When the brain has trouble filtering incoming information and predicting what's likely to happen, psychosis can result, research shows ..read more

A small clinical trial found that the metabolic effects of a ketogenic diet may help stabilize the brain ..read more

Researchers report that mature oligodendrocytes -- the central nervous system cells critical for brain function -- cling to life following a fatal trauma for much, much longer than scientists knew. The findings suggest a new pathway for efforts to reverse or prevent the damage that aging and diseases such as multiple sclerosis cause to these important cells ..read more

Researchers have uncovered a strikingly similar suite of changes in gene activity in brain tissue from people with schizophrenia and from older adults. These changes suggest a common biological basis for the cognitive impairment often seen in people with schizophrenia and in the elderly ..read more

Researchers have found that adolescents being bullied by their peers are at greater risk of the early stages of psychotic episodes and in turn experience lower levels of a key neurotransmitter in a part of the brain involved in regulating emotions. The finding suggests that this neurotransmitter may be a potential target for pharmaceutical interventions aimed at reducing the risk of psychotic disorders ..read more

To rapidly transmit electrical signals in the brain, the long nerve fibers are insulated by specialized cells called oligodendrocytes. These cells also respond to the electrical signals of active nerve fibers and provide them with energy on demand, as researchers have discovered. If this process, regulated by potassium, is disabled in mice, the nerve fibers are severely damaged as the animals age -- resembling the defects of neurodegenerative diseases ..read more

The quest for personalized medicine, a medical approach in which practitioners use a patient's unique genetic profile to tailor individual treatment, has emerged as a critical goal in the health care sector. But a new study shows that the mathematical models currently available to predict treatments have limited effectiveness ..read more

The use of the antipsychotic drugs quetiapine and haloperidol is associated with an increased risk of ventricular arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death (SCD) caused by drug-induced QT prolongation, reports a new study. Caution is advised to manage cardiac risks in patients prescribed these medications, the authors of the study and an accompanying editorial say ..read more

New research for the first time reveals the function of a little-understood junction between cells in the brain that could have important treatment implications for conditions ranging from multiple sclerosis to Alzheimer's disease, to a type of brain cancer known as glioma. Neuroscientists focused on the synapse connecting neurons to a non-neuronal cell, known as oligodendrocyte precursor cells. OPCs can differentiate into oligodendrocytes, which produce a sheath around nerves known as myelin. Myelin is the protective sheath covering each nerve cell's axon -- the threadlike portion of a cell t ..read more

Scientists were able to show that statistical models created by artificial intelligence (AI) predict very accurately whether a medication responds in people with schizophrenia. However, the models are highly context-dependent and cannot be generalized ..read more