The brain is an amazing thing. It is the control tower of the human body, controlling everything from our thoughts to our actions to keeping us breathing and everything in-between. Scientists and researchers are always learning new and interesting things about the human brain. Consider these three recent Brain News studies:
Is Obesity Hardwired in the Brain?
According to a recent study, for some people who are obese, the problem may have arisen in their brains. The study, conducted by researchers from Monash University in Australia and the University of Granada in Spain, looked at MRI brain scans of people’s responses to pictures of food. For the study, 39 obese people and 42 normal weight people were given buffet food and then shown pictures
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Other forms of exercise can also result in this feeling of great happiness.
Does Sleep Apnea Damage the Brain?
According to a recently released study, obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), a disordered suffered by roughly 22 million Americans, could be causing lasting damage to the brain. Those suffering from OSA repeatedly stop and start breathing while they are sleeping. The damage is likely caused by reduced oxygen intake to the brain caused by pauses in the individual’s breathing.
Using an MRI, researchers looked at the breakdown of the blood-brain barrier in those recently diagnosed with OSA as well as healthy participants. The blood-brain barrier prevents infections, bacteria, and chemicals from getting into and harming the brain. The study found that the blood-brain barrier was significantly weaker in those with OSA than the healthy participants.
Previously, scientists knew OSA could lead to high blood pressure, depression, anxiety, and memory loss. It can also lead to conditions such as a stroke, diabetes, and endocrine-related problems, and loss of testosterone. While therapies have been created to treat the breakdown of the blood-brain barrier for other conditions, this is the first study to show the breakdown of the blood-brain barrier happens during OSA. Rajesh Kumar, the study’s main researcher
* Obstructive Sleep Apnea is when the pharyngeal airway collapses or narrows respectively during sleep. It is accompanied by excessive daytime sleepiness and risk for cardiovascular disease. Risk factors for OSA include obesity, large soft palate/tongue, the male sex, and aging.
Dzevdet Smajlovic, professor from the Department of Neurology at the University of Tuzla in Bosnia stated that
oxygen. The brain can be deprived oxygen either by a blockage such as a blood clot, or the
In a way, this book highlights the various consequences of obesity in significant detail. In the author's opinion, obesity does impact on an individual's health negatively from both a surgical and mental
Beginning with the three main parts of the brain, the brain stem, the cerebellum, and the cerebrum, the website gives an overview of what I had studied in Basic Anatomy and Physiology class. The cerebrum, which controls memory, thinking, emotions, and voluntary movement, is the primary part of the brain affected by AD. In order to carry out its functions, the brain requires a rich blood supply of about 20 to 25 percent of the bodies’ blood total with each heartbeat. The whole vessel network picture demonstrates how vast the blood supply to the brain is and makes it
The article states that brain injury occurs when there is a loss of oxygen carrying blood flow to the brain. This damage starts at the cellular level and leads to neurological dysfunction.
Alzheimer’s. Parkinson’s. Brain Tumor. Hear any one of these triad of diseases and almost certainly, you diagnose yourself with an untimely death. And why should you not? A large percentage of the time, brain diseases are not curable, and treatment options remain very limited to none at all. However, thanks to a team at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, the possibility of a huge breakthrough in neurological treatment may be imminent. Under the leadership of Todd Mainprize, MD and Kullervo Hynynen, PhD, this team has astoundingly broken the blood-brain barrier(BBB).
The bones of the skull, the vertebral column, and the meninges, containing CSF, provide a hard box with an interior cushion around the brain and spinal cord. In addition, glial cells surrounding neurons form a blood-brain barrier that prevents any potentially harmful substances in the bloodstream from gaining access to neurons. However, these protective factors can become interrupted by the extreme sensitivity of nerve cells due to oxygen deficiency.
While vascular dementia develops, it passes out through seven stages which can be divided into three major stages. Those stages are early stage, middle stage, and late stage. First, in the early stage, the cells in the brain receive a constant amount of blood. According to this stage, the person does not suffer from any symptoms and the vascular system works naturally. But at the end of the early stage, the patient starts to be confused and have difficult in thinking. Therefore, the vascular system starts to damage due to some factors. According to Johns Hopkins Medicine “Blood flow to brain tissue may be reduced by a partial blockage or completely blocked by a blood clot” [1]. When this happens, the blood supply becomes less than the
Relapses are common in patients with OMS. With each relapse, attacks on the brain increase dramatically, resulting in further permanent brain damage. With each relapse, treatment for the patient starts at the beginning stages of their therapy (S. Berkley, personal communication, December 1, 2006). This brings us to Patient C, and his case
When a brain artery is blocked, an ischemic stroke occurs and electrical activity is compromised. The areas of injury in the brain are the core ischemic zone (the main area that blood flow is at its lowest) and the ischemic penumbra (surrounding area). Neurons carry necessary oxygen and glucose to the brain. When the brain is deprived of oxygen and glucose, brain cells, glial cells, and vascular cells are affected depending on the amount of blood supply and duration of blocked blood supply to the area. Cells in the penumbra have a chance of restoration if blood flow from surrounding arteries compensate. For areas absent of blood flow, hypoxic injury occurs and cells go through necrosis while surviving cells may
The aim of this research was to study a phenomenon that has been observed which is differences in development in the brain with regard to cues and an FMRI study of adults and children more especially from the perspective of psychology. Furthermore, we observed that obesity cases among children has been on the rise and as well dealt with food cues that trigger overconsumption due to their omnipresent nature (van Meer, van der Laan, Adan, Viergever & Smeets 2015). A brief look into the past has shown that these tempting food cues have increased susceptibility of children to obesity since brain development of a child is still ongoing and as a consequence the sharp rise of obesity among children (Bruce, Holsen, Chambers, Martin, Brooks, Zarcone
The blood brain barrier protects brain cells from harmful substances, as well as, pathogens, by preventing passage of many substances from blood into brain tissue.
Our brain is most complex organ system in our body. This three pound of tissue creates the main nerve center of the body. It controls our all body function, body movement, thought, and our behavior. Many of people do not know about the how a brain works? The left part of the brain controls our right side of the body and right side of brain part controls our left side of the body part. Our brain uses 20% of the total oxygen and blood in the body so it is required oxygen and nutrition from the blood for work properly. The lake of oxygen in the brain for 5 to 10-minute results in permanent brain damage or occurs a stroke. A stroke occurs when the blood supply to part of our brain is interrupted or severely reduced. A stroke is one of the diseases
When we use the phrase Blood Brain Barrier, (which for obvious reasons we'll refer to as BBB from here on out!), we're talking about all of these