Brain News and Research

RSS

The human brain is the center of the human nervous system and is a highly complex organ. Enclosed in the cranium, it has the same general structure as the brains of other mammals, but is over three times as large as the brain of a typical mammal with an equivalent body size.

Brain oscillations provide insights into the human navigation system

The brain creates a map of our environment, which enables reliable spatial navigation. The Nobel Prize was awarded in 2014 for research into how this navigation system works at the cellular level.

12 Oct 2018

Scientists demonstrate the existence of grid-like activity in the human brain

It has long been known that so-called place cells in the human hippocampus are responsible for coding one's position in space.

12 Oct 2018

Study: Alterations in genes encoding proteins contribute to ADHD development

A team from I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University together with foreign colleagues analyzed the genomes of several families that have members with ADHD.

12 Oct 2018

Studies demonstrate effect of Ketogenic Diet on cognitive health in animals

We've all experienced a "gut feeling" -- when we know deep down inside that something is true. That phenomenon and others (like "butterflies in the stomach") aptly describe what scientists have now demonstrated: that the gut and the brain are more closely connected than we once thought, and in fact the health of one can affect the other.

12 Oct 2018

Research shows basophils are key players in lung development

Lungs are vital organs required for the uptake of oxygen in exchange for carbon dioxide. However, the enormous complexity of the respiratory organ is often underestimated and deserves a closer look: A broad range of specialized cells work closely together to ensure the proper functioning of the lung and provide the vital gas exchange.

12 Oct 2018

'Eye scan' shows promise to diagnose central nervous system disorders

Partners from Austria – represented by Medical University of Vienna – Germany, France and the Netherlands are taking part in the EU "MOON" project (multimodal optical diagnostics for age-related diseases of the eye and central nervous system) to develop new techniques for early diagnosis of these diseases and successfully apply them in treatment and diagnosis.

12 Oct 2018

'Digital brain' recreates protein trafficking in the brain

Researchers have developed a digital 3D brain demonstrating how the toxic proteins involved in neurodegenerative diseases are transported through the brain.

12 Oct 2018

Basophils play key role in development of macrophages in the lung

The adult lung consists of different, highly specialized cell types that are protected by a variety of immune cells.

12 Oct 2018

Scientists reprogram mature inhibitory neurons into dopaminergic cells

Attempting to make dopamine-producing neurons out of glial cells in mouse brains, a group of researchers instead converted mature inhibitory neurons into dopaminergic cells.

12 Oct 2018

Antidepressants can be used to treat Alzheimer’s disease

Scientists at the University of Waterloo have discovered that antidepressant medications can be used to treat Alzheimer’s disease.

12 Oct 2018

Mast cells associated with allergies also play key role in survival, study reveals

In a University of California, Irvine-led study, researchers found evidence that mast cells, an important group of immune cells typically associated with allergies, actually enable the body to survive fasting or intense exercise.

12 Oct 2018

Kent State professor receives grant to study role of oxytocin in the developing brain

Heather Caldwell, Ph.D., a professor in Kent State University's Department of Biological Sciences, recently received a $450,000 grant to study the role that oxytocin plays in the developing brain.

12 Oct 2018

Neuroscientists unravel how two different types of brain plasticity work on synapses

The brain's crucial function is to allow organisms to learn and adapt to their surroundings. It does this by literally changing the connections, or synapses, between neurons, strengthening meaningful patterns of neural activity in order to store information. The existence of this process - brain plasticity - has been known for some time.

12 Oct 2018

Study identifies brain cortex activity differences in children with arthrogryposis

Researchers from the Higher School of Economics and the Turner Scientific and Research Institute for Children's Orthopedics have discovered that in children with arthrogryposis, the power of electrical activity in the brain cortex decreases, while its dynamics remains the same as in healthy children.

12 Oct 2018

Study: Brain's neurons are more changeable in adulthood than previously thought

UT Southwestern researchers attempting to transform supporting brain cells into neurons instead reprogrammed mature inhibitory neurons into a different type of neuron that creates the neurotransmitter lost in Parkinson's disease.

12 Oct 2018

Pitt/UPMC researchers awarded NIH grants for brain computer interface research

A team of University of Pittsburgh and UPMC researchers was recently awarded two grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) totaling over $8 million to expand their groundbreaking brain computer interface (BCI) research in collaboration with researchers at the University of Chicago and Carnegie Mellon University.

12 Oct 2018