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	<title>Canadian Association for Neuroscience</title>
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	<link>http://www.can-acn.org</link>
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		<title>New research points to brain regions that recognize facial expressions&#8212;or do not</title>
		<link>http://www.can-acn.org/new-research-points-to-brain-regions-that-recognize-facial-expressions-or-do-not</link>
		<comments>http://www.can-acn.org/new-research-points-to-brain-regions-that-recognize-facial-expressions-or-do-not#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 14 Feb 2012 15:29:53 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Julie</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.can-acn.org/?p=1410</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Feb. 13 2012 &#8211; It’s Valentine’s Day, he forgot to bring flowers, and somehow that painfully sad look on her face is simply not registering in his mind.  Could be it’s a problem in his prefrontal cortex? Neuropsychology researchers at the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital – The Neuro, McGill University, have found that two areas of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) are critical for either detecting or distinguishing emotions from facial expressions.  People with damage to these areas cannot understand the wide variety of facial expressions that convey social signals, which are important for anyone trying to navigate their way in society.  And not only on Valentine’s Day. Dr. Lesley Fellows, lead investigator, and her student Ami Tsuchida studied a large sample of patients with damage to various regions within the PFC, testing to see where damage had the biggest impact on emotion recognition.  The result of their tests led to conclusions about two sub-regions of the PFC that until now had been little studied. “Patients with damage to the ventromedial PFC had a hard time distinguishing a neutral facial expression from emotional ones,” said Dr. Fellows.  “Patients with left ventrolateral PFC damage recognized that an emotion was present in [...]]]></description>
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		<title>Warning! Collision Imminent!</title>
		<link>http://www.can-acn.org/warning-collision-imminent</link>
		<comments>http://www.can-acn.org/warning-collision-imminent#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 07 Feb 2012 15:53:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Julie</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[motion detection]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sensory information processing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[vision]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.can-acn.org/?p=1364</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Feb. 6th, 2012 - The brain’s quick interceptions help you navigate the world - When you are about to collide into something and manage to swerve away just in the nick of time, what exactly is happening in your brain? A new study from the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital – The Neuro, McGill University shows how the brain processes visual information to figure out when something is moving towards you or when you are about to head into a collision. The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA (PNAS), provides vital insight into our sense of vision and a greater understanding of the brain. Researchers at The Neuro and the University of Maryland have figured out the mathematical calculations that specific neurons employ in order to inform us of our distance from an object and the 3D velocities of moving objects and surfaces relative to ourselves.  Highly specialized neurons located in the brain’s visual cortex, in an area known as MST, respond selectively to motion patterns such as expansion, rotation, and deformation. However, the computations underlying such selectivity were unknown until now. Using mathematical models and sophisticated recording techniques, researchers have discovered how individual [...]]]></description>
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		<title>Genetic breakthrough for brain cancer in children</title>
		<link>http://www.can-acn.org/genetic-breakthrough-for-brain-cancer-in-children</link>
		<comments>http://www.can-acn.org/genetic-breakthrough-for-brain-cancer-in-children#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:21:55 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Julie</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.can-acn.org/?p=1338</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Jan. 30, 2012 - Canadian-led research team identifies two mutations in crucial gene involved in deadly pediatric brain tumours An international research team led by the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI MUHC) has made a major genetic breakthrough that could change the way pediatric cancers are treated in the future. The researchers identified two genetic mutations responsible for up to 40 per cent of glioblastomas in children &#8211; a fatal cancer of the brain that is unresponsive to chemo and radiotherapy treatment. The mutations were found to be involved in DNA regulation, which could explain the resistance to traditional treatments, and may have significant implications on the treatment of other cancers. The study was published this week in the journal Nature. Using the knowledge and advanced technology of the team from the McGill University and Génome Québec Innovation Centre, the researchers identified two mutations in an important gene known as the histone H3.3. This gene, one of the guardians of our genetic heritage, is key in modulating the expression of our genes. &#8220;These mutations prevent the cells from differentiating normally and help protect the genetic information of the tumor, making it less sensitive to radiotherapy and chemotherapy,&#8221; [...]]]></description>
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		<title>Study Identifies a New Way Brain Cells Die in Alzheimer’s Disease &#8211; Will help lead researchers towards new treatments</title>
		<link>http://www.can-acn.org/study-identifies-a-new-way-brain-cells-die-in-alzheimers-disease</link>
		<comments>http://www.can-acn.org/study-identifies-a-new-way-brain-cells-die-in-alzheimers-disease#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 23 Jan 2012 20:12:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Julie</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Alzheimer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[brain]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cell death]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mitochondria]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[receptors]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.can-acn.org/?p=1249</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A new study challenges conventional thinking about how brain cells die in Alzheimer’s disease. The findings demonstrate a previously unknown mechanism by which the cells die and will help lead researchers in new directions for treating the degenerative brain disease. The study by scientists at the University of Calgary’s Hotchkiss Brain Institute is published this week in the prestigious journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). At the cellular level, our brains require a delicate balance of chemicals and molecules in order to function properly. The cells ‘talk to each other’ using chemicals called neurotransmitters, which activate specialized receptors. But as this study by Dr. Gerald Zamponi and Dr. Peter Stys shows, the cells of Alzheimer’s patients are dying because the key receptor responsible for memory and learning, called the NMDA receptor, is malfunctioning. It has previously been shown that Alzheimer’s patients have a malformed protein called Aβ present in their brains. With this research, Stys, Professor in the Department of Clinical Neurosciences and Zamponi, Head of the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, show in animal models a completely new mechanism of how this protein kills brain cells. They found that the NMDA receptor is strongly regulated by copper. [...]]]></description>
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		<title>Defective cell ‘battery’ plays central role in neurodegenerative disease</title>
		<link>http://www.can-acn.org/defective-cell-battery-plays-central-role-in-neurodegenerative-disease</link>
		<comments>http://www.can-acn.org/defective-cell-battery-plays-central-role-in-neurodegenerative-disease#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 17 Jan 2012 17:29:12 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Julie</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ARSACS]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cell death]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mitochondria]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[neurodegenerative]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.can-acn.org/?p=1209</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Jan. 17, 2012 - A devastating neurodegenerative disease that first appears in toddlers just as they are beginning to walk has been traced to defects in mitochondria, the ‘batteries’ or energy-producing power plants of cells. This finding by a team of researchers, led by investigators from the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital – The Neuro- at McGill University, was published in this week’s issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA (PNAS). The research, which was highlighted as “Novel &#38; Newsworthy” by the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB), significantly increases understanding of the disease and reveals an important common link with other neurodegenerative diseases, providing renewed hope and potential new therapeutic strategies for those affected around the world. WATCH THE VIDEO The disorder, Autosomal Recessive Spastic Ataxia of Charlevoix-Saguenay (ARSACS), primarily affects the cerebellum, a centre for movement coordination in the brain. ARSACS was first identified in the late 1970s in a large group of patients from the Charlevoix and Saguenay regions of Quebec. The incidence of ARSACS in this ‘founder’ population is 1 in 1,500-2,000 births, with a high carrier rate of 1 in 23. ARSACS strikes at an early age. Symptoms, which worsen [...]]]></description>
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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>How do we split our attention?</title>
		<link>http://www.can-acn.org/how-do-we-split-our-attention</link>
		<comments>http://www.can-acn.org/how-do-we-split-our-attention#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 27 Dec 2011 14:12:32 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Julie</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[attention]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[multi-tasking]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.can-acn.org/?p=1038</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[DEC. 21, 2011 - McGill&#8217;s Cognitive Neurophysiology Lab team finds that we are natural-born multi-taskers Imagine you&#8217;re a hockey goalie, and two opposing players are breaking in alone on you, passing the puck back and forth. You&#8217;re aware of the linesman skating in on your left, but pay him no mind. Your focus is on the puck and the two approaching players. As the action unfolds, how is your brain processing this intense moment of &#8220;multi-tasking&#8221;? Are you splitting your focus of attention into multiple &#8220;spotlights?&#8221; Are you using one &#8220;spotlight&#8221; and switching between objects very quickly? Or are you &#8220;zooming out&#8221; the spotlight and taking it all in at once? These are the questions Julio Martinez-Trujillo, a cognitive neurophysiology specialist from McGill University, and his team set out to answer in a new study on multifocal attention. They found that, for the first time, there&#8217;s evidence that we can pay attention to more than one thing at a time. &#8220;When we multi-task and attend to multiple objects, our visual attention has been classically described as a &#8220;zoom lens&#8221; that extend over a region of space or as a spotlight that switches from one object to the other,&#8221; Martinez-Trujillo, the lead [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<title>A breakthrough in pinpointing protective mechanisms in Multiple Sclerosis</title>
		<link>http://www.can-acn.org/breakthrough-protective-mechanism-ms</link>
		<comments>http://www.can-acn.org/breakthrough-protective-mechanism-ms#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 02 Dec 2011 16:20:36 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Julie</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[immune system]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[multiple sclerosis]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.can-acn.org/?p=939</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[December 1st, 2011 &#8211; In an article published today in the prestigious journal Science, a team of researchers led by Dr Alexander Prat and postgraduate fellow Jorge Alvarez at the University of Montreal Hospital Research Centre (CRCHUM) sheds light on how the blood-brain-barrier (BBB) works to prevent the incursion of the immune system into the brain. “Our findings provide a better understanding of the mechanisms used by the brain in mounting a natural defence against immune system aggression, as is the case in Multiple Sclerosis” explains Dr Prat. There is no known cure for this auto-immune disease of the central nervous system (CNS). One of the characteristics of this debilitating disease is the inability of the BBB to restrict and control the passage of immune cells into the brain. This intrusion of the body&#8217;s immune system into the brain affects the ability of neurons in the brain and in the spinal cord to communicate efficiently with one another, producing extensive and recurrent central nervous system damage. As such, Multiple Sclerosis (MS) symptoms can include paralysis, pricking or numbness, visual problems, repetitive difficulties with coordination and balance and in moving, which lead to chronic clinical handicap in MS patients. The BBB [...]]]></description>
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		<title>Researchers from Université Laval affiliated CHUQ discover a new therapeutic target for Lou Gehrig&#8217;s disease</title>
		<link>http://www.can-acn.org/a-new-therapeutic-target-for-lou-gehrigs-disease</link>
		<comments>http://www.can-acn.org/a-new-therapeutic-target-for-lou-gehrigs-disease#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 14 Nov 2011 21:57:21 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Julie</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ALS]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cell death]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[immune system]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[neurodegenerative]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.can-acn.org/?p=965</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[November 14, 2011. &#8211; A research team from Université Laval, led by Jean-Pierre Julien, has taken a new step in understanding the cellular mechanisms involved in Lou Gehrig&#8217;s disease, also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). This disease is characterized by degeneration of neurons that control muscle activity. By studying the spinal cord of people who died from ALS, the research team has discovered that there was overproduction of a protein called TDP-43 in their nervous tissue. The researchers have also shown that TDP-43 interacts with a key protein of the immune system, NF-kB. &#8220;Overexpression of TDP-43 leads to an exaggerated inflammatory response that increases the vulnerability of neurons to neurotoxic molecules that circulate in the body,&#8221; says Jean-Pierre Julien, professor at the Faculty of Medicine of Université Laval and a researcher at CRCHUQ . The protein NF-kB plays a central role in the regulation of many genes involved in immune response and inflammation. There are many inhibitors of this protein. The team tested an inhibitor of the NF-kB signaling pathway, withaferin A, in transgenic mice that express the main symptoms of ALS. &#8220;This drug has proved effective to reduce inflammation, improve motor control and partially restore the neuromuscular junction,&#8221; [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<title>What you want versus how you get it &#8211; New neuroeconomics study from The Neuro shows how you make decisions</title>
		<link>http://www.can-acn.org/what-you-want</link>
		<comments>http://www.can-acn.org/what-you-want#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 24 Oct 2011 16:17:56 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Julie</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[decision]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[neuroeconomics]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.can-acn.org/?p=870</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[October 21st &#8211; New research reveals how we make decisions. Birds choosing between berry bushes and investors trading stocks are faced with the same fundamental challenge &#8211; making optimal choices in an environment featuring varying costs and benefits. A neuroeconomics study from the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital – The Neuro, McGill University, shows that the brain employs two separate regions and two distinct processes in valuing ‘stimuli’ i.e. ‘goods&#8217; (for example, berry bushes), as opposed to valuing the ‘actions,’ needed to obtain the desired option (for example flight paths to the berry bushes). The findings, published in the most recent issue of the Journal of Neuroscience and funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, are vital not only for improving knowledge of brain function, but also for treating and understanding the effects of frontal lobe damage, which can be a feature of common neurological conditions ranging from stroke to traumatic brain injury to dementia. Decision making &#8211; selecting the most valuable option, typically by taking an action &#8211; requires value comparisons, but there has been debate about how these comparisons occur in the brain: is value linked to the object itself , or to the action required to [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Scientists Highlight Link Between Stress and Appetite</title>
		<link>http://www.can-acn.org/stress-and-appetite</link>
		<comments>http://www.can-acn.org/stress-and-appetite#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 12 Oct 2011 13:31:14 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Julie</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[appetite]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[stress]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://scienceweb.ca/?p=782</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Researchers in the Hotchkiss Brain Institute (HBI) at the University of Calgary’s Faculty of Medicine have uncovered a mechanism by which stress increases food drive in rats. This exciting discovery, published in the journal Neuron, could provide important insight into why stress is thought to be one of the underlying contributors to obesity.   Normally, the brain produces neurotransmitters (chemicals responsible for cellular communication in the brain) called endocannabinoids that send signals to control appetite. In this study, the researchers found that when food is not present, a stress response occurs that temporarily causes a functional re-wiring in the brain. This re-wiring may impair the endocannabinoids’ ability to regulate food intake and could contribute to enhanced food drive. The researchers also discovered that when they blocked the effects of stress hormones in the brain, the absence of food caused no change in the neural circuitry. Researchers Jaideep Bains, Ph.D. and Quentin Pittman, Ph.D., looked specifically at nerve cells (neurons) in the region of the brain called the hypothalamus. This structure is known to have an important role in the control of appetite and metabolism and has been identified as the primary region responsible for the brain’s response to stress. Bains explains, [...]]]></description>
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