February 2012
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Researchers Test Sugary Solution to Alzheimer's...
ScienceDaily (Feb. 28, 2012) — Slowing or preventing the development of Alzheimer’s disease, a fatal brain condition expected to hit one in 85 people globally by 2050, may be as simple as ensuring a brain protein’s sugar levels are maintained.
Slowing or preventing the development of Alzheimer’s disease, a fatal brain condition expected to hit one in 85 people globally by...
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Molecular Duo Dictate Weight and Energy Levels
Yale University researchers have discovered a key cellular mechanism that may help the brain control how much we eat, what we weigh, and how much energy we have.
The findings, published in the Feb. 28 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience, describe the regulation of a family of cells that project throughout the nervous system and originate in an area of the brain call the hypothalamus, which has...
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Modern technology is changing the way our brains...
By SUSAN GREENFIELD
Human identity, the idea that defines each and every one of us, could be facing an unprecedented crisis. It is a crisis that would threaten long-held notions of who we are, what we do and how we behave. It goes right to the heart -or the head- of us all. This crisis could reshape how we interact with each other, alter what makes us happy, and modify our capacity for reaching...
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Neuronal Development And Memory - Discovery May...
Article Date: 27 Feb 2012 - 10:00 PST
In a study, due to appear in the March 30 issue of Cell, researchers at MIT’s Picower Institute for Learning and Memory have discovered, for the first time, that neurons at different stages of their life cycles potentially perform two separate functions, such as forming distinct memories of almost identical situations, and the ability to recall an...
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Hyperactivity in Brain May Explain Multiple...
ScienceDaily (Feb. 27, 2012) — Most of us know what it means when it’s said that someone is depressed. But commonly, true clinical depression brings with it a number of other symptoms. These can include anxiety, poor attention and concentration, memory issues, and sleep disturbances.
Brain hyperactivity. Maps showing the difference in the strength of brain connections between...
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Developmental changes in human dopamine...
Debora A Rothmond, Cynthia S Weickert and Maree J Webster
BMC Neuroscience 2012, 13:18 doi:10.1186/1471-2202-13-18 Published: 15 February 2012
Background
Dopamine is integral to cognition, learning and memory, and dysfunctions of the frontal cortical dopamine system have been implicated in several developmental neuropsychiatric disorders. The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex...
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Your brain on dye: Imaging neuronal voltage with...
February 24, 2012 by Stuart Mason Dambrot
Mechanisms of fluorescent voltage sensing. (A) Electrochromic voltage-sensitive dyes (VDSs) sense voltage when the chromophore interacts directly with the electric field. Changes in the energy levels of the chromophore result in small spectral shifts in the emission of the dye. (B) Fluorescence resonance energy transfer-pair voltage sensors ...
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The Importance Of Nervous System Structure And...
Article Date: 24 Feb 2012 - 8:00 PST
A new study, in this week’s online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , shows an incredible degree of biological diversity in a surprising location, i.e. in a single neural connection in the body wall of flies. The finding opens up a new spectrum of interesting questions regarding the importance of the nervous system...
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Memory Formation Triggered by Stem Cell...
February 23rd, 2012
Researchers at the RIKEN-MIT Center for Neural Circuit Genetics have discovered an answer to the long-standing mystery of how brain cells can both remember new memories while also maintaining older ones.
They found that specific neurons in a brain region called the dentate gyrus serve distinct roles in memory formation depending on whether the neural stem cells that...
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A Unique On-Off Switch for Hormone Production
ScienceDaily (Feb. 23, 2012) — After we sense a threat, our brain center responsible for responding goes into gear, setting off a chain of biochemical reactions leading to the release of cortisol from the adrenal glands.
Dr. Gil Levkowitz and his team in the Molecular Cell Biology Department have now revealed a new kind of ON-OFF switch in the brain for regulating the production of a main...
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Scientists Create Potent Molecules Aimed at...
ScienceDaily (Feb. 22, 2012) — While RNA is an appealing drug target, small molecules that can actually affect its function have rarely been found. But now scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute have for the first time designed a series of small molecules that act against an RNA defect directly responsible for the most common form of adult-onset muscular dystrophy.
...
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An Off Switch for Pain: Chemists build...
February 22nd, 2012
The notion of a pain switch is an alluring idea, but is it realistic? Well, chemists at LMU Munich, in collaboration with colleagues in Berkeley and Bordeaux, have now shown in laboratory experiments that it is possible to inhibit the activity of pain-sensitive neurons using an agent that acts as a photosensitive switch. For the LMU researchers, the method primarily...
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A mechanism to improve learning and memory
February 21, 2012
There are a number of drugs and experimental conditions that can block cognitive function and impair learning and memory. However, scientists have recently shown that some drugs can actually improve cognitive function, which may have implications for our understanding of cognitive disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease. The new research is reported 21 February in the...
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Step Forward in Effort to Regenerate Damaged...
ScienceDaily (Feb. 21, 2012) — The carnage evident in disasters like car wrecks or wartime battles is oftentimes mirrored within the bodies of the people involved. A severe wound can leave blood vessels and nerves severed, bones broken, and cellular wreckage strewn throughout the body — a debris field within the body itself.
Thriving DRG cells. (Credit: Image courtesy of University of...
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Researchers Track Structural Changes During...
Article Date: 20 Feb 2012 - 2:00 PST
New connections between brain cells emerge in clusters in the brain as animals learn to perform a new task, according to a study published in Nature on February 19 (advance online publication). Led by researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, the study reveals details of how brain circuits are rewired during the formation of new motor...
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New Brain Connections Form in Clusters During...
ScienceDaily (Feb. 19, 2012) — New connections between brain cells emerge in clusters in the brain as animals learn to perform a new task, according to a study published in Nature on February 19 (advance online publication). Led by researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, the study reveals details of how brain circuits are rewired during the formation of new motor memories.
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Scientists identify protein that sends 'painful...
February 19, 2012
In two landmark papers in the journal Nature this week, scientists at The Scripps Research Institute report that they have identified a class of proteins that detect “painful touch.”
Scientists have known that sensory nerves in our skin detect pressure, pain, heat, cold, and other stimuli using specialized “ion channel” proteins in their outer...
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Neurons change shape after gene therapy
February 16, 2012
(Medical Xpress) — Gene therapy not only helps injured brain cells to live longer and regenerate, but also changes the shape of the cells, according to researchers The University of Western Australia.
The study, published in the international science and medicine journal PLoS One, was led by Winthrop Professor Alan Harvey from UWA’s School of Anatomy, ...
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Researchers Make Living Model of Brain Tumor
February 16th, 2012
Researchers have created a living 3-D model of a brain tumor and its surrounding blood vessels. In experiments, the scientists report that iron-oxide nanoparticles carrying the agent tumstatin were taken by blood vessels, meaning they should block blood vessel growth. The living-tissue model could be used to test the effectiveness of nanoparticles in fighting other...
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New Molecular Map to Guide Development of New...
February 16th, 2012
A team of scientists from The Scripps Research Institute, collaborating with members of the drug discovery company Receptos, has created the first high-resolution virtual image of cellular structures called S1P1 receptors, which are critical in controlling the onset and progression of multiple sclerosis and other diseases.
This new molecular map is already pointing...
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Inflammation In Brain Inhibited By New Class Of...
Article Date: 16 Feb 2012 - 1:00 PST
Scientists at Emory University School of Medicine have identified a new group of compounds that may protect brain cells from inflammation linked to seizures and neurodegenerative diseases. The compounds block signals from EP2, one of the four receptors for prostaglandin E2, which is a hormone involved in processes such as fever, childbirth, digestion and...
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Drinking Alcohol Shrinks Critical Brain Regions in...
ScienceDaily (Feb. 15, 2012) — Brain scans of two strains of mice imbibing significant quantities of alcohol reveal serious shrinkage in some brain regions — but only in mice lacking a particular type of receptor for dopamine, the brain’s “reward” chemical. The study, conducted at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory and published in the...
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Turmeric-Based Drug Effective On Alzheimer Flies
ScienceDaily (Feb. 14, 2012) — Curcumin, a substance extracted from turmeric, prolongs life and enhances activity of fruit flies with a nervous disorder similar to Alzheimers, according to new research. The study conducted at Linköping University, indicates that it is the initial stages of fibril formation and fragments of the amyloid fibrils that are most toxic to neurons.
Above left are...
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People Forage for Memories in the Same Way Birds...
February 14th, 2012
Humans move between ‘patches’ in their memory using the same strategy as bees flitting between flowers for pollen or birds searching among bushes for berries.
Researchers at the University of Warwick and Indiana University have identified parallels between animals looking for food in the wild and humans searching for items within their memory – suggesting that people ...
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Undergrad's work details protein's role in...
February 14, 2012
(Medical Xpress) — A UT Dallas undergraduate’s research is revealing new information about a key protein’s role in the development of epilepsy, autism and other neurological disorders. This work could one day lead to new treatments for the conditions.
Senior neuroscience student Francisco Garcia has worked closely with Dr. Marco Atzori, associate professor in the...
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Trouble sleeping? It may affect your memory later...
February 14, 2012 in Neuroscience
The amount and quality of sleep you get at night may affect your memory later in life, according to research that was released today and will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 64th Annual Meeting in New Orleans April 21 to April 28, 2012.
“Disrupted sleep appears to be associated with the build-up of amyloid plaques, a hallmark...
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Study finds child abuse can lead to stunted brain...
February 14, 2012 by Bob Yirka in Neuroscience
(Medical Xpress) — A small team of researchers has found that various forms of child abuse can lead to stunted development in certain regions of the brain. The research carried out by Martin Teicher, Carl Anderson and Ann Polcari, all working in the Boston area, relied on questionnaires and MRI brain scans to determine that certain parts of...
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WatchIs it possible for one person to love more than another? In an attempt to find out, filmmaker Brent Hoff teamed with Stanford University neuroscientists to test lovers’ abilities, using an fMRI to monitor brain activity and measure whose adoration was the strongest.
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Discovery Of Complex Wiring Of Nervous System...
Article Date: 14 Feb 2012 - 1:00 PST
Researchers at the Salk Institute have discovered a startling feature of early brain development that helps to explain how complex neuron wiring patterns are programmed using just a handful of critical genes. The findings, published in Cell, may help scientists develop new therapies for neurological disorders, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS),...
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Mathematical Model Reveals System Of Compensating...
Article Date: 14 Feb 2012 - 1:00 PST
A distinctive pattern of brain activity associated with conditions including deep anesthesia, coma and congenital brain disorders appears to represent the brain’s shift into a protective, low-activity state in response to reduced metabolic energy. A mathematical model developed by a Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH)-based research team accurately...
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New Imaging Methods Show Challenges of Identifying...
ScienceDaily (Feb. 13, 2012) — Only by employing complex machine-learning techniques to decipher repeated advanced brain scans were researchers at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell able to provide evidence that a patient with a severe brain injury could, in her way, communicate accurately.
Their study, published in the Feb. 13 issue of the Archives of Neurology, demonstrates how difficult...
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Brain-Imaging Technique Predicts Who Will Suffer...
ScienceDaily (Feb. 13, 2012) — Cognitive loss and brain degeneration currently affect millions of adults, and the number will increase, given the population of aging baby boomers. Today, nearly 20 percent of people age 65 or older suffer from mild cognitive impairment and 10 percent have dementia.
These are baseline and follow-up brain scans of a patient who converted to Alzheimer’s...
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Neuron memory key to taming chronic pain
February 13, 2012
For some, the pain is so great that they can’t even bear to have clothes touch their skin. For others, it means that every step is a deliberate and agonizing choice. Whether the pain is caused by arthritic joints, an injury to a nerve or a disease like fibromyalgia, research now suggests there are new solutions for those who suffer from chronic pain.
A team of...
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EEG Pattern Reflects Brain's Shift Into...
ScienceDaily (Feb. 10, 2012) — A distinctive pattern of brain activity associated with conditions including deep anesthesia, coma and congenital brain disorders appears to represent the brain’s shift into a protective, low-activity state in response to reduced metabolic energy. A mathematical model developed by a Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH)-based research team accurately ...
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Researchers Develop Gene Therapy to Boost Brain...
February 10th, 2012
Our bodies are full of tiny superheroes—antibodies that fight foreign invaders, cells that regenerate, and structures that ensure our systems run smoothly. One such structure is myelin—a material that forms a protective, insulating cape around the axons of our nerve cells so that they can send signals quickly and efficiently. But myelin, and the specialized cells called...
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Flipping a Light Switch in the Cell: Quantum Dots...
February 9th, 2012
New technique holds promise for better understanding of brain disorders.
Quantum dot film. Optically excited quantum dots in close proximity to a cell control the opening of ion channels. Credit: Lugo et al., University of Washington.
Source: Neuroscience News
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FDA-approved drug rapidly clears amyloid from the...
February 9, 2012
Neuroscientists at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine have made a dramatic breakthrough in their efforts to find a cure for Alzheimer’s disease. The researchers’ findings, published in the journal Science, show that use of a drug in mice appears to quickly reverse the pathological, cognitive and memory deficits caused by the onset of Alzheimer’s....
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