Only actual and fresh news

At the moment a newborn switches from amniotic fluid to breathing air, another profound shift occurs: nerve cells in the brain convert from hyperexcitability to a calm frame against which outside signals can be detected...

A Duke University Medical Center researcher who spent years looking for the signals that prompt the brain to form new connections between neurons has found one that may explain precisely how a well-known drug for epilepsy and pain actually works. The finding may also point to new therapies for brain injury and neuropathic pain. The role of neurons in the brain and nervous system is well known, but astrocytes, a different type of brain cell, still are largely a mystery.

Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have identified a key molecular player in guiding the formation of synapses - the all-important connections between nerve cells - in the brain. This discovery, based on experiments in cell culture and in mice, could advance scientists' understanding of how young children's brains develop as well as point to new approaches toward countering brain disorders in adults.

New research to be published in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology reports the pregnancy complications experienced by women with epilepsy and examines the use of antiepileptic drugs (AED) for treatment during pregnancy. Epileptic women (around 0.3-0.7% of the population) who become pregnant are classified as high-risk because prolonged fits can be dangerous for the baby as well as the mother.