Neuron News and Research

RSS

Sexual communication within species

To look at the tobacco budworm moth and its close cousin, you wouldn't be able to tell the fuzzy-looking, fingertip-size moths apart. But put males of each species as far as six car-lengths away from females, and even in the darkness of midnight they easily find their way to mates from their own species while ignoring females from the other species. Today, the genes that keep the species sexually isolated are no longer a mystery, thanks to research from North Carolina State University and the University of Utah.

19 Apr 2010

Hidden neuronal circuit that modulates sensory perception under stress identified

Did you ever wonder how you are able to perform complex tasks - even under stress? And how do emotions and memories mould your ability to live your everyday lives? The answer is just beginning to be understood and lies in hidden circuits in the brain.

19 Apr 2010

Researchers discover link between protein structure and hearing process

Rising from the top surface of each of the specialized receptor cells in our inner ears is a bundle of sensory cilia that responds to the movement of sound. As sensitive as they are fragile, these cilia can move to wisps of sound no larger than a molecule-but can shear at sounds that are larger than life.

17 Apr 2010

Australian study uncovers mechanisms involved in the progression of Alzheimer's disease

A major Australian study has provided new insights into the loss of structure in regions of the brain and its potential association with Alzheimer's Disease. The findings recently reported in Neurology suggest a build-up of deposits of the protein amyloid-beta in a region of the brain known as the temporal inferior cortex.

17 Apr 2010

Scientists grow cultured neurons to investigate basic mechanisms of memory

In order to be able to understand complex organs such as the brain or the nervous system, simplified model systems are required. A group of scientists led by the Frankfurt brain researcher Erin Schuman has successfully developed a novel method to grow cultured neurons in order to investigate basic mechanisms of memory.

16 Apr 2010

eRNA molecules are key players in brain development, says study

How does the brain work? This question is one of the greatest scientific mysteries, and neurobiologists have only recently begun to piece together the molecular building blocks that enable human beings to be "thinking" animals.

15 Apr 2010

New findings point to potential dysfunctional learning process in chronic pain patients

New research reveals why a stimulus that healthy human subjects perceive as a reward might be processed quite differently in the brains of humans suffering from chronic pain.

15 Apr 2010

First direct recording of mirror neurons in the brain

Mirror neurons, many say, are what make us human. They are the cells in the brain that fire not only when we perform a particular action but also when we watch someone else perform that same action.

13 Apr 2010

Antidepressants and mood stabilizers may benefit stroke victims

A study in rodents shows the growth of new neurons, also known as neurogenesis, lessens the severity of stroke and dramatically improves function following a stroke. The research, undertaken at the Buck Institute for Age Research, suggests that drugs shown to promote neurogenesis in rodents could have benefits for human stroke victims and that those drugs-which include antidepressants and mood stabilizers such as lithium-may be suitable for study in human clinical trials.

13 Apr 2010

Transgenic mouse model study confirms passage of maternal thyroid hormones to fetus

Until now there were only indirect evidence of the transfer of thyroid hormones from mother to fetus through the placenta during pregnancy. That event is very important because the maternal thyroid hormones appear to play a key role in the development of the nervous system and other organs of the fetus; so it's true that in case of maternal thyroid disease, such hypothyroidism, have a direct bearing on the unborn child with reduction, also significant, to its Q.I..

12 Apr 2010

MIF molecule plays crucial role in neurogenesis

There has been little progress in the way we treat depression and anxiety for over thirty years, but a recent study at EPFL Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) may open the door to new strategies. In an article published online February 23, 2010, in Molecular Psychiatry, researchers from two laboratories at the Brain Mind Institute at EPFL (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) explain how understanding the functioning of a molecule called MIF, or macrophage migration inhibitory factor, may change the way we treat depression.

12 Apr 2010

Researchers commence Phase 2 research study to test CERE-110 for AD

Researchers at Banner Sun Health Research Institute are about to start the first Phase 2 research study to test a gene transfer agent for Alzheimer's disease. AD is a degenerative and ultimately fatal disorder affecting as many as five million Americans and that number is expected to soar to more than 11 million by 2040.

7 Apr 2010

Opexa Therapeutics to discuss on personalized medicine for treatment of MS

Opexa Therapeutics, Inc., a company developing a novel T-cell therapy for multiple sclerosis, announced today that the company will participate in a panel discussion on Personalized Medicine for the Treatment of Multiple Sclerosis on April 7, 2010.

5 Apr 2010

Recipients of Pfizer Canada's third Neuropathic Pain Research Awards Competition announced

Pfizer Canada is pleased to announce the recipients of its third Neuropathic Pain Research Awards Competition, which aims to fund and support Canadian innovation within independent neuropathic pain research in the areas of basic biomedical, clinical and health sciences.

31 Mar 2010

AAN awards Cedars-Sinai researcher 2010 Sheila Essey Award for ALS research

The American Academy of Neurology (AAN) is awarding the 2010 Sheila Essey Award-An Award for ALS Research to Clive Svendsen, PhD, with the Cedars-Sinai Regenerative Medicine Institute in Los Angeles, CA. Svendsen will receive the award during the AAN's 62nd Annual Meeting in Toronto, held April 10 through April 17, 2010.

31 Mar 2010

UCSF approach may one day be used to create new periods of plasticity in human brain

UCSF scientists report that they were able to prompt a new period of "plasticity," or capacity for change, in the neural circuitry of the visual cortex of juvenile mice. The approach, they say, might some day be used to create new periods of plasticity in the human brain that would allow for the repair of neural circuits following injury or disease.

27 Mar 2010

Modified protein plays a key role in memory processes

How do we process thoughts and store memories? A team of researchers headed by Dr. Nahum Sonenberg of McGill's Department of Biochemistry and Goodman Cancer Centre has discovered that brains in mammals modify a particular protein in a unique way, which alters the protein's normal function.

26 Mar 2010

SMA Foundation completes biomarker study for Spinal Muscular Atrophy

The Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating the development of a treatment for SMA, is pleased to announce the completion of a pilot study to identify Biomarkers for Spinal Muscular Atrophy (BforSMA) and the discovery of over 400 candidate biomarkers.

26 Mar 2010

Study offers new insight on how human brain makes moral judgments

A new study from MIT neuroscientists suggests that our ability to respond appropriately to intended harms - that is, with outrage toward the perpetrator - is seated in a brain region associated with regulating emotions.

25 Mar 2010

New research at Tel Aviv University may lay groundwork for retinal implants in people

Television's Six Million Dollar Man foresaw a future when man and machine would become one. New research at Tel Aviv University is making this futuristic "vision" of bionics a reality.

23 Mar 2010