A team of international researchers has discovered five genetic
variants that influence the size of structures within the human brain.
The findings were
published this week in the journal Nature.
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It is a myth that the brain quits generating new cells once you reach adulthood. They are regenerating all the time.
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The study was led by Drs. Sarah Medland, Margie Wright, Nick Martin and Paul Thompson of the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute in Australia. In the study, nearly 300 researchers analyzed genetic data and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans from 30,717 individuals from around the world.
They examined genetic
data from seven subcortical brain regions - nucleus accumbens, caudate,
putamen, pallidum, amygdala, hippocampus and thalamus - and intracranial volume
from MRI scans.
![Brain Tumor]( "Brain Tumor")
Brain tumors are the abnormal growth of brain cells that may be benign or metastatic. Brain tumors account for about 2.4% of all the tumor diagnosesandare most challenging due to their critically delicate location.
The goal was to determine how common genetic variants affect the structure of these seven subcortical brain regions, which are associated with memory, movement, learning and motivation, said Dr. Jessica Turner, associate professor of psychology and neuroscience at Georgia State, who organized some of the teams collecting and evaluating data from participants with schizophrenia.
Changes in these brain areas can lead to abnormal behavior and predisposition to disease.
Previous research has shown the brain's structure is shaped by genetic influences. According to the researchers, identifying genetic variants could provide insight into the causes for variation in human brain development and help to determine how dysfunction in the brain occurs.
"The team looked at several million base pairs or locations on the human genome. Through a large-scale, international data sharing and data-analysis-sharing effort, we were able to actually successfully identify genetic effects on the hippocampus, putamen and other brain regions that no one had ever successfully identified genetics effects on before," Turner said.
Source: Medindia
Brain Tumor
Brain tumors are the abnormal growth of brain cells that may be benign or metastatic. Brain tumors account for about 2.4% of all the tumor diagnosesandare most challenging due to their critically delicate location.
Advertisement
The goal was to determine how common genetic variants affect the structure of these seven subcortical brain regions, which are associated with memory, movement, learning and motivation, said Dr. Jessica Turner, associate professor of psychology and neuroscience at Georgia State, who organized some of the teams collecting and evaluating data from participants with schizophrenia.
Changes in these brain areas can lead to abnormal behavior and predisposition to disease.
Previous research has shown the brain's structure is shaped by genetic influences. According to the researchers, identifying genetic variants could provide insight into the causes for variation in human brain development and help to determine how dysfunction in the brain occurs.
"The team looked at several million base pairs or locations on the human genome. Through a large-scale, international data sharing and data-analysis-sharing effort, we were able to actually successfully identify genetic effects on the hippocampus, putamen and other brain regions that no one had ever successfully identified genetics effects on before," Turner said.
Source: Medindia
Brain Exercises to Improve Memory
An active brain can certainly help in improving memory by strengthening the connections between neural impulses in brain.
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 ElectroencephalogramAn electroencephalogram (EEG) detects electrical activity in the brain using electrodes attached to the scalp. | Advertisement
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