Neuroscience In The News On April 11

These are articles that I found of interest relating to news about Neuroscience.  In this issue, I have highlighted articles about the more than one road to fear in the brain, exercise slows down mental health decline, and using stem cells for spinal regrowth.

Please check out the article links below and feel free to comment with other information related to these subjects.  I enjoy learning as much as I can about the brain and passing this information on to everyone else that shares these passions.

This is for the week beginning April 11, 2016.

Please come back each week and hopefully I will have some more highlights.  Feel free to share with me ones that you have found and I may highlight those as well.

Feel free to check out the highlighted articles from April 4, 2016

More Than One Road To Fear In The Brain

The results of that experiment, described in the March 23 Journal of Neuroscience, add to evidence that the amygdalae, small, almond-shaped brain structures tucked deep in the brain, aren’t the only bits of the brain that make a person feel afraid. “Overall, this suggests multiple different routes in the brain to a common endpoint of the experience of fear,” says cognitive neuroscientist Stephan Hamann of Emory University in Atlanta.

Article Link:

• Brain Holds More Than One Road To Fear
• Stephan Hamann, Emory University

Exercise Slows Mental Health Decline

In this study, 876 people at an average age of 71 who were a part of the Northern Manhattan Study, a group of people considered for stroke and for the potential to have a stroke, were asked how long and how often they exercised in the two weeks before their in-person interview.

Among the participants, 90 percent reported light exercises, such as walking and gardening, or no exercise at all. Those people were placed in the low activity group. The remaining 10 percent reported moderate to high-intensity exercises, such as running and aerobics, and were put in the high activity group.

Article Link:

• Exercise might slow rate of mental decline by 10 years for older people
• Study Details posted on Neurology.org
• Dr. Clinton Wright, Associate Professor of Neurology, University Of Miami

Stem Cell Therapy Enables Spinal Regrowth

Researchers at the University of California-San Diego School of Medicine and Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System, with colleagues in Japan and Wisconsin, collaborated to investigate the feasibility of using corticospinal neurons for this purpose.

Dr. Tuszynski says that this was the first time for the team to use neural stem cells to find out whether they would support regeneration, where other cell types had not.

He had been skeptical that therapies could be developed to improve function in humans, but the possibility of regenerating "the most important motor system for humans," now looks more likely. 

Article Link:

• Stem Cell Therapy Enables Spinal Regrowth
• Source:  Medical News Today.com
• Senior Study Author, Dr. Mark Tuszynski, UC-San Diego