Chiari Malformation

A young teacher with a rare neurological disorder has been warned she could die if she laughs too hard, because it could push her brain out of her skull.

Carolyn Gibbons, 23, suffers from a condition called Chiari malformation, which means the lower part of her brain is too big. This can block the flow of fluid to her head through her spinal canal, she endures blurred vision, slurred speech and crippling migraines and any sudden movements feel like her head ‘is about to pop’, jerking movements, such as during a fit of giggles, could cause her brain to herniate into the top of the spinal column - raising the risk of sudden death

I want to eat brains!

What have you got in your head?  by Sara Ansanghi

 

A series of human brains made with different foods.

Neurons (in blue to yellow) growing on top of astrocytes (in red, helper cells within the nervous system) in a human stem cell embryoid body (a cluster of differentiating human embryonic stem cells).

Image by Juan Carlos Izpisúa, Center of Regenerative Medicine in Barcelona.

Blood Brain Barrier

 

Blood-brain barrier. Confocal light micrograph of a section through a blood vessel in the brain, showing the arrangement of cells that form the blood-brain barrier. The lumen (interior) of the vessel runs horizontally across the upper frame. The endothelial cells that line the blood vessels of the brain are packed more tightly than elsewhere in the body. This barrier protects the brain from many potentially harmful molecules and micro-organisms, but also presents a challenge for the administration of drugs to the brain. Surrounding the blood vessel are glial cells (green), which provide structural support for neurons (nerve cells, red) and supply them with nutrients and oxygen. It is also thought that glial cells help maintain the blood-brain barrier.

Brain Tissue

 

Light micrograph of a section cut through human nervous tissue showing nerve cells in gray matter of the brain. Nerve cells are seen as cell bodies (brown) with round central nucleus.

Time for Class!

Anatomy taught by human dissection is an important part of medical training for surgeons, and postmortem examination provides vital clues to the pathology of diseases and thus their treatment.

This picture shows an antiquated method of removing the brain after it is severed from the body - from a 1905 manual of postmortem pathology by Henry W. Cattell (note the lack of gloves).

Hydrocephalus

Hydrocephalus, also referred to as “water on the brain,” is a condition in which the cerebral spinal fluid is unable to drain from the brain, causing a backup of fluid in the skull. The ventricles enlarge to accommodate for the excess fluid, pressing on different parts of the brain and causing a variety of symptoms.

Some people are born with this condition while others develop it at some point in their life. In children, it can cause their heads to swell, as their skull’s “soft spots” have not yet hardened, allowing them to stretch in order to accommodate for the extra fluid. In older people, the head cannot expand because their skull bones are fused together. This means that the pressure on the brain is intensified, causing severe headaches that may be coupled with vomiting, sleepiness, and difficulties with balance, among other things.

If this condition is left untreated, it can cause brain damage, loss in mental and physical abilities, and even death. If caught early and treated quickly though, most children can recover.

Eating Less Makes Your Brain Younger

Eating Less Makes Your Brain Younger link
By Alasdair Wilkins
12/19/2011

Studies have shown that putting someone on a near-starvation diet eating 70% of usual food consumption will extend lifespan greatly. Mice placed on these extreme diets show greater cognitive abilities than their counterparts and they are less aggressive. Most excitingly, they only rarely develop Alzheimer's disease, and when they do the symptoms tend to be much less severe than in those of other mice. Effectively, caloric restriction is keeping mouse brains young.

And now Italian researchers have discovered what molecule is effected by this caloric restriction; CREB1. the molecule activates genes linked both to longevity and to the proper, more efficient functioning of the brain. We already knew that CREB1 helps regulate brain functions like memory, learning, and control of anxiety, and that aging reduces the effect of this molecule. Now we know that reduced caloric intake can improve the molecule's performance, and even slow the onset of aging in the brain.

In fact, it seems that the benefits of caloric restriction in the brain are all to do with CREB1 - when the molecule is removed from the mouse's brains, caloric restriction has no cognitive benefit. The researchers believe this same mechanism should exist in humans. Team leader Dr. Giovambattista Pani says he hopes to discover new drugs that can super-charge the activation of CREB1 without having to endure such an extreme diet. If they are successful, we could keep our brains younger and fitter than ever, while still being allowed to enjoy a good meal.