Folks who’ve suffered a concussion and then develop headaches show iron accumulation in their brains, new research discovers. Excess brain iron stores are a hallmark of damage, noted a team led by Simona Nikolova, of the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix. The team is slated to present the results in April at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology (AAN). “Previous studies have shown that iron accumulation can affect how areas of the brain interact with each other,” Nikolova said in an AAN news release. “This research may help us better understand how the brain responds and recovers from concussion.”  The new research involved 60 people who all developed headaches after a concussion. The concussions were caused by falling (45%), car accidents (30%) or fighting (12%). For just under half of the people, this was their first concussion. Brain scans from the 60 concussion patients were compared to those taken from 60 people with no history of concussions or post-traumatic headache. The scans showed that, compared to folks who’d never been concussed, those with a history of concussion had higher levels of iron in various brain areas. Iron levels seemed to mount as time after the concussion went on. “These results suggest that iron accumulation in the brain can be used as a biomarker for concussion and post-traumatic headache, which could potentially help us…  read on >  read on >

Sleep apnea could have detrimental effects on the brain, causing memory or thinking problems, a new study suggests. People suffering from sleep apnea are about 50% more likely to also report having memory or thinking problems, compared to those without sleep apnea, researchers say. “These findings highlight the importance of early screening for sleep apnea,” said researcher Dr. Dominique Low, a clinical fellow with the Boston Medical Center. Sleep apnea occurs when people stop and restart breathing repeatedly as they sleep. Symptoms include snoring, gasping and breathing pauses. People with sleep apnea often suffer from unexplained fatigue and mood swings, because their breathing interruptions continually wake them as their blood oxygen levels dip. They are unable to settle into a deep and nourishing sleep. For this study, researchers surveyed nearly 4,300 people about their sleep quality, memory and brain function. About a quarter of the participants reported symptoms of sleep apnea. Of those with sleep apnea, a third (33%) reported memory or thinking problems, compared to just 20% of people without sleep apnea. Low plans to present her study at the American Academy of Neurology annual meeting, which takes place in April in Denver. Research presented at medical meetings should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal. Low said the findings point to the importance of taking sleep apnea seriously. “Effective treatments like…  read on >  read on >

Children exposed to anesthesia in the womb when their pregnant mom has surgery are more likely to suffer from behavioral issues later, a new study finds. Exposure to general anesthesia before birth was associated with a 31% increased risk of diagnosis with a behavioral disorder as a child, researchers reported Feb. 29 in the British Journal of Anesthesia. The risk was even higher when exposure occurred in the second or third trimester, the researchers said. “This study provides compelling evidence that prenatal exposure to surgery and general anesthesia may have adverse effects on children’s neurobehavioral development,” said senior study author Dr. Guohua Li, a professor of epidemiology with the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health in New York City. For the study, researchers analyzed data for nearly 17 million deliveries between 1999 and 2013. Of those, more than 34,000 children were exposed to general anesthesia due to their expecting mom undergoing an appendectomy or gall bladder removal — the two most common non-obstetric procedures performed during surgery. Children exposed to anesthesia in the womb were more likely to develop attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), behavioral disorders, developmental disorders involving speech or language, and autism, researchers discovered. These behavioral problems tended to occur after the first three years, when differences between kids exposed to anesthesia and those who weren’t became apparent, results show. General anesthesia drugs…  read on >  read on >

Once considered harmless by doctors, calcium crystal deposits in the knee joint actually can contribute to worsening arthritis, a new study warns. CT scans have revealed that calcium crystals in the knee can promote joint damage, wearing away the cartilage that keeps bones from rubbing together, researchers reported recently in the journal Arthritis & Rheumatology. “The cartilage damage is most likely to occur in the same locations where the crystals are deposited, suggesting a localized effect,” said researcher Dr. Tuhina Neogi, a professor at the Boston University School of Medicine. “We have also showed that these crystals can contribute to knee pain in another recently published paper,” Neogi added in a university news release. “Taken together, these findings highlight the important role of calcium crystals to structural damage and symptoms in knee osteoarthritis.” Knee osteoarthritis affects about 34 million people in the United States and 600 million worldwide. It happens when the cartilage in the knee joint breaks down. There are no treatments available that prevent its progression, researchers said in background notes. Up to now, calcium crystal deposits in the knee were thought to be of no clinical consequence, and just something that happens with old age, the researchers said. But using CT scans of nearly 1,700 patients, the team was able to detect a higher amount of deposits than previously revealed by regular…  read on >  read on >

In a finding that unearths yet another way Long COVID can harm health, new research finds the condition may trigger thinking declines. Published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine, the study involved cognitive testing on nearly 113,000 people in England. It found that those with Long COVID scored 6 IQ points lower than people who had never been infected with the virus. Even folks who didn’t suffer lingering symptoms after a bout of COVID scored slightly lower than people who had never been infected — in this case, by 3 IQ points. Still, the differences in scores were small and experts stressed the findings don’t mean that COVID causes profound deficits in thinking and memory. However, they do provide proof that the brain fog many folks who get Long COVID experience is likely not imagined. “These emerging and coalescing findings are generally highlighting that, yes, there is cognitive impairment in Long COVID survivors — it’s a real phenomenon,” James Jackson, a neuropsychologist at Vanderbilt Medical Center who wasn’t involved in the study, told the New York Times. Luckily, the latest study suggests that if people’s Long COVID symptoms resolve themselves, the related thinking impairments might also ease. Study volunteers who had Long COVID for months before finally recovering eventually had testing scores similar to those who had experienced a quick recovery. Importantly, the standard…  read on >  read on >

Middle-aged folks who have difficulties navigating their way through space could be at higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease years later, a new study finds. “Very early symptoms of dementia can be subtle and difficult to detect, but problems with navigation are thought to be some of the first changes in Alzheimer’s disease,” noted Dr. Richard Oakley, associate director of research and innovation at the Alzheimer’s Society. He wasn’t involved in the new British research, although the society did help fund the study. “One in three people born today will go on to develop dementia,” Oakley added, “and early and accurate diagnosis of the diseases that cause the condition are vital for people to access the right support, plan for the future and receive appropriate treatment.” The study involved 100 middle-aged people (ages 43 to 66), none of who had any of the standard symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. At the time of the study, they were all about 25 years younger than the expected age of Alzheimer’s onset. However, the participants were all thought to be at heightened odds for the illness due to factors such as genetics, family history or lifestyle. Researchers at University College London (UCL) had the participants strap on a virtual reality (VR) headset and then “navigate” their way through a virtual environment. Folks already known to be at higher Alzheimer’s…  read on >  read on >

The eyes may have it when it comes to the early diagnosis of autism in children, a new study finds. Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), have pinpointed a gene that affects how kids’ eyes react when they turn their heads. Typically, people use what’s called the vestibulo-ocular reflex to help their sight coordinate with their head movement. However, kids with autism appear to have a gene that puts this reflex into overdrive, and the change can be picked up on vision tests. That might help speed research into autism, said study co-author Kevin Bender, a professor in the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences. “We can measure it in kids with autism who are non-verbal or can’t or don’t want to follow instructions,” Bender said in a university news release. “This could be a game-changer in both the clinic and the lab.”  The significance of the variant in the eye-tracking gene, called SCN2A, was first spotted in mice. If you shake your head, your eyes still stay more or less “centered,” the researchers explained. But in mice with a particular form of the SCN2A gene, that wasn’t the case. Their vestibulo-ocular reflex got stuck. Would this aberration show up in children with autism? To find out, Bender’s group conducted a study involving 5 kids with autism and 11 of their siblings who…  read on >  read on >

Live musical performances speak to the soul, stimulating the brain in ways more powerful than listening to a recorded tune does, new research finds. “Our study showed that pleasant and unpleasant emotions performed as live music elicited much higher and more consistent activity in the amygdala [the emotional center of the brain] than recorded music,” said lead researcher Sascha Fruhholz, a professor of cognitive and affective neuroscience at the University of Zurich in Switzerland. “The live performance also stimulated a more active exchange of information in the whole brain, which points to strong emotional processing in the affective and cognitive parts of the brain,” Fruhholz added in a university news release. Music can have a strong effect on emotions, and prior studies have shown that listening to recorded music stimulates emotional and imaginative processes in the brain, researchers said. But it’s not clear whether listening to music in a live setting — at a music festival, rock concert, opera performance or piano bar — triggers a different response in the brain, researchers said. To examine this, researchers performed MRI brain scans on the amygdala of 27 people as they listened to a pianist playing live music. During the performance, the pianist adapted his performance to intensify the audience’s emotions, based on the MRI feedback. The participants also listened to a recorded copy of the same…  read on >  read on >