Results of a large scale study indicate a considerable link between inherited depression and brain cortex thinning that occurs in the hemisphere.

Dr. Myrna Weissman led that study which published in the online journal of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Dr. Bradley Peterson was the first author of that study who is director of MRI Research in Psychiatry department at Columbia University Medical Center.

Peterson, Weissman and colleagues noticed the people with higher risk of becoming the victim of depression had 28% thinner brain cortex than those who didn’t have any known risk for the disease.

According to the researchers these results were quite amazing for them” “This rate of brain thinning is equal to brain loss amount that could be seen in the people with schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s disease,” Peterson says.

“The amount of difference was so great that we couldn’t even believe it, so we checked it again and again to find out all the alternative explanations, but the same difference occurred again and again.”

Explaining about how thinner cortex has link to depression, Peterson says that this thinness seems to affect a person’s ability to pay proper attention and make sense of emotional and social responses from other people.

In their study, Peterson and colleague also tested the levels of inattention of the participants of the study

U.S researchers have identified an enzyme that is being considered a key factor in neurons death in Alzheimer’s and some other neurodegenerative diseases’ patients.

The finding may help to develop some new drugs in treating these incapacitating diseases.z

In their study, the researchers thoroughly examined an enzyme that is known as HDACI and arranges chromatin, which is chromosomes’ structural component. Testing mice, the researchers found when HDAC1 was blocked in them; some of their neurons began to imitate their DNA very similar to when they were at the time of dividing. It wasn’t a usual cycle for neurons cell that caused their death. However, higher levels of HDACI avoided that process and guarded neurons.

…Click here to read more

MONDAY, Oct. 13– A new study says that higher alcohol intake can hurt or shrink your brain.

Rajesh Miranda, who is an associate professor of neuroscience and experimental therapeutics at the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine, says: “Though we known about that, it’s huge study which quantifies that.”

Miranda added, “It is not surprising that higher alcohol intake lead to the brain shrinkage, as such sort of things have also been observed in many other smaller studies and animal models. However, the astonishing thing is that the current study shows that even lower levels of alcohol intake are not protective.”

Their findings will be published in the Archives of Neurology in the October issue. …Click here to read more

According to a Swedish research, marriage or having a partner may decrease the risk of developing dementia considerably. The study has been presented at a US conference.

The researchers are of the view that it is social interaction between couples that helps to avoid the disease.

The Alzheimer’s Research Trust is considering the results quite worrying as in the UK divorce rates are considerably high.
“For some people, the problem might be even greater” the Karolinska Institute’s study suggests

…Click here to read more