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According to a new study published early online and in the December issue of Lancet Neurology, researchers better understand the disease mechanisms behind brain seizures that are due to the tapeworm-derived parasitic infection called neurocysticercosis. Their finding that the seizures are frequently associated with fluid or perlesional oedema (PO) around dead calcified cysticercal granulomas (immune cells) may lead to better possible treatment targets.

The Neuroethics Society will hold its first annual meeting on November 13-14 in Washington where some 300 specialists are expected. Eric Racine of the Université de Montréal Faculty of medicine will be one of those researchers and a member of the Neuroethics Society scientific committee. In 2002, there were no specialists in the field of neuroethics.

A new study highlights the role of a charge-switching enzyme in nervous system deficits characteristic of multiple sclerosis and other related neurological illness. Multiple sclerosis (MS) is one of several diseases in which myelin - the insulator for electrical signaling in the nervous system - breaks down and causes severe deficits in brain and nerve function.

Research from the University of Pittsburgh could expand the options for controlling schizophrenia by identifying a brain region that responds to more than one type of antipsychotic drug. The findings illustrate for the first time that the orbitofrontal cortex could be a promising target for developing future antipsychotic drugs - even those that have very different mechanisms of action. The study will be published during the week of Nov.

A new study published in Journal of Neuroimaging shows that MRI scans used on multiple sclerosis (MS) patients to determine if the disease has affected gray matter in the brain can identify those at-risk for progression of disability. MS affects approximately 400,000 people in the United States and as many as 2.5 million worldwide. It is the most common cause of progressive disability in young adults.

It seems that our brain can correct speech errors in the same way that it controls other forms of behaviour. Niels Schiller and Lesya Ganushchak, NWO researchers in Leiden, made this discovery while studying how the brain reacts to verbal errors. This research can contribute to improvements in the treatment of people who have problems with speaking or in understanding language. Our brain is fairly good at preventing mistakes in speech. Unfortunately it does make the odd mistake.

In an opinion published today, EFSA's Panel on Biological Hazards (BIOHAZ) assessed the human and animal exposure to Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy (TSEs) agents from milk and milk products derived from sheep and goats.

Isis Innovation, the University of Oxford's technology transfer company announced today that it has licensed patents based on the work of Oxford's Prof Richard Moxon's research group and research by Canada's National Research Council Institute for Biological Science to Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics. The patents cover a novel vaccine candidate against the meningococcus bacterium -- Neisseria meningitidis -- currently in preclinical stage.