Wirginia Maixner, director of neurosurgery, operates to separate conjoined twins Krishna and Trishna at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne, Australia, in 2009. The Bangladeshi twins were joined at the top of the head prior to their successful separation. The Children First Foundation brought them to Australia nearly two years earlier because similar operations in their homeland have poor survival.
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Military medical personnel prep a severely injured Afghan civilian for brain surgery in the operating room of the Role III Multinational Medical Unit at Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan. A MedEvac helicopter flew him to the military hospital after he was injured in a motorcycle accident. The medical staff at the hospital treats wounded soldiers, insurgent detainees and civilians.
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Neurologist Dr. Oliver Sacks speaks at Columbia University in New York City in June 2009. Sacks, who was appointed Professor of Neurology and Psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Center in 2007, is the author of several bestselling books. His 1973 book "Awakenings" was adapted into the Academy Award-nominated film of the same name starring Robert De Niro and Robin Williams, and his latest book is "The Mind's Eye."
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A patient undergoes Accelerated Neuro-Regulation (ANR) treatment for drug addiction at the Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon, Israel. During the process, the patient is subjected to an intense medically regulated withdrawal period while under anesthesia. Dr. Andre Waismann says ANR produces a high success rate by treating drug addiction as a neurological problem and not a social and psychological problem.
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Medical students take notes while a doctor performs brain surgery at UCLA Medical Center in 1995 in Los Angeles, California. The students observed the operation as part of a course requirement.
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Susan Westmoreland draws a sample of blood from the leg of Dalma as Chieko Azuma holds her in Boston, Mass. They work with the Canine Genome Sequencing Project, scientists from the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT. The Institute announced it had finished the sequencing and is now trying to find genes for canine diseases such as cancer, diabetes and epilepsy. They are searching for regions of the genome that differ between healthy and sick dogs. Ultimately, they will identify the defective genes causing these diseases, improving treatments in dogs and in people.
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Doctors prepare Chris Cotter for brain surgery in Baltimore, Md., in 1995. Cotter suffered from epilepsy, and doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital determined what portion of his brain caused his seizures by implanting a grid of electrodes that transmits information from different parts of the brain during seizures.
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Brain surgeons at Johns Hopkins Hospital observe a diagnostic grid of electrodes they have implanted in Chris Cotter's brain. For two weeks, surgeons observed these grids and recorded information about what parts of Cotter's brain demonstrated activity when he made simple movements like wiggling his fingers and toes. The monitoring prevented doctors from affecting crucial "well-functioning" parts of his brain during surgery.
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Surgeons at Johns Hopkins Hospital examine scans from the brain of Chris Cotter, who suffered from epilepsy. The brain, which makes us distinctly human, is unquestionably far more complex than any machine. It weighs about 3 pounds (1.4 kilograms) and is made up of delicate tissue containing billions of cells that regulate the body, learn to navigate the complicated world we live in and hold a lifetime of memories. Although advances in science and medicine have improved treatment of common brain disorders, the brain still holds many mysteries.
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Mercury Computer Systems' new 3-D Cone-Beam Reconstruction will allow physicians to analyze life-threatening conditions in seconds rather than minutes. When incorporated into CT scanners, Mercury's new technique can produce 3-D images in 15 seconds, compared to 5 to 10 minutes required by conventional equipment. These images can then be rotated around three axes to highlight the data needed for surgical planning or other interventions.
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This image, originally published in 1950, shows a patient in Dr. Grey Walter's laboratory at the Burden Neurological Institute of Bristol University connected to an encephalogram machine, which will record his brain's activity by reading the rhythmic electric pulses it emits.
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W.H. Shipton, son-in-law of former British Prime Minister Clement Attlee, is seen in a photo originally published in 1950 standing by a machine that analyzes brain wave readings from the encephalogram machine at the Burden Neurological Institute, Bristol.
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Animals are often more closely related to us than we may think. In fact, studies that have used antidepressants on mice have suggested that they have neurological processes similar to humans.
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This illustration shows the human brain with the limbic system exposed. When you damage this part of your brain, it may result in neurological amnesia, which can be temporary or permanent.
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Here, U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron meets with a neuroscientist at London's National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in 2012, following an announcement that research grants for the study of dementia would be doubled. Many degenerative nerve conditions offer a bleak diagnosis, but the medical research community is working hard to alleviate symptoms of these diseases and hopefully find ways to reverse or cure the neural destruction.
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Neuroscientists are basically the detectives of the brain. By studying the brain and the central nervous system, they're able to delve deep into the mind's many mysteries, including human emotions, thoughts and behavior. They also work on decoding signals that are sent to the brain by other parts of the body.
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Neurons come in a variety of shapes and sizes. This illustration shows the basic types of neurons in the human body. Each has a different function: Sensory neurons carry signals from the outer parts of the body to the central nervous system, motoneurons carry signals from the central nervous system to the outer parts of the body, and interneurons connect neurons in the brain and spinal cord.
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Neurons are specialized cells that are made up of three basic parts. The cell body, or soma, contains the different components of the cell, like the nucleus. The axon is the long, cablelike projection of the cell that carries the electrochemical message. The dendrites, or nerve endings, are the small, branchlike projections that connect to other cells.
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The human nervous system is an active place. Neurons transmit information electrically and chemically, and a network of neurons makes up the nervous system. This illustration shows a 52-second simulation of neurons in the brain signaling each other, as well as the flow of important molecules like glucose and oxygen.
Image Credit: NIH
This colored slide shows a close-up view of an olfactory receptor neuron and its smell receptors, also known as cilia. Olfactory neurons are the cells that let your brain know when something smells a little fishy.
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Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also called Lou Gehrig's disease, is a currently incurable degenerative nerve condition. ALS attacks the neurons that allow your brain to communicate with the rest of your body, leading to loss of muscle control. Here, ALS patient Felix Slamovics is hoisted up the side of the Azrieli Center building in Tel Aviv, Israel, to raise awareness for ALS.
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This Bielschowsky stain shows a magnified view of brain cells affected by Alzheimer's disease. This section of brain tissue shows the characteristic dark spots of amyloid plaque that manifest between neurons in a person suffering from the dementia-causing disease.
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Absinthe, an anise-flavored, highly alcoholic drink, has been very controversial over the years, as people accused the beverage of causing everything from hallucinations to delayed reaction time. Today, many still worry that absinthe may cause negative neurological effects.
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In 2009, President Barack Obama signed an order reversing the Bush administration's limits on human embryonic stem cell research. Scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison were the first to experiment in finding cures to neurological and muscular diseases through stem cell research. Here, associate research specialist Jessica Dias removes a new batch of embryonic stem cells from deep freeze to be thawed for research.
Now that you've seen our Neurology Pictures, learn about the 5 Most Misunderstood Neurological Conditions.
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