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By stimulating one part of the brain with laser light, researchers at the National Institutes of Health and the Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center at UCSF have shown that they can wipe away addictive behavior in rats – or conversely turn non-addicted rats into compulsive cocaine seekers.
Electroencephalogram, which measures and records electrical activity in the brain, is a quick and efficient way of determining whether seizures are the cause of altered mental status and spells, according to a UCSF study.
<p>A team of researchers at UCSF has uncovered the neurological basis of speech motor control, the complex coordinated activity of tiny brain regions that controls our lips, jaw, tongue and larynx as we speak.</p>
Hospital MRIs may be better at predicting long-term outcomes for people with mild traumatic brain injuries than CT scans, according to a clinical trial led by researchers at UCSF and the San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center.
William Seeley maps the path of frontotemporal dementia through the brain, correlating specific damage with behavioral change. By studying the disease from self to circuits to cells, this visionary neurologist searches for inroads to treatment.
DNA sequences obtained from a handful of patients with multiple sclerosis at the UCSF Medical Center have revealed the existence of an “immune exchange” that allows the disease-causing cells to move in and out of the brain.
<p>UCSF neuroscientists have found that by training on attention tests, people young and old can improve brain performance and multitasking skills.</p>
<p>A new study that represents a significant first step in exploring the potential of stem cells to treat neurological disease is a “natural outgrowth” of a longstanding culture of interdisciplinary collaboration in UCSF neonatology — a culture that UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital physicians David Rowitch and Donna Ferriero work hard to sustain.</p>
<p><span>Research has shown that women are at greater risk of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) than men. Now, scientists based at the UCSF-affiliated San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center (SFVAMC) have found that women with the condition might be more likely to experience faster aging at the cellular level and increased risk for diseases of aging than men with PTSD.</span></p>
<p>There is no cure for multiple sclerosis, but several medications can help slow its devastating effects, and extend healthier years for the roughly 2.5 million people worldwide diagnosed with this chronic neurological disease.</p>
Scientists at the UCSF-affiliated Gladstone Institutes have discovered that an FDA-approved anti-epileptic drug reverses memory loss and alleviates other Alzheimer’s-related impairments in an animal model of the disease.
Raising levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine in the frontal cortex of the brain significantly decreased impulsivity in healthy adults, in a study conducted by researchers at the Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center at the University of California, San Francisco.