attack Wins Verdict Against New York Port Authority Mar 13, 2009
Mangone argued and his expert witnesses testified that Nash had sustained brain damage to her left temporal lobe in the blast, permanently affecting her memory and cognitive function. Nash testified that she moved to Durango, Colorado, where she lives on a 10-acre ranch with her husband, Jim McLaughlin. (Bloomberg -- US)
Scientists identify the neural circuitry of first impressions Mar 9, 2009
The first, the amygdala, is a small structure in the medial temporal lobe that previously has been linked to emotional learning about inanimate objects, as well as social evaluations based on trust or race group. The second, the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), has been linked to economic decision-making and assigning subjective value to rewards. (EurekAlert!)
Marinus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Announces Positive Results of its Phase 2 Clinical Trial of Ganaxolone as Adjunctive Therapy in Adults With Partial Onset Seizures Mar 3, 2009
Partial seizures are episodes of abnormal electrical activity in the temporal lobe of the brain, an area near the side of the head, resulting in unconsciousness with symptoms of decreased responsiveness and decreased awareness of self and surroundings. Partial seizures occur in about 35 percent of people with epilepsy. (PR Newswire)
Physical fitness improves spatial memory, increases size of brain structure Feb 25, 2009
The hippocampus, a curved structure deep inside the medial temporal lobe of the brain, is essential to memory formation. Remove it as was done in the well-known case of surgical patient Henry Gustav Molaison and a person's ability to store most new experiences in memory is destroyed. (EurekAlert!)
The Biology of Belief Feb 20, 2009
For the record, it's at the top of your head aft of the frontal lobe, fore of the occipital lobe, north of the temporal lobe. What makes the parietal lobe special is not where it lives but what it does particularly concerning matters of faith. (Time.com)
Derek and Addison face off on Grey's Feb 20, 2009
Derek removed her temporal lobe, startling everyone, but when it got even worse and he wanted to take out her frontal lobe which all agreed would leave behind little of the person Jens husband knew Addison and Derek wound up in a standoff. They stood poised over Jen with scalpels, Derek rather senselessly wanting to remove most of her brain to keep her nominally alive, risking the babys life; Addison claiming Jen was gone and wanting to save the baby. (MSNBC -- Television)
Guessing beats knowing in visual test Feb 11, 2009
Conscious recognition of an image corresponded to increases in two potentials that are indicative of explicit memory and located around the parietal cortex and medial temporal lobe. Correct guesses did not elicit changes in these potentials; instead, they caused rapid potential changes in the occipital and left frontal lobes. (Ars Technica)
Battling noise with nutrients among topics covered at international conference of ENT researchers Feb 10, 2009
The poster "Structural Integrity of Speech-Related Temporal Lobe Cortex Predicts Age-Related Differences in Word Recognition" (#141) takes place Sunday, February 15, at 1:00 p.m. in the Grand Ballroom. Can a Dietary Supplement Stave Off Hearing Loss. (EurekAlert!)
Surgery a Boon for Most Common Form of Epilepsy Feb 7, 2009
That's the finding of a new study that relied on computer modeling to assess the benefits of surgery of the temporal lobe region for people with temporal lobe epilepsy ... "People have been aware of the benefit of temporal lobe epilepsy surgery and the substantially greater portion of people that end up seizure-free, which substantially improves quality of life. Then, in addition to that, [there] is a survival benefit, which is just an additional piece of information that further emphasizes that... (MEDLINEplus)
