Parkinson's

Neurologists love picking the brain, but getting in there can be both difficult and dangerous, and once inside it's tough to make the brain do exactly what you want. But researchers at medical device maker Medtronic are developing a neural implant that uses light to manipulate the neurons in the brain in a far more controlled fashion than current electrical therapies. All they need to do is genetically tamper with your brain first; no big deal.

Though we do it without thinking, keeping track of time is integral to the brain's function, keeping our senses and our actions ordered in a chronology that we then recall in the form of memory. But important as it is, researchers have never understood the mechanism by which humans index the happenings of everyday life. Now, two macaque monkeys may have helped MIT researchers solve the time tracking puzzle.

New findings throw light on how the brain heals itself and may change the way we think about treating chronic neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.

Neuroscientists at Sydney's Garvan Institute of Medical Research have shown that nerve cells in the brain produce an anti-inflammatory molecule that allows the brain to repair itself.

These findings, by Drs Bryce Vissel and Andrea Abdipranoto, are published online today in the international journal Stem Cells.