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Cerebrum 2003

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Hope for “Comatose” Patients

Each year, 1.5 million Americans suffer traumatic head injury; some lie unconscious for years. Two physicians argue for crucial distinctions among patients with severely impaired consciousness.

By: Nicholas D. Schiff, M.D.

Cerebrum

Feeding the Aging Brain

Those tiny hearts on some menus speak to people with cardiovascular health in mind. Now scientists are paving the way for another icon. Processes that “stoke the fires of aging” in the brain may be attacking the ability of neurons to communicate. Trying to counteract this with vitamins and supplements has been disappointing, but changes in diet are yielding dramatic results. Blueberries top the list, but there are many choices for a brain-healthy menu.

By: Barbara Shukitt-Hale, Ph.D., Mark A. Smith, Ph.D.

Cerebrum

A Wake-Up Call About Sleeping Sickness

When a man in London turned up recently with sleeping sickness, observers made comparisons with the border-crossing abilities of West Nile virus and SARS. Human African trypanosomiasis is again reaching epidemic proportions in Africa. A seasoned observer describes gains of recent research on this mystifying neurological disease—and how far we still are from curing or controlling it.

By: Peter G. E. Kennedy, M.D., Ph.D., D.Sc.

Cerebrum

Seeking the Right Answers About Right Brain-Left Brain

About 150 years ago, scientists realized that the right and left sides of our brains are different in size, anatomy, and what they do best. Nor are we all “lateralized” in the same way. That can be significant when the side of our brain we use affects how well we do things or when one side specializes, for example, in intense emotion and the other in thinking ahead. What was evolution attempting with this division of labor?

By: Lesley J. Rogers, D.Phil., D.Sc.

Cerebrum

Three Nobelists Ask: Are We Ready for the Next Frontier?

Sydney Brenner, Robert Horvitz, and John Sulston shared a 2002 Nobel Prize for discoveries in the tiny worm C. elegans that thrust molecular biology into the complex world of multi-cellular organisms and transformed how we think about how the brain develops. In recent interviews, all three voiced the same hope: That a new generation of scientists will begin to forge a genuine “systems neuroscience.”

By: Victor K. McElheny

Cerebrum

The Brain on Night Shift

There are people who lash themselves to their beds to guard against violently acting out their dreams. Other people fall fast asleep without warning during conversations. Both suffer from disorders related to rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. In June 2003, scientists celebrated the 50th anniversary of the discovery of REM sleep and the ensuing advance in understanding brain function. But, writes Morrison, the reason the brain goes into high gear several times a night still eludes scientists.

By: Adrian R. Morrison, D.V.M., Ph.D.

Cerebrum

Climb Aboard! Neuroimmunology Is Leaving the Station

Neuroimmunology took off because two established disciplines began to find surprising connections where only disjunctions had been seen. Scientists began to realize that some of the same processes and substances were at work in both the nervous and immune systems—and the race was on. In a decade or less, the investigators interviewed by Asbury have made discoveries about immune activity in the brain, the role of inflammation in both systems, and the nature of disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease.

By: Carolyn Asbury, Ph.D.

Cerebrum

Deserving the Last Great Gift

Almost unknown three decades ago, research on the postmortem brain today engages scientists worldwide. Their work depends upon individuals who leave their brains for research, or whose families decide, at a time of grief, to give the brain of a loved one. That decision—and the legal status of the gift—is affected by laws, guidelines, and practices now being shaped by hundreds of new brain banks. Benes urges brain banks to demonstrate that they and the scientists they serve merit the trust of those who make the last great gift.

By: Francine M. Benes, M.D., Ph.D.

Cerebrum

Beyond Raging Hormones

The Tinderbox in the Teenage Brain

Puberty brings hormonal changes, intense feelings, and craving for arousal, but, writes Dahl, these alone cannot explain the lapses in judgment that shock parents and make adolescents highly vulnerable to addiction, suicide, violence, and other destructive behaviors. We must understand the very different timetables at work in adolescents, whose brain development may not be complete until their twenties but for whom, in most societies, puberty has been arriving earlier.

By: Ronald Dahl, M.D.

Cerebrum

A Jangling Journey

Life with Tourette Syndrome

What is brain science learning about Tourette's syndrome, which often begins in childhood and often frustrates, infuriates, and humiliates its sufferers?

By: Peter J. Hollenbeck, Ph.D.

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