Brain Research:Clot-busting drug benefits stroke patients ♦ Can Arts, crafts and computer use preserve your memory? ♦ Protein deposits in brains of retired NFL players

Characteristic pattern of protein deposits in brains of retired NFL players who suffered concussions  A new study takes another step toward the early understanding of a degenerative brain condition called chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, which affects athletes in contact sports who are exposed to repetitive brain injuries. Using a new imaging tool, researchers found a strikingly similar pattern of abnormal protein deposits in the brains of retired NFL players

Can Arts, crafts and computer use preserve your memory? People who participate in arts and craft activities and who socialize in middle and old age may delay the development in very old age of the thinking and memory problems that often lead to dementia,

Signal variability, cognitive performance in the aging human brain  As we age, the physical makeup of our brains changes. This includes changes in neural processing in grey matter, but also in the deterioration of structural connections in the brain, which allow communication between distinct brain regions, so the brain is able to work as a well-wired network system. The moment-to-moment variability in brain activity has been studied by researchers, and more specifically, in the blood oxygenation level-dependent signal.

Clot-busting drug benefits stroke patients, brain scan study shows A drug that breaks up blood clots in the brains of stroke patients could be used more widely than at present without increased risk, a brain scan study suggests. It had previously been thought that giving the drug to people with signs of early damage in the brain caused by a stroke would increase the chances of them suffering a bleed on the brain -- which can be fatal. The study is the first to show that early tissue damage seen in brain scans does not necessarily indicate an increased risk of bleeding