University launches new era of progress in neuroscience Understanding the brain and nervous system is one of the most pressing challenges in medicine. To meet this challenge, WashU Medicine has built and is opening the Neuroscience Research Building, a 609,000-square-foot facility expected to be among the nation’s premier neuroscience research hubs. Read more.
Alzheimer’s disease usually is diagnosed based on symptoms, such as when a person shows signs of memory loss and difficulty thinking. Up until now, MRI brain scans haven’t proven useful for early diagnosis in clinical practice. Such scans can reveal signs of brain shrinkage due to Alzheimer’s, but the signs only become unmistakable late in […]
His phone rang all day. Same unknown number. It had to be a telemarketer. Engrossed in an NIH workshop about the obstacles of research, Damien Fair, PhD ’08, ignored the call. At the end of the day, he answered to say, in his polite Minnesota-bred way, “Please take me off your list!” A weighted pause. […]
Time wears differently on women’s and men’s brains. While the brain tends to shrink with age, men’s diminish faster than women’s. The brain’s metabolism slows as people grow older, and this, too, may differ between men and women. A new study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis finds that women’s brains appear […]
The National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded two grants, totaling about $3.7 million each, to study the link between sugar breakdown and the aging brain. One study, led by Andrei Vlassenko, MD, PhD, assistant professor of radiology, and Manu Goyal, MD, assistant professor of radiology, both at the School of Medicine, will […]
From the WashU School of Medicine’s Outlook Magazine… In a 1987 expedition, neurologist Marcus Raichle, MD, climbed 18,000 feet above sea level, scaling the icy Karakoram Mountains of Pakistan. There, amidst heavy snow and high winds, Raichle and 18 researchers injected themselves with radioactive xenon. A crude scanner measured the gas as it diffused through […]
Data may aid diagnosis of brain conditions, shed light on brain development From the WashU School of Medicine News… An MRI scan often generates an ocean of data, most of which is never used. When overlooked data is analyzed using a new technique developed at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, they surprisingly […]
Such rhythmic waves linked to state of consciousness From the WashU Newsroom… If you keep a close eye on an MRI scan of the brain, you’ll see a wave pass through the entire brain like a heartbeat once every few seconds. This ultra-slow rhythm was recognized decades ago, but no one quite knew what to […]