Category Health/Medical

Table: Results of gene analysis (top 20 genes)
from GWAS meta-analysis reveals novel loci and genetic correlates for general cognitive function: a report from the COGENT consortium

Findings could lead to new treatments for schizophrenia, ADHD etc. An international team of scientists, led by Todd Lencz, PhD, professor at The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research at Northwell Health and Hofstra Northwell School of Medicine, have unlocked some of the genes responsible for cognitive ability. Dr. Lencz et al studied the genes of 35,000 people and discovered new genetic variations related to cognitive ability.

60 international scientists form the Cognitive Genomics Consortium (COGENT)...

Dr. Andy Shih is Assistant Professor of Neurosciences at the Medical University of South Carolina and senior author on an article published online on Jan. 16, 2017 by the Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism. The article provides preclinical evidence that ministrokes can have a lasting effect on brain function that could contribute to dementia. Credit: Medical University of South Carolina

Evidence overwhelmingly supports a link between cognitive decline and cerebrovascular diseases such as atherosclerosis, arteriolosclerosis, and cerebral amyloid angiopathy...

Postprandial macrophage-derived IL-1β stimulates insulin and both synergistically promote glucose disposal and inflammation. Nature Immunology, January 2017 DOI: 10.1038/ni.3659

When we eat, we do not just take in nutrients – we also consume a significant quantity of bacteria. The body is faced with the challenge of simultaneously distributing the ingested glucose and fighting these bacteria. This triggers an inflammatory response that activates the immune systems of healthy individuals and has a protective effect, as doctors from the University and the University Hospital Basel have proven for the first time. In overweight individuals, however, this inflammatory response fails so dramatically that it can lead to diabetes.

It is well known that type 2 diabetes (or adult-onset diabetes) le...

The researchers caution that maintaining high levels of fitness through physical activity will not entirely eliminate or cure age- or Alzheimer’s disease related decline, but it may slow down the decline. NeuroscienceNews.com image is for illustrative purposes only.

Older adults who experience good cardiac fitness may be also keeping their brains in good shape as well. In what is believed to be the first study of its kind, older adults who scored high on cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) tests performed better on memory tasks than those who had low CRF. Further, the more fit older adults were, the more active their brain was during learning. These findings appear in the journal Cortex...