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Cambridge, MA October 23, 2008 Biogen Idec (NASDAQ: BIIB) today announced the publication of Phase IIb data showing that a 240 mg three-times-daily dose of the company's novel oral compound, BG-12 (BG00012, dimethyl fumarate), reduced the number of new gadolinium enhancing (Gd+) lesions by 69 percent in patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (MS) when in comparison to therapy with placebo (pThe Lancet.......

We tend to judge others as more caring and generous when we are holding a hot drink than when we are holding a cold drink in our hands, said US researchers investigating the effect of physical warmth on social judgement. Dr John A Bargh from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, and Dr Lawrence E Williams from the University of Colorado at Boulder, published their findings in the 24 October issue of Science.

Scientists at the University of Liverpool have discovered dramatic differences in the memory performance of patients with damage to the hippocampus, an area of the human brain key to memory. The hippocampus is part of the medial temporal lobe, known to play a major role in conscious memory.

Our judgment of a person's character can be influenced by something as simple as the warmth of the drink we hold in our hand. In the current issue of the journal Science, Yale University psychologists show that people judged others to be more generous and caring if they had just held a warm cup of coffee and less so if they had held an iced coffee.

Methodist University hospital, home to one of the busiest neuroscience institutes in the country, made an innovative breakthrough in medicine by launching a Virtual brain tumor Board Webcast series, the first program of its kind.

Better chronic pain relief could be possible in the future, according to research announced today by scientists at UQ's Queensland Brain Institute. Neuropathic and chronic pain is typically caused by injury to the nerves, resulting in uncontrolled activation of pain pathways, and affects one in five Australians of working age.

Hypnosis can induce "synesthetic" experiences - where one sense triggers the involuntary use of another - within an average brain, according to a new study in the journal Psychological Science, the premiere publication of the Association for Psychological Society.

BETHESDA, Md. (MedPage Today) -- Sham medical interventions purely to achieve a beneficial placebo effect for unsuspecting patients appears to be widespread and ethically accepted by many clinicians, according to a national survey of internists and rheumatologists.

OXFORD, England (MedPage Today) -- patients with confirmed obstructive sleep apnea but no daytime sleepiness had poor vascular function and increased cardiovascular risk, according to a controlled cross-sectional study.