News by Subject Social & Behavior

'People often focus on mobility impairments associated with SCI; however, addressing cognitive deficits in this population is also critically important,' said co-author Dr. Dyson-Hudson, director of SCI Research, and director of the Northern New Jersey SCI Model System. 'Future research needs to be based on broader measures of neuropsychological function. Identifying modifiable risk factors and developing targeted cognitive interventions will help restore maximal function, and support the efforts of individuals to participate in their communities and the workforce.'

Researchers from the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience and the Leiden University Medical Center have shown that treatment using gene therapy leads to a faster recovery after nerve damage. By combining a surgical repair procedure with gene therapy, the survival of nerve cells and regeneration of nerve fibers over a long distance was stimulated. The discovery, published in Brain, is an important step towards the development of a new treatment for people with nerve damage.

An innovative and complex surgery involving nerve transfers at Hospital for Special Surgery is restoring movement to young patients with paralysis caused by acute flaccid myelitis.

Scientists from Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute (SBP) have demonstrated that muscle stem cells may give rise to rhabdomyosarcoma that occurs during DMD--and identified two genes linked to the tumor's growth. The research, performed using a mouse model of severe DMD, helps scientists better understand how rhabdomyosarcoma develops in DMD--and indicates that ongoing efforts to develop treatments that stimulate muscle stem cells should consider potential cancer risk. The study was published in Cell Reports on January 15, 2019.

Seaver Autism Center study results contribute to understanding of patterns of cognitive functioning in adults with autism and highlight the importance of a broader approach when studying cognition.

In the first study of its kind, a team of researchers was able to perform functional MRIs of a group of children with autism whose IQs averaged 54. The scans offer a glimpse into what's happening in their brains.

The consequence of austerity in the social security system -- severe cuts to benefits and the 'ratcheting up' of conditions attached to benefits -- is 'social murder', according to new research by Lancaster University.