Older news items (pre-2010) brought over from the old website
August 2009
Overweight and obese elderly have smaller brains
Analysis of brain scans from 94 people in their 70s who were still "cognitively normal" five years after the scan has revealed that people with higher body mass indexes had smaller brains on average, with the frontal and temporal lobes particularly affected (specifically, in the frontal lobes, anterior cingulate gyrus, hippocampus, and thalamus, in obese people, and in the basal ganglia and corona radiate of the overweight). The brains of the 51 overweight people were, on average, 6% smaller than those of the normal-weight participants, and those of the 14 obese people were 8% smaller. To put it in more comprehensible, and dramatic terms: "The brains of overweight people looked eight years older than the brains of those who were lean, and 16 years older in obese people." However, overall brain volume did not differ between overweight and obese persons. As yet unpublished research by the same researchers indicates that exercise protects these same brain regions: "The most strenuous kind of exercise can save about the same amount of brain tissue that is lost in the obese."
Raji, C.A. et al. 2009. Brain structure and obesity. Human Brain Mapping, Published Online: Aug 6 2009
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20327222.400-expanding-waistlines-may-cause-shrinking-brains.htm
October 2006
Brain scans reveal 'chemobrain' no figment of the imagination
A PET study of 21 women who had undergone surgery to remove breast tumors five to 10 years earlier found that the 16 who had been treated with chemotherapy regimens near the time of their surgeries to reduce the risk of cancer recurrence had specific alterations in activity of frontal cortex, cerebellum, and basal ganglia compared to 5 breast cancer patients who underwent surgery only, and 13 control subjects who did not have breast cancer or chemotherapy. The alterations suggested the chemotherapy patients’ brains were working harder to recall the same information.
Silverman, D.H.S. et al. 2006. Altered frontocortical, cerebellar, and basal ganglia activity in adjuvant-treated breast cancer survivors 5–10years after chemotherapy. Breast Cancer Research and Treatment, Published online ahead of print 29 September
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-10/uoc--bn092906.php
March 2005
Primitive brain learns faster than the "thinking" part of our brain
A study of monkeys has revealed that a primitive region of the brain known as the basal ganglia learns rules first, then “trains” the prefrontal cortex, which learns more slowly. The findings turn our thinking about how rules are learned on its head — it has been assumed that the smarter areas of our brain work things out; instead it seems that primitive brain structures might be driving even our most high-level learning.
Pasupathy, A. &Miller, E.K. 2005. Different time courses of learning-related activity in the prefrontal cortex and striatum. Nature, 433, 873-876.
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2005/basalganglia.html
January 2005
Imaging reveals brain abnormalities in ADHD children
A new type of brain imaging called diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) has provided some suggestive evidence about brain abnormalities in children diagnosed with ADHD. Abnormalities were found in the white-matter pathways in the frontal cortex, basal ganglia, brain stem and cerebellum—areas that are involved in regulating attention, impulsive behavior, motor activity, and inhibition, which are all related to ADHD symptoms.
This research was presented at the 2004 annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America.
http://www.sciencentral.com/articles/view.htm3?article_id=218392460
November 2001
Competition between memory systems
Learning and memory in humans rely upon several memory systems. For example, the medial temporal lobe (MTL) is associated with declarative learning (facts and events). The basal ganglia is associated with nondeclarative learning (learning you derive from experience, that may not be conscious). A recent imaging study looked at how these memory systems interact during classification learning. During the nondeclarative learning task, there was an increase in activity in the basal ganglia, and a decrease in activity in the MTL. During the memorization task (testing declarative learning), the reverse was true. Further examination found rapid modulation of activity in these regions at the beginning of learning, suggesting that subjects relied upon the medial temporal lobe early in learning. However, this dependence rapidly declined with training.
Poldrack, R.A., Clark, J., Paré-blagoev, E.J., Shohamy, D., Moyano, J.C., Myers, C. & Gluck, M.A. 2001. Interactive memory systems in the human brain. Nature, 414, 546 - 550.
http://www.nature.com/cgi-taf/DynaPage.taf?file=/nature/journal/v414/n6863/abs/414546a0_fs.html
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2001-11/mgh-isi112601.php
May 2001
Significant brain differences between professional musicians trained at an early age and non-musicians
Research has revealed significant differences in the gray matter distribution between professional musicians trained at an early age and non-musicians, specifically in the primary sensorimotor regions, the left more than the right intraparietal sulcus region, left basal ganglia region, left posterior perisylvian region, and the cerebellum. It is most likely that this is due to intensive musical training at an early age, although it is also possible that the musicians were born with these differences, which led them to pursue musical training.
The study was presented at the American Academy of Neurology's 53rd Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, PA Reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2001-05/AAoN-Mtdc-0705101.php