Neurons News and Research

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Visual cortex contains neurons that are sensitive to viewing angle

Mistakes made by human subjects in identifying the facing direction of faces, cars or meaningless objects have yielded evidence that the brain contains nerve cells, or neurons, whose job is to encode the viewing angle of objects. It is well known that certain neurons respond to color, motion, edges and other aspects of our environment.

3 Mar 2005

Possible treatment for Fragile X syndrome

The first evidence for a possible treatment for Fragile X syndrome, one of the leading inherited causes of mental retardation, has emerged from experiments with a mutant fruit fly that exhibits characteristics of the disorder.

2 Mar 2005

Nose cells provide a window into the brain

In the first study to examine living nerve cells from patients with psychiatric disease, scientists from the Monell Chemical Senses Center, the University of Pennsylvania, and collaborating institutions report altered nerve cell function in olfactory receptor neurons from patients with bipolar disorder.

1 Mar 2005

Early Alzheimer's disease may be precipitated by a neuron traffic jam

Early Alzheimer's disease may be precipitated by a “traffic jam” within neurons that causes swelling and prevents proper transport of proteins and structures in the cells, according to new studies by Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers.

27 Feb 2005

Cellular porthole has a major role in helping the brain sense odors

A cellular "porthole" known best for its role in the digestive system apparently has a major role in helping the brain sense odors, Johns Hopkins scientists report in the Feb. 17 issue of Neuron. The porthole, which lets chloride into cells, is also critical in digestion, hearing, balance, and fertility.

27 Feb 2005

Mathematical model describes the electrical storm that rages during a brain seizure

"We're trying to get to the underlying state of the brain that leads to these seizures," said Mark Kramer, a Ph.D. student in UC Berkeley's Applied Science and Technology Program and lead author of the paper. "Our hope is that the model can highlight potential areas where a seizure can be stopped."

24 Feb 2005

Link between muscle movement and breathing rhythms may shed new light on SIDS and sleep apnea

Between 2,000 and 3,000 infant deaths each year are attributed to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. In addition, approximately 12 million Americans suffer from sleep apnea, a respiratory ailment that can lead to death in some cases.

17 Feb 2005

Programmed cell death may provide clues to cancer and autoimmune diseases therapies

Dartmouth Medical School geneticists have found links in the cell death machinery of worms and mammals, opening new avenues for studying and targeting a process vital to development and implicated in cancer and autoimmune diseases.

16 Feb 2005

Research shows that individual NAc neurons play a role in Pavlovian learning

While the brain center called the nucleus accumbens (NAc) has been called a key component of the brain's "reward" pathways, researchers' experiments with rats have now shown that the center processes not only rewarding stimuli, but also aversive stimuli.

16 Feb 2005

New findings challenge one of the established views of how nerve cells communicate with one another

Every time we move, feel emotions, think or remember, the nerve cells, or neurons, in our body transmit messages to one another via chemical signals called neurotransmitters. Within neurons are tiny organelles called synaptic vesicles that sequester neurotransmitters and release them when needed into the synapse, or space between nerve cells, where the chemical signal is transmitted to other neurons.

16 Feb 2005

Genetic manipulation cuts nerve damage, boosts life span

A novel genetic manipulation significantly extends the life spans of flies by reducing the amount of wear and tear suffered by nerve cells in adults, according to new work published in Cell Metabolism. The findings support the idea that therapies designed to protect the adult nervous system by curbing the production of damaging free radicals might effectively increase longevity in other animals, including humans, the researchers said.

15 Feb 2005

Paradox suggests reasons why COX-2 inhibitors hurt and help

Laboratory studies at Johns Hopkins have revealed that certain products of the enzymes COX-1 and COX-2 can both protect and damage the brain. The findings, published in the February 2005 issue of the Journal of Neurochemistry, offer tantalizing clues to why drugs like Vioxx and Celebrex, which block COX-2, can ease arthritis but potentially harm the heart and brain.

14 Feb 2005

Key insight into the process of normal synapse development may lead to improved treatment of conditions such as drug addiction and epilepsy

Communication in the brain travels from one nerve cell to another through critical connections called synapses. These neuron-to-neuron junctions form early in brain development, and their construction was thought to be guided by the nerve cells themselves.

13 Feb 2005

How polychlorinated biphenyls open brain cells to Parkinson's assault

University of Rochester scientists investigating the link between PCBs, pesticides and Parkinson's disease demonstrated new and intricate reactions that occur in certain brain cells, making them more vulnerable to injury after exposures.

9 Feb 2005

Inserting corrective genes into the brain to fight Parkinson's disease

An international team of scientists has used gene therapy in two separate studies to renew brain cells and restore normal movements in monkeys and rats with a drug-induced form of Parkinson's disease.

8 Feb 2005

Clues to autism's neural basis

In a study that broadens our understanding of the neural basis of social interactions, researchers at Harvard Medical School and the University of Montreal have shown that individuals with autism display abnormal patterns of activity in brain circuits that underlie the understanding of other people's behavior.

7 Feb 2005

Gene dynamin 2 underlies one form of Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease

A gene that plays many fundamental roles in cells throughout the body has, for the first time, been implicated in human disease, according to researchers at the Duke Center for Human Genetics.

31 Jan 2005

Psychiatric illness drugs may protect the brain cells that die in people with Huntington's disease

Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have discovered that drugs commonly used to treat psychiatric illnesses and blood disorders in humans may protect the brain cells that die in people with Huntington's disease, possibly delaying the onset and slowing the progression of the disease.

31 Jan 2005

Scientists have coaxed human embryonic stem cells to become spinal motor neurons

After years of trial and error, scientists have coaxed human embryonic stem cells to become spinal motor neurons, critical nervous system pathways that relay messages from the brain to the rest of the body.

30 Jan 2005

Insight into potential mechanisms underlying type II diabetes

New research published in the premier issue of Cell Metabolism finds that a single brain region is sufficient for normal control of blood sugar and activity level by the fat hormone leptin. The same region also exerts significant, though more modest, control over leptin's effects on body weight.

19 Jan 2005