Silencing Growth Inhibitors Could Help Recovery from Brain Injury

sea-maid submitted, created time 1 week 5 days (gopast.net)

Silencing natural growth inhibitors may make it possible to regenerate nerves damaged by brain or spinal cord injury, finds a study from Children's Hospital Boston. In a mouse study published in the November 7 issue of Science, researchers temporarily silenced genes that prevent mature neurons from regenerating, and caused them to recover and re-grow vigorously after damage.

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Alzheimer's Protein Tracked in Injured Brains

jerry submitted, created time 2 months 2 weeks (www.time.com)

Scientists for the first time have peered into people's brains to directly measure the ebb and flow of a substance notorious for its role in Alzheimer's disease...

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10 percent of healthy people in study had injury from "silent strokes"

kavin submitted, created time 4 months 3 weeks (esciencenews.com)

A recent study found that about 10 percent of the apparently healthy middle-aged participants with no symptoms of stroke were injured from "silent strokes," researchers report in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association. Silent cerebral infarction (SCI), or "silent stroke," is a brain injury likely caused by a blood clot interrupting blood flow in the brain. It's a risk factor for future strokes and a sign of progressive brain damage that may result in long-term dementia.

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Tympanic-Membrane Perforation as a Marker of Concussive Brain Injury in Iraq

jiangyun submitted, created time 1 year 2 months (content.nejm.org)

Military blast exposure, principally in the form of roadside improvised explosive devices (IEDs), continues to be the signature mechanism of injury for coalition forces in Iraq.In 2005, the U.S. military reported 10,953 IED attacks, at an average of 30 per day.Combat body armor provides soldiers with considerable protection against penetrating ballistic injury, yet it is unlikely to afford significant protection from the effects of blast overpressure. The ear is the organ that is most vulnerable to damage by blast overpressure

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Lightning injury expert offers safety tips

DanyC submitted, created time 1 year 4 months (www.discover8.com)

The biggest misconception people have about getting struck by lightning, one of the world's leading experts on lightning strike injuries says, is that it won't happen to them.

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Exercise science principles strengthen swallowing rehabilitation

MCGmcrowley submitted, created time 1 year 6 months (www.mcg.edu)

Just thinking about swallowing makes it harder to do.
Head and neck cancer, a stroke, brain tumor, brain injury or even a tracheostomy tube and mechanical ventilation needed to sustain life can make it impossible.

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Inosine promotes recovery of skilled motor function in a model of focal brain injury

athena submitted, created time 1 year 7 months (brain.oxfordjournals.org)

"Recovery of function following traumatic brain injury (TBI) is partly through neuronal plasticity. However plasticity is limited in the adult CNS compared with young animals. In order to test whether treatments that enhance CNS plasticity might improve functional recovery after TBI, a new rat head injury model was developed, in which a computer-controlled impactor produced full thickness lesions of the forelimb region of the sensorimotor cortex. Behavioural deficits were seen in several sensorimotor tasks, most of which recovered spontaneously by 21 days.“

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Hunting ways to prevent epilepsy after brain injury

broadcast submitted, created time 1 year 7 months (www.cnn.com)

Survivors of traumatic brain injuries -- from car-crash victims to soldiers wounded in Iraq -- face an extra hurdle as they recover: Thousands of them will develop epilepsy months or years later. The risk is especially high for certain kinds of war injuries. Studies of Vietnam veterans suggest up to 50 percent. Major new research is beginning into ways to predict exactly who is most at risk and how to protect their vulnerable brains.

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Stroke victims train brains to see again

catherine submitted, created time 1 year 9 months (www.sciam.com)

A new study bolsters evidence that people partially blinded by a stroke or brain injury may be able to improve their field of vision by teaching new parts of their brain to see, U.S. researchers said on Thursday.

Using a computer workout program for the brain, about three-quarters of patients in the study could see better after six months of treatment with the therapy, which trains neighboring brain cells to take over for damaged areas. The results of the therapy proved the brain is plastic, capable of rewiring itself even long after an injury

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