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More than 5 million Americans may have Alzheimer's disease, according to estimates, and the numbers are growing as the population ages. The disease is an irreversible, progressive brain disorder that slowly destroys memory and thinking skills. And while there is no cure, several drugs can delay or prevent symptoms from worsening for up to five years or more, according to the National Institute on Aging and published research. Meanwhile, early diagnosis and treatment -- the goal of the new computer based program -- is key to allowing those with the disease to remain independent longer. The computer program integrates a range of Alzheimer's disease indicators, including mild cognitive impairment. In two successive stages, the algorithm selects the most pertinent to predict who has Alzheimer's. "Many papers compare the healthy to those with the disease, but there's a continuum," said Anant Madabhushi, F. Alex Nason professor II of biomedical engineering ...

The study, published online in the journal  Applied Developmental Science , followed a group of children from birth through 5th grade to track the influence of early home learning environments on later cognitive skills and understand the factors that might explain long-term influences . "There is growing evidence for the power of early learning environments on later academic success," said Catherine Tamis-LeMonda, the study's lead author and a professor of applied psychology at NYU Steinhardt. "Our study confirms that strong home learning environments arm children with foundational skills that are springboards to long-term academic achievement." Research shows that the home learning environment powerfully shapes children's language and cognitive development. Children's participation in learning activities, the quality of parent-child interactions, and the availability of learning materials like books and toys are three key features of the home lear...

The findings point to the role methionine overload can play during pregnancy and suggest that targeting the effects of this amino acid may lead to new antipsychotic drugs. The UCI study also provides detailed information on the neural developmental mechanisms of the methionine effect, which results in changes in the expression of several genes important to healthy brain growth and, in particular, to one linked to schizophrenia in humans. Amal Alachkar and colleagues based their approach on studies from the 1960s and 1970s in which schizophrenic patients injected with methionine experienced worsened symptoms. Knowing that schizophrenia is a developmental disorder, the UCI team hypothesized that administering three times the normal daily input of methionine to pregnant mice may produce pups that have also schizophrenia-like deficits, which is what occurred. The pups of the injected mothers displayed deficits in nine different tests encompassing the three schizophrenia-like sympto...

By the time you start losing your memory, it`s almost too late. That`s because the damage to your brain associated with Alzheimer's disease (AD) may already have been going on for as long as twenty years. Which is why there is so much scientific interest in finding ways to detect the presence of the disease early on. Scientists now believe that simple odor identification tests may help track the progression of the disease before symptoms actually appear, particularly among those at risk. "Despite all the research in the area, no effective treatment has yet been found for AD," says Dr. John Breitner, the director of the Centre for Studies on Prevention of Alzheimer's Disease at the Douglas Mental Health Research Centre of McGill University. He is one of the authors of the study on the subject that was recently published in the journal  Neurology . "But, if we can delay the onset of symptoms by just five years, we should be able to reduce the prevalence and sev...

Researchers from The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center collaborated on the study with Jane McGonigal of the Institute for the Future, who developed the mobile health app called SuperBetter after she suffered a concussion. Results of the study are published online in the journal  Brain Injury . The 19 teens who participated in the study received standard of care for concussion symptoms that persisted beyond 3 weeks after the head injury, and the experimental group also used the SuperBetter app as a gamified symptoms journal. "We found that mobile apps incorporating social game mechanics and a heroic narrative can complement medical care to improve health among teenagers with unresolved concussion symptoms, said first author Lise Worthen-Chaudhari, a physical rehabilitation specialist who studies movement at Ohio State's Wexner Medical Center's Neurological Institute. The American Academy of Neurology...

The number of individuals in the U.S. with vision problems is anticipated to double by 2050. Visual dysfunction and poor cognition are highly prevalent among older adults; however, the relationship is not well defined. Suzann Pershing, M.D., M.S., of the Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, Calif., and colleagues conducted an analysis of two national data sets, the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), 1999-2002, and the National Health and Aging Trends Study (NHATS), 2011-2015, to examine the association of measured and self-reported visual impairment (VI) with cognition in older US adults. The NHANES included 2,975 respondents, ages 60 years and older, who completed a test measuring cognitive performance. The NHATS included 30, 202 respondents ages 65 years and older with dementia status assessment. The researchers found that VI was significantly associated with worse cognitive function after adjusting for demographics, health, and other factor...