Picture this: A soccer referee, dreaming he’s on the pitch, flings his arm up with an imaginary red card and accidentally smacks his sleeping partner in the face. Funny? Maybe on TV. In real life, acting out dreams is not only bad for domestic harmony, it can be a warning sign of looming neurodegenerative disease.
The cerebellum can’t get no respect. Located inconveniently on the underside of the brain and initially thought to be limited to controlling movement, the cerebellum has long been treated like an afterthought by researchers studying higher brain functions.
An ancient part of the brain long ignored by the scientific world appears to play a critical role in everything from language and emotions to daily planning. It’s the cerebellum, which is found in fish and lizards as well as people. But in the human brain, this structure is wired to areas involved in higher-order […]
Nobody knows why some children’s backs start to curve to one side just as they hit puberty. Most children diagnosed with scoliosis, or curvature of the spine, have no known risk factors.
People with a progressive form of multiple sclerosis (MS) face a gradual decline of brain function that slowly strips away the ability to walk and may cause problems with speech and vision. Available treatments are only modestly effective at slowing the decline.
The frequency of brain tumors has been underestimated in children with the common genetic syndrome neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1), according to a new study. This disorder is characterized by birthmarks on the skin and benign nerve tumors that develop in or on the skin. Brain tumors also are known to occur in children and adults […]
About 20,000 people in the United States are living with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. The invariably fatal disease kills the nerve cells that control walking, eating and breathing. Few people survive more than three years after diagnosis.
People with multiple sclerosis (MS) can find an abundance of conflicting advice suggesting that special diets – everything from avoiding processed foods to going low-carb – will ease their symptoms. But the evidence is scanty that dietary changes can improve fatigue or other MS symptoms.
When Kim Morey was a young girl, a mysterious illness affected her family, striking relatives one by one at around the age of 40, she recalled. “My dad’s grandmother had it, and then his mother and her sisters,” Morey said. “Then my dad’s cousin. And soon after that, my dad started showing symptoms.”
People who take drugs that suppress the immune system are less likely to develop Parkinson’s disease, according to a study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The findings, published May 31 in Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology, suggest that a person’s own immune system helps nudge him or her down the […]