Another gene linked to Alzheimer's disease has been found. Early this year, the gene SORL1 was discovered to be a factor in late-onset dementia, along with ApoE4. Scientists have found another clue to the mind degenerating disease.

According to journal Neuron, people with a damaged copy of the GAB2 gene are more susceptible to developing Alzheimer's in their later years. Late onset Alzheimer's hit one out of ten people over 65 and about 50 percent of people over 85. Researchers from the Institute of Neurology and other institutions studied DNA gathered from 1,411 people and found that GAB2 has an effect on ApoE4.

People with Alzheimer's commonly have protein "tangles" in their brains. It was found that GAB2 (if undamaged) stops a protein called tau that has a direct effect on the formation of the said tangles. So if a person has a bad copy of GAB2, tau runs amok and you know what happens next. Alzheimer's Society's director of research, Professor Clive Ballard had this to say:

This impressive research suggests a common gene could be responsible for a four-fold increased risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. It is the most important risk factor gene to be identified in relation to tangles, which develop in the brain in Alzheimer's disease.

Interesting discovery. The faster they discover things, the faster they find cures, right? Let's hope they do.

The American Academy of Neurology will hold its 59th annual meeting in Boston from April 28 to March 5. One of the more pressing topics that will be presented is the recent study saying how wars affect soldiers' and veterans' brain structure.

Accordingly, the change in brain structure is somehow related to multiple health symptoms. The study employed 36 veterans of the first Gulf War (1990-1991). Half of this population showed multiple problems such as joint pain, fatigue, forgetfulness, headaches, skin rash, nausea, and difficulty in concentrating. The other half had a lower number of symptoms.

The study found out that those veterans with more health problems had a significantly smaller (5%) cortex compared to those with lesser symptoms. The two areas of the brain connected to thinking and memory were also smaller. Even the rostral anterior cingulated gyrus was 6% smaller as well.

Authored by Boston University School of Public Health Dr. Roberta White, the study also revealed that those with smaller brain volume performed worse on learning and memory tests. White commented,

We don't know the cause of these differences in the veterans' brain volumes, but the hypothesis is that they are related to exposure to hazardous substances during the first Gulf War. Many troops were exposed to hazardous substances such as pesticides, and other studies have shown that exposures to these substances affect the central nervous system.

White will explain further the study a scientific poster session at 7:00 a.m. on Tuesday, May 1, 2007. The meeting will be held in Exhibit Hall A of the Hynes Convention Center in Boston.

Are you having trouble sleeping? Does your mom have to wake you up so you can drink your sleeping pills all the time? Thanks to an intrepid band of researchers (well, they're always using the term "intrepid" in the movie and book blurbs, right?), studying a disease that causes people to suddenly drop off to sleep, insomniacs may finally be getting some shut-eye.

According to BREITBART.com, researchers have found that blocking brain receptors for orexin, a blood peptide, promoted sleep in rats, dogs and people. This was revealed in Sunday's online issue of the journal Nature Medicine.

Orexin, also known as hypocretin, is important in maintaining wakefulness. People who have narcolepsy don't have orexin in their bodies, hence the falling-asleep-at-really-inappropriate-times thing.

With this discovery, the research team now surmises that might be able to induce sleep by blocking the receptors in the brain that respond to orexin. They've come up with a drug that does just that and have reported successful testing on rodents, dogs, and (gasp!) people. The drug is currently being evaluated to pinpoint the correct dosage.

Dr. Thomas Scammell, an assistant professor of neurology at Harvard University and who was not part of the research team, said the work was "promising, with a certain amount of caution." He does caution however that the drug might cause a problem in the brain that is similar to narcolepsy.

Narcolepsy victims often also experience cataplexy, a condition in which they lose control of muscle tone for a few seconds to minutes. Francois Jenck of the Swiss drug company Actelion Pharmaceuticals, who also led the research team, said in a telephone interview that the drug tests did not prompt indications of cataplexy. Scammell pointed out, however, that cataplexy is difficult to study in the lab because it is often triggered by strong emotions.

Neurology magazine has recently published a study that links obesity to less brainpower. We've come to believe that eating that tuna sandwich does give us the right amino acids to boost our brain's power, but eating way too many tuna sandwiches apparently isn't really helpful. Blame it all on the BMI.

The seven-year study involved 2,223 salaried French workers aged 32 to 62. Its aim is to find out if there's any connection between the body-mass index (BMI) and the person's mental cognition. Overweight people have BMI of 25 and above.

Apparently, the results showed that thinner people (with lower BMIs) remembered more words in the memory and cognitive tests. Five years later, they still scored better than their flabbier counterparts. Note that the differences such as education level, age, gender and other factors were taken into account to render the results as accurate.

Although the results of the study have proven that fat can affect the brain's cognitive power, it's far more insightful to know that obesity is an all-encompassing issue that affects our entire lifestyle, more than just our physical conditions. The study does prove that "obesity in midlife may have long term consequences for the brain, not just for the heart." Is that news anymore?

Tuna sandwiches are way to good to be passed up, so go ahead and eat. But before it sinks down there and bloat your belly, burn it up on the treadmill. You'll live longer and smarter that way.

Over at the University Hospital in Geneva, a unique experiment has been going on. Two women have had electrodes implanted in their brains as a preparation for their surgery in order to treat epilepsy.

The purpose of the electrodes was to pinpoint the damaged or abnormal tissue which was causing the seizures, while also identifying adjacent areas in the brain to avoid during the operation. The doctors would send electrical signals to their brain via the electrodes, and the women had to say what they were feeling.

This is where the weird things begin to happen.

One of the regions of the brain to get zapped was the angular gyrus which is the region of the brain which combines vision and body sense. While this area was stimulated, one of two things started to happen: the first woman reported a shadowy figure which mimicked her movements and who was always just right behind her or beside her, but always out of view. She noted that the presence was unpleasant and that "he" (since she thinks the presence is male) is out to always get in her way and stop her from doing things. For example, a doctor handed her a card, but she claims that the presence was trying to take it from her as it doesn't want her to read it.

The second woman, on the other hand, noted that at the moment that the electric signals were sent to her brain, she suddenly found herself floating near the ceiling, and looking down at her legs as well as her "other" physical body. Both women reported that the said sensations ceased at the moment that the electric current was stopped.

Read the full article after the jump!

If you're familiar with the ultimatum game, then perhaps you've encountered this scenario: a stranger sitting next to you gets $ 10, and he's given the chance to share the money with you. He decides how much he'll give to you and how much he gets for himself, but only on one condition: If you refuse his offer, neither of you gets any money at all.

Before you play this game, let the scientists at the University of Zurich give you an small insight. Ernst Fehr and Daria Knoch have published an experiment which concerns the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) in the brain and its relation to how we decide in the "Ultimatum". Basically, the study has shown that when the DLPFC is switched off via transcranial magnetic stimulation, people who played the game change the way that they played it. A person may actually refuse the money if the stranger decides to offer him a low amount, just to punish him and fulfill his sense of justice. When the DLPFC became inactive, he tended to accept the money, however low the amount given to him. Thus, emotions became overwhelmed with the rational side that catered to self-interest.

The DLPFC, it turns out, is a crucial part in the brain that balances emotion and reason. And the fact that it doesn't develop fully until the teenage years is what possibly explains adolescent selfishness.

Now, of course, we're talking about a stranger here. You might decide differently if it's your closest pal, or if you're really out of cash. When this is the case, you have no choice but to willingly accept how much you're offered, because it won't violate your sense of justice at all. The study has only proven that in extreme cases involving terrorists, suicide bombers or gangsters, the brain's DLPFC provides a potent explanation for their vengeful acts, but to put it in perspective, one has to remember that we're all subject to this type of behavior, whether we realize it or not.

If you happen to know anyone taking steroids and have been telling them for who-knows-how-long to get off the stuff, well you now have another potent factor to add to your arsenal of reasons of why exactly they should not take the banned medication: steroids kill massive amounts of brain cells.

A study that has recently been published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry by Yale School of Medicine showed that high levels of the hormone testosterone kills nerve cells. Testosterone, by the way, is boosted to dangerous levels by steroids.

Researchers have discovered that nerve cells which were exposed to testosterone were triggered into going into programmed cell death known as apoptosis. Normally, apoptosis is the body's way of getting rid of damaged cells, but in the case of testosterone-induced apoptosis, even healthy cells were prompted into committing suicide, which in turn, can then cause severe neurological ailments such as Alzheimer's and Huntingdon's disease.

Besides the fact that it damages your brain at a cellular level, massive amounts of testosterone is also what prompt aggressive behavior among anyone who gets too much of this hormone, be it male, female or hamster. Yes, another study published in the Journal of Behavioural Neuroscience showed that after giving the normally-calm hamsters doses of anabolic steroids, they began exhibiting extremely aggressive behavior, an effect which lasted two weeks or half of their adolescent lives. This sudden aggression can be equated to the same effect that steroids and testosterone have on humans, which is known as "roid rage" in the sports world.

And sadly, with this kind of damage, not even anti-stupid pills can help.