Loss of pleasure and happiness linked to frontotemporal dementia, brain study shows
Posted 4
updated 4
AprApril 2021 at 7:19am
In contrast to Alzheimer’s disease, memory often remains unaffected in frontotemporal dementia, especially in the early stages.
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Those living with a type of dementia that affects younger people can t feel as happy as they did before developing the disease because the pleasure system in their brain has deteriorated, new research suggests.
Key points:
In frontotemporal dementia, the frontal and/or temporal lobes of the brain become progressively damaged
Diminished pleasure is associated with atrophy in areas of the brain related to feeling pleasure, research shows
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ATLANTA Georgia State University researchers have received a five-year, $3 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to develop new strategies to identify mood disorders using whole brain dynamics, which considers changes in the shape, size or location of brain networks, as well as changes in the connections between brain networks.
The researchers will use the approaches they develop to integrate four-dimensional brain imaging with clinical and cognitive data to identify clues about how mental illness presents in the brain.
Distinguished University Professor of Psychology Vince Calhoun, director of the Center for Translational Research in Neuroimaging and Data Science (TReNDS), is the lead researcher on the project.
COVID-19 vaccine may precipitate the development of functional neurological disorder
Videos of people experiencing severe neurological symptoms, including convulsions and difficulty walking, purportedly after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine, have surfaced on Facebook, YouTube and other social media channels. The millions of people watching these videos might conclude that the vaccine is either quite dangerous to produce such symptoms or that the people in the videos are faking their symptoms. Both conclusions are incorrect, according to neurologist and psychiatrist David Perez, MD, MMSc, director of the Functional Neurological Disorders Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH).
In a
JAMA Neurology Viewpoint, the authors explain that the COVID-19 vaccine may precipitate the development of functional neurological disorder (FND), a neuropsychiatric disorder with symptoms such as limb weakness, gait problems, jerky movements, tremor and facial spasms.
Parents who clean dummies with sprays and wipes could increase the chances of their child developing food allergies, researchers say.
The findings were released by Barwon Health, a health care provider in Geelong, south-west of Melbourne, last Tuesday following a study of 787 infants from birth to the age of one.
Scientists from the Barwon Infant Study found that six-month-old babies who were given dummies sterilised with chemical-based cleaning agents were four times more likely to develop food allergies by their first birthday.
Chemical-based sanitisers are often sold as dummy cleaners and wipes.
Parents who clean dummies with sprays and wipes could increase their child s chance of developing food allergies (stock image)
Researchers generate a precise map of basal ganglia connectivity
Thousands of our daily activities, from making coffee to taking a walk to saying hello to a neighbor, are made possible through an ancient collection of brain structures tucked away near the center of the cranium.
The cluster of neurons known as the basal ganglia is a central hub for regulating a vast array of routine motor and behavior functions. But when signaling in the basal ganglia is weakened or broken, debilitating movement and psychiatric disorders can emerge, including Parkinson s disease, Tourette s syndrome, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and obsessive-compulsive disorder.