Online book helps children understand the effects of stroke

An illustration from “When Grandpa Comes Home: A Story About Stroke,” an online book that teaches children how to cope when a relative suffers a strokeSpeedy treatment is essential to saving lives and preventing brain damage during a stroke. But the rapid pace of events also can leave patients and family members confused about what has happened and what to expect. That’s especially true for children whose parents or grandparents have a stroke. Now an online book is available to teach children about strokes.

Online book helps children understand the effects of stroke

An illustration from “When Grandpa Comes Home: A Story About Stroke,” an online book that teaches children how to cope when a relative suffers a strokeSpeedy treatment is essential to saving lives and preventing brain damage during a stroke. But the rapid pace of events also can leave patients and family members confused about what has happened and what to expect. That’s especially true for children whose parents or grandparents have a stroke. Now an online book is available to teach children about strokes at www.strokecenter.org/patients. More…

Researchers find new learning strategy

In the Thoroughman laboratory, volunteers play games on a computer screeen using a robotic arm so that Thoroughman and his colleagues can study how people learn motor skills.Central to being human is the ability to adapt: We learn from our mistakes. Previous theories of learning have assumed that the size of learning naturally scales with the size of the mistake. But now biomedical engineers at Washington University in St. Louis have shown that people can use alternative strategies: Learning does not necessarily scale proportionally with error.

Natural mechanism in brain cells may resist stroke damage

In this micrograph of a neuron, green dye highlights proteins linked to nerve cell damage and death during stroke.Brain cells in danger of exciting other nearby brain cells to death may be able to close temporarily, according to new research from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Scientists simulated stroke-like conditions in cultured rat brain cells that use glutamate, an excitatory chemical messenger linked to nerve damage and death during strokes. But when they created those conditions, the researchers found that glutamate transmission was suppressed in what may be an attempt by neurons to limit the damage caused by catastrophic events such as strokes.