Word: basal
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...Stoltzfoos, daughter-in-law of Jacob and Naomi. But Barbie Ann soon developed a fever, and Morton admitted her to Lancaster General. Stressed by infection, a child with glutaric aciduria does not metabolize certain amino acids normally. The resulting buildup of glutarate attacks the nervous system and damages the basal ganglia, a part of the brain that controls body movement. Once brain injury occurs, a child never recovers. "If it weren't for Dr. Morton and the clinic," Lydia says, "Barbie Ann would have ended up like many of Amos and Suzie Miller's children. Five of them died...
...even more remarkable service to modern medicine by establishing a link between metabolic disorders like glutaric aciduria and cerebral palsy. Most practitioners have long believed that oxygen deprivation or trauma at or before birth causes cerebral palsy, a motor disorder that reflects injury to the cerebral cortex and basal ganglia. But Dr. Karin Nelson at the National Institutes of Health, as well as colleagues at other research centers, has concluded that these causes do not explain most cases of the disease. "Holmes Morton has given us fresh insight into the source of cerebral palsy," says Nelson. Adds Dr. Victor McKusick...
...UCLA School of Medicine have revealed that either Prozac or cognitive therapy can actually restore normal function in the obsessive-compulsive brain. The scans have documented that ocd patients have abnormal activity in the head of the caudate nucleus, a part of the brain's deep-dwelling basal ganglia, coupled with unusual activity in the orbital prefrontal cortex, just above the eye sockets. The caudate nucleus normally acts as a gatekeeper, determining which thoughts, feelings and behaviors take priority. When it malfunctions, the "worry inputs" generated in the orbital prefrontal region run unchecked, and irrational beliefs become rigid and intractable...
...coordinated through the hippocampus, a crescent-shaped collection of neurons deep in the core of the brain. Other sorts of memory are handled by other areas. The amygdala, for example, an almond-size knot of nerve cells located close to the brain stem, specializes in memories of fear; the basal ganglia, clumps of gray matter within both cerebral hemispheres, handle habits and physical skills; the cerebellum, at the base of the brain, governs conditioned learning (as when Pavlov's dogs salivated at the ringing of the dinner bell) and some reflexes...
...evidence gathered from animal experiments and epidemiological surveys points to the high-energy, shorter-wave ultraviolet-B portion of the sun's radiation as the main culprit in causing basal- and squamous-cell cancer. (Sunburns are also caused by UV-B radiation, wrinkles by the weaker UV-A part of the spectrum.) Since no animals other than humans and opossums suffer from malignant melanoma, researchers still do not know exactly what causes that more deadly disease. Most dermatologists have long assumed that sunburn-causing UV-B must be a greater threat than UV-A. As a result, sunscreen manufacturers originally...