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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 ...

Parkinson's & Movement disorders

Parkinson's disease: Wearable sensors to track symptoms

EPFL scientists have developed algorithms that, combined with wearable sensors, could help clinicians to monitor the progression of Parkinson's disease and assess the effects of medications commonly used by people with this ...

Neuroscience

Mapping neural connections in Parkinson's disease

The imbalanced activation of neural cells and previously unknown connections within the brain's external globus pallidus (GPe) and striatum may be responsible for some motor symptoms in Parkinson's disease and similar neurodegenerative ...

Oncology & Cancer

An amyloid link between Parkinson's disease and melanoma

On the surface, Parkinson's disease—a neurodegenerative disorder—and melanoma—a type of skin cancer—do not appear to have much in common. However, for nearly 50 years, doctors have recognized that Parkinson's disease ...

Parkinson's & Movement disorders

Parkinson's discovery points to possible future treatment approaches

More than 20 years after the discovery of the parkin gene linked to young-onset Parkinson's disease, researchers at The Ottawa Hospital and the University of Ottawa may have finally figured out how this mysterious gene protects ...

Parkinson's & Movement disorders

What do you know about Parkinson's disease?

April is Parkinson's Disease Awareness Month, which makes this a good time to learn more about this progressive nervous system disorder.

Parkinson's & Movement disorders

Parkinson's disease: When molecular guardians need to be protected

Parkinson's disease is the second most common, age-related, neurodegenerative disease: In Germany alone, about 300,000 people are affected and experience sometimes major limitations to their quality of life. Although Parkinson's ...

Neuroscience

Researchers discover how the brain learns from subconscious stimuli

Researchers uncovered for the first time what happens in animals' brains when they learn from subconscious, visual stimuli. In time, this knowledge can lead to new treatments for a number of conditions. The study, a collaboration ...

Neuroscience

Smoking cessation drug may treat Parkinson's in women

Texas A&M University College of Medicine ressearchers have recently discovered that cytisine—a smoking cessation drug commonly used in Europe—reduces the loss of dopamine neurons in females. These findings provide potential ...

Medical research

Parkinson's disease: Blood changes may occur years before diagnosis

Although Parkinson's disease affects around 1%-2% of people over the age of 65, there is currently no cure. And by the time it is diagnosed—typically by identifying problems with movement, such as slower movements and tremors—the ...