Can the nerve signaling inhibitor tomosyn help retain long-term memory? A new study by two University of Illinois at Chicago biologists points to the link.

Findings by Janet Richmond and David Featherstone, both professors of biological sciences at UIC, are reported in the Oct. 31 online early edition of the Proceedings of the National…    



Recessions experienced in mid-life linked to higher risk of cognitive decline later on

Lay-offs and enforced part time work and lower paid, lower status jobs (downward job mobility), sparked by recessions, may explain the toll taken on cognitive ability - memory, verbal fluency, temporal orientation, and numeracy - the findings suggest.

Previous research suggests that working conditions may influence the potential to build up “cognitive reserve,” which…    



New research on walnuts and the fight against Alzheimer’s disease

A new animal study published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease indicates that a diet including walnuts may have a beneficial effect in reducing the risk, delaying the onset, slowing the progression of, or preventing Alzheimer’s disease.

Research led by Abha Chauhan, PhD, head of the Developmental Neuroscience Laboratory at the New York…    



Patient self-reporting version of ‘blood pressure cuff’ for dementia is reliable and valid

The patient self-reporting version of the Healthy Aging Brain Care Monitor - a primary-care tool to measure cognitive, functional and psychological symptoms - is user-friendly, reliable and valid, including being sensitive to symptom change, according to a new Regenstrief Institute and Indiana University Center for Aging Research study.

Similar to the way the blood…    



Support cells in the brain offer a new strategy to boost memory

A study by scientists from the Gladstone Institutes shows that decreasing the number of A2A adenosine receptors in a particular type of brain cells called astrocytes improved memory in healthy mice. What’s more, reducing receptor levels also prevented memory impairments in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease.

Published today in Nature Neuroscience, the findings…    



Blood vessels in older brains break down, possibly leading to Alzheimer’s

University of Southern California (USC) neuroscientists may have unlocked another puzzle to preventing risks that can lead to Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers at Keck Medicine of USC used high-resolution imaging of the living human brain to show for the first time that the brain’s protective blood barrier becomes leaky with age, starting at the hippocampus,…    



Building block for memory and learning identified

Researchers have been fascinated for a long time by learning and memory formation, and many questions are still open. Bochum-based neuroscientists Prof Dr Denise Manahan-Vaughan and Dr Hardy Hagena have discovered a key building block for this complex process. A particular neurotransmitter receptor, namely the metabotropic glutamate receptor 5, is a switch for activating…