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Parkinson's & Movement disorders news

Neuroscience

New evidence about dopamine delivery explains why current Parkinson's treatments succeed—and their limitations

A McGill-led study is challenging a popular theory about how dopamine drives movement, a discovery that could shift how scientists think about Parkinson's disease treatments.

Parkinson's & Movement disorders

New ALS diagnostic blood test boasts 97% accuracy

ALS is a debilitating paralytic disease characterized as the death of upper and lower motor neurons. Fortunately, ALS is relatively rare, with an incidence rate of 1.6 per 100,000 adults, resulting in about 30,000 cases in ...

Neuroscience

Aging midbrain neurons face energy crisis linked to Parkinson's

Dopamine neurons in a part of the brain called the midbrain may, with aging, be increasingly susceptible to a vicious spiral of decline driven by fuel shortages, according to a study led by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators. ...

Parkinson's & Movement disorders

Early Parkinson's predictor found in daily step count

Oxford's Big Data Institute and Nuffield Department of Population Health report that daily step counts may help identify who will later be diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, with lower activity patterns acting as an early ...

Parkinson's & Movement disorders

In-home sensor technology offers smarter care for ALS patients

Bill Janes is on a mission to improve life for people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). As a licensed occupational therapist and researcher at the University of Missouri, he's seen firsthand how the disease can steal ...

Neuroscience

Brain markers could yield early clues into Parkinson's disease

Parkinson's disease affects more than 1.1 million people in the United States, progressively damaging the brain cells that control movement. By the time symptoms like tremors appear, patients have already lost around half ...

Parkinson's & Movement disorders

Untreated sleep apnea raises risk of Parkinson's, study finds

New research reveals that people with untreated obstructive sleep apnea have a higher risk of developing Parkinson's disease. However, they can significantly reduce the risk by improving the quality of their sleep by using ...

Neuroscience

Pause and rewind: How the brain keeps time to control action

Whether speaking or swinging a bat, precise and adaptable timing of movement is essential for everyday behavior. Although we do not have sensory organs like eyes or a nose to sense time, we can keep time and control the timing ...

Parkinson's & Movement disorders

Evidence builds for disrupted mitochondria as cause of Parkinson's

For decades, scientists have known that mitochondria, which produce energy inside our cells, malfunction in Parkinson's disease. But a critical question remained: do the failing mitochondria cause Parkinson's, or do they ...

Alzheimer's disease & dementia

What polymers can teach us about curing Alzheimer's disease

Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have applied ideas from polymer physics to illuminate the mechanism behind a key pathology in Alzheimer's disease, the formation of fibrils of tau proteins. They showed that ...

Genetics

New genetic test targets elusive cause of rare movement disorder

Scientists at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School have developed a targeted genetic test to improve diagnosis for X-linked dystonia-parkinsonism (XDP), a rare and disabling movement disorder that affects ...

Neuroscience

Gut protein may protect brain cells in Parkinson's disease

Nearly 10 million people worldwide suffer from Parkinson's disease (PD), a condition causing muscle rigidity and tremors due to the loss of the chemical dopamine in the brain. One cause of PD is exposure to toxins. In a recent ...

Parkinson's & Movement disorders

Machine learning helps define new subtypes of Parkinson's disease

Researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine have used machine learning to define three subtypes of Parkinson's disease based on the pace at which the disease progresses. In addition to having the potential to become an important ...

Medical research

Protein droplets likely don't cause Parkinson's, study suggests

Liquid-liquid phase separation is not a precursor to formation of amyloid fibrils, a pathological hallmark of Parkinson's disease, shows a recent study. Rather, the formation of protein into liquid droplets may help to dissolve ...

Parkinson's & Movement disorders

Study reveals racial disparities in Huntington's disease diagnoses

Research led by UCLA Health reveals that Black patients with Huntington's disease in the U.S. and Canada received their diagnoses, on average, one year later compared to white patients after symptoms first appear.

Parkinson's & Movement disorders

Improving measurement of Parkinson's disease severity with AI

Despite recent advancements in the treatment of Parkinson's disease, it remains a challenge to accurately measure the progression of symptoms in this neurological disorder. While noticeable symptoms like tremors, stiffness ...

Parkinson's & Movement disorders

Could AI be the answer to early Parkinson's disease diagnoses?

Parkinson's disease is a significant health concern with profound impacts on individuals, the health care system and broader society. The current diagnosis model, which heavily relies on a medical professional interpreting ...

Neuroscience

Cracking the code for cerebellar movement disorders

The cerebellum is a region of the brain that helps us refine our movements and learn new motor skills. Patients and mouse models experience many kinds of abnormal movements when their cerebellum is damaged. They can have ...

Neuroscience

New cellular mechanisms in Parkinson's disease discovered

A pair of recent studies led by Joseph Mazzulli, Ph.D., associate professor in The Ken & Ruth Davee Department of Neurology's Division of Movement Disorders, have uncovered previously unknown cellular mechanisms involved ...

Parkinson's & Movement disorders

Brain connectivity on MRI predicts Parkinson's disease progression

The structural and functional organization of the brain as shown on MRI can predict the progression of brain atrophy in patients with early-stage, mild Parkinson's disease, according to a study published today in Radiology, ...

Alzheimer's disease & dementia

Diagnosing essential tremor after death helps families learn risk

A statistical tool designed to analyze 11 characteristics of postmortem brains reliably diagnosed a common neurodegenerative disease known as essential tremor (ET), a study led by researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center ...

Parkinson's & Movement disorders

Blood test could predict Parkinson's seven years before symptoms

A team of researchers, led by scientists at UCL and University Medical Center Goettingen, has developed a simple blood test that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to predict Parkinson's up to seven years before the onset ...

Parkinson's & Movement disorders

AI helps uncover early cell changes in ALS progression

New research from the University of St Andrews and the University of Copenhagen has harnessed the power of AI to generate new insights into the progression of ALS.