UCSF Study Finds Neural Changes that Balance Plasticity with Stability, Explaining the Challenge of Learning Another Tongue A study in patients with epilepsy is helping researchers understand how the brain manages the task of learning a new language while retaining our mother tongue.
Following groundbreaking work on a “speech neuroprosthesis” that enabled a paralyzed man to communicate using his brain signals, the lab team answered public questions about brain-computer interfaces and the limitations of translating brain signals into code.
‘Toxin Sponges’ May Help Animals Avoid Their Own Defensive PoisonsA team of researchers at have uncovered some intriguing clues in the mystery of how some poison birds and frogs evade their own toxins.
UCSF researchers developed a program that translates the hundreds of EEG traces into a 3-D movie showing activity in all recorded locations in the brain. The result is a multicolored 3-D heat map that looks very much like a meteorologist’s hurricane weather map.
UCSF researchers have leveraged two new molecules, one of which is currently in clinical oncology trials, to devise a dual-drug therapy for alcohol use disorder (AUD), without the side effects or complications associated with current treatment regimens.
U.S. News & World Report Lists UCSF Among the Best in 14 Adult SpecialtiesUCSF Medical Center has been recognized as the nation’s best hospital for neurology and neurosurgery, and among the country’s premier medical centers overall, in the 2021-22 Best Hospitals survey by U.S. News & World Report.
Surprising Recoveries Months Later May Prompt Physicians to Delay Life-Support DiscussionsResearchers found that among the patients in a vegetative state, 1 in 4 “regained orientation” – meaning they knew who they were, their location and the date – within 12 months of their injury.
UCSF-Led Study Matches Brain Imaging with Prognosis, Showing Lingering Impairment for SomeCT scans for patients with concussion provide critical information about their risk for long-term impairment and potential to make a complete recovery – findings that underscore the need for physician follow-up.
Technology Could Lead to More Natural Communication for People Who Have Suffered Speech LossResearchers at UC San Francisco have successfully developed a “speech neuroprosthesis” that has enabled a man with severe paralysis to communicate in sentences, translating signals from his brain to the vocal tract directly into words that appear as text on a screen.
Patients with Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s May Benefit from Novel Treatment Children with a devastating genetic disorder characterized by severe motor disability and developmental delay have experienced sometimes dramatic improvements in a gene therapy trial launched at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals.