Neuroscience News and Research

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NINDS to award TSRI scientist with $3.5M Jacob K. Javits Neuroscience Investigator Award

Ron Davis, PhD, chair of the Neuroscience Department on the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute, has been selected to receive a prestigious $3.5 million Jacob K. Javits Neuroscience Investigator Award for his work on the complex biology of memory formation and the disorders that disrupt it.

21 Feb 2013

Researchers uncover neurological basis of speech motor control

A team of researchers at UC San Francisco has uncovered the neurological basis of speech motor control, the complex coordinated activity of tiny brain regions that controls our lips, jaw, tongue and larynx as we speak.

21 Feb 2013

Sleep-deprived people select greater portion sizes of energy-dense snacks and meals

New research from Uppsala University shows that sleep-deprived people select greater portion sizes of energy-dense snacks and meals than they do after one night of normal sleep. Poor sleep habits can therefore affect people's risk of becoming overweight in the long run. The findings are published in Psychoneuroendocrinology.

20 Feb 2013

Insight into how NMDA receptors function

In a pair of new papers, researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences upend a long-held view about the basic functioning of a key receptor molecule involved in signaling between neurons, and describe how a compound linked to Alzheimer's disease impacts that receptor and weakens synaptic connections between brain cells.

20 Feb 2013

Study finds chemical cues that allow seals’ brain to remain half awake and asleep

A new study led by an international team of biologists has identified some of the brain chemicals that allow seals to sleep with half of their brain at a time.

20 Feb 2013

Outstanding U.S. and Canadian scientists to receive Sloan Research Fellowships for 2013

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation is pleased to announce the selection of 126 outstanding U.S. and Canadian researchers as recipients of Sloan Research Fellowships for 2013.

20 Feb 2013

Stanford University neurobiology professor wins Mortimer D. Sackler, M.D. Prize

Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and Weill Cornell Medical College have announced that the Mortimer D. Sackler, M.D. Prize for Distinguished Achievement in Developmental Psychobiology has been awarded to Carla Shatz, PhD, the Sapp Family Provostial Professor in Neurobiology at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California.

20 Feb 2013

Tiny microscope can help scientists observe neuronal firings in the brain

If you want to read a mouse's mind, it takes some fluorescent protein and a tiny microscope implanted in the rodent's head.

20 Feb 2013

New study reveals how control of brain blood flow develops with age

A new study by Columbia Engineering researchers finds that the infant brain does not control its blood flow in the same way as the adult brain. The paper, which the scientists say could change the way researchers study brain development in infants and children, is published in the February 18 Early Online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

19 Feb 2013

Chiasma, Roche enter agreement to develop and commercialize Octreolin

Roche and Chiasma Inc., a privately held biopharma company, announced today that they have entered into an agreement to develop and commercialize Chiasma's proprietary product Octreolin, initially for acromegaly and subsequently for neuroendocrine tumors.

19 Feb 2013

Infrared signaling could create sense of touch in artificial limbs

Rats can't usually see infrared light, but they have "touched" it in a Duke University lab. The rats sensed the light as a sensation of touch after Duke neurobiologist Miguel Nicolelis and his team fitted the animals with an infrared detector wired to electrodes implanted in the part of the mammalian brain that processes information related to the sense of touch.

17 Feb 2013

Brain health just as important as physical health

We all know the importance of keeping healthy and are familiar with the refrains of 'exercise more', 'eat better' and 'get regular physicals'. But what about our mental health? Professor Barbara Sahakian, best known for her expertise on cognitive enhancers, challenges society (and government) to prioritise mental health in the same way as we do physical health.

17 Feb 2013

TSG might be novel compound for treatment of Alzheimer's and dementia with Lewy body

Administration of the active compound tetrahydroxystilbene glucoside (TSG) derived from the Chinese herbal medicine Polygonum multiflorum Thunb, reversed both overexpression of α-synuclein, a small protein found in the brain, and its accumulation using a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease.

16 Feb 2013

Tau release from healthy neurons can be regulated by neuronal activity

Researchers from King's College London have discovered that neuronal activity can stimulate tau release from healthy neurons in the absence of cell death.

16 Feb 2013

Prions may be crucial in brain development during childhood

A molecule that is not only dangerous, but can help the brain grow. A few years ago it was found that certain proteins, the prions, when defective are dangerous, as they are involved in neurodegenerative syndromes such as the Creutzfeldt-Jakob and the Alzheimer diseases.

16 Feb 2013

'Primitive' reflexes may involve more sophisticated brain function than previously thought

Supposedly 'primitive' reflexes may involve more sophisticated brain function than previously thought, according to researchers at Imperial College London.

16 Feb 2013

Endovascular stroke therapy disappoints in head-to-head studies

Three randomized trials published in The New England Journal of Medicine have failed to prove that endovascular therapy results in better clinical outcomes than standard medical therapy in patients with acute ischemic stroke.

14 Feb 2013

Stress and mental illness: an interview with Professor Akira Sawa

As a psychiatrist I am interested in how stress may play a role in the pathology of adult mental disorders. You may know that most of the major mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia, mood-disorder, substance abuse or even anxiety disorder, become prominent in early adulthood.

14 Feb 2013

Researchers identify new way to influence the vital serotonin signaling system

An interdisciplinary team of researchers from the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston and the University of Houston has found a new way to influence the vital serotonin signaling system - possibly leading to more effective medications with fewer side effects.

14 Feb 2013

CELF6 genetic mutation may underlie common behaviors seen in people with autism

Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified a genetic mutation that may underlie common behaviors seen in some people with autism, such as difficulty communicating and resistance to change.

14 Feb 2013