BREAKING Shooting outside of Drake's Bridle Path mansion, 1 person seriously injured: source
Toronto police are investigating a shooting that took place outside of Drake’s Bridle Path mansion early Tuesday morning, a source tells CP24.
A new peer-reviewed study from the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) report in Brain Connectivity has found individualized brain “fingerprints” which can help diagnose early Alzheimer's Disease (AD) in pre-symptomatic patients.
Using an innovative brain imaging technique, the neuroscientists conducting the research could visualize subtle brain changes in pre-symptomatic Alzheimer's patients, which could help determine how the disease begins and progresses.
“Prior studies have not found an association between brain function and behavior in preclinical AD,” said Andreana Benitez, Ph.D., one of the study researchers, in a press release. “Using these individualized maps of brain function, we found a potential brain-based reason for very subtle cognitive changes in this early phase of the disease.”
The team used a new technique called “the individualized functional connectome” which was developed by their collaborator, Hesheng Liu, Ph.D, to analyze the brain images.
This highly sensitive technique is able to show unique brain patterns for each individual, something that traditional methods cannot do.
“We all have the same functional parts of our brain, but they're positioned slightly differently, sort of like a fingerprint,” said Stephanie Fountain-Zaragoza, Ph.D, another one of the study researchers, in a press release. “This method creates an individualized brain fingerprint that more accurately reflects where the different functional regions are in each individual’s brain.”
The team of neuroscientists applied this method to a group of 149 research participants, ages 45 to 85, who did not have signs of cognitive decline.
Each of the participants' brains were scanned by a positron emission tomography (PET) scan and divided into groups based on the results—those who showed PET scan evidence of early amyloid-beta protein buildup, and those who did not.
In order for the researchers to have the brain “fingerprints” generated, they also underwent MRI scans.
Using behaviour-based testing, researchers assessed how well the research participants performed cognitively.
What they found was certain changes in the brain fingerprint were associated with those with worse information processing abilities in the participants who had amyloid-beta buildup, or preclinical Alzheimer's.
Conversely, they found information processing was better in those with higher within-network connectivity, or more brain activity within important areas of the brain.
“A healthy brain typically has a balance of connectivity within and between its networks,” said Fountain-Zaragoza. “We found that in preclinical AD—when amyloid build-up is present in the brain—this balance can be disrupted, potentially leading to information no longer being processed as efficiently.”
The study suggests early states of protein buildup in the brain could affect cognitive abilities before the symptoms of cognitive decline become noticeable. Plus, it suggests that changes in connectivity within certain brain networks could signal early issues with information processing abilities, which, according to the researchers, could be an area therapies could target to improve the outcomes for those with Alzheimer's.
This method could improve how preclinical cases of Alzheimer's are studied, particularly as adults with preclinical Alzheimer's don’t have noticeable symptoms of cognitive decline—despite having the earliest signs of disease such as buildup of amyloid-beta proteins in their brain, according to the study.
In the future, the researchers plan to explore how brain changes affect the progression of Alzheimer's as well as potential treatments, as they expand this research.
“There's a lot of great work aimed at helping us understand the earliest signs and symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease,” said Fountain-Zaragoza. “This area of work is important for understanding the full spectrum of the disease and identifying who might be at risk of developing it.”
Toronto police are investigating a shooting that took place outside of Drake’s Bridle Path mansion early Tuesday morning, a source tells CP24.
Prince Harry will not be seeing his father King Charles during his current visit to Britain as the monarch will be too busy, Harry's spokesperson said on Tuesday.
Movement is movement, right? Not exactly. Here’s what your body is looking for in addition to your morning walk or yoga session, according to experts.
An Ontario man says he paid more than $7,700 for a luxury villa he found on a popular travel website -- but the listing was fake.
Sporting mullets, Canadian Armed Forces officer cadets placed second in an annual military skills competition in the U.S.
The Met Gala and its fashionista A-listers on Monday included Jennifer Lopez, Zendaya and a parade of others in a swirl of flora and fauna looks on a green-tinged carpet lined by live foliage.
Quebec is looking at tightening the regulations around sperm donation in the province following the release of a documentary that revealed three men from the same family fathered hundreds of children.
As the higher cost of living continues to squeeze household budgets, many Canadians find they have even less left over at the end of every month to squirrel away for the future.
The rumours are true: Vegetables aren't real — that is, in botany, anyway. While the term fruit is recognized botanically as anything that contains a seed or seeds, vegetable is actually a broad umbrella term.
Whether passionate about Poirot or hungry for Holmes, Winnipeg mystery obsessives have had a local haunt for over 30 years in which to search out their latest page-turners.
Eighty-two-year-old Susan Neufeldt and 90-year-old Ulrich Richter are no spring chickens, but their love blossomed over the weekend with their wedding at Pine View Manor just outside of Rosthern.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A mother goose and her goslings caused a bit of a traffic jam on a busy stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway near Vancouver Saturday.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.