Neuroscience News and Research

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Experts encourage a paradigm shift in the design of animal experiments

Animal experiments are typically conducted under highly standardized laboratory conditions. While standardization is meant to improve reproducibility of scientific results, in reality reproducibility is surprisingly low.

2 Jun 2020

Researchers recommend ways to reduce the number of experiments

For some scientific disciplines, such as medical or drug research, experiments with live animals are still indispensable.

2 Jun 2020

Non-stop learning presents an optimal decision-making strategy

Unlike machines, the behaviour of animals and humans almost always has an element of unpredictability. Countless experiments have shown that our responses to the exact same challenge are sometimes faster, sometimes slower, sometimes correct and sometimes wrong.

2 Jun 2020

Study: High estrogen levels may influence alcohol use disorder

A new study from researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago shows that high estrogen levels may make alcohol more rewarding to female mice.

2 Jun 2020

Stem cell model sheds new light on the devastating process of neurodegeneration

A new study published today in Neuron led by The New York Stem Cell Foundation Research Institute's Valentina Fossati, Ph.D., creates astrocytes - an integral support cell in the brain - from stem cells and shows that in disease-like environments, these normally helpful cells can turn into neuron-killers.

1 Jun 2020

Reducing inflammation improves stroke recovery, may extend window for therapy

Reperfusion therapy, the gold standard for stroke treatment, helps restore blood flow after a stroke caused by a clot, preventing loss of brain tissue. However, only about 10% of stroke patients qualify, in part because of reperfusion therapy's narrow treatment window.

1 Jun 2020

A remote optical control for neural cells

A team led by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University has created a new technology that enhances scientists' ability to communicate with neural cells using light.

1 Jun 2020

Research suggests new approach to therapeutic intervention for ALS

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is one of the most devastating adult-onset neurodegenerative diseases. Patients, including the late actor/playwright Sam Shepard, become progressively weaker and eventually paralyzed as their motor neurons degenerate and die.

1 Jun 2020

Cognitive aptitudes of young women may be more affected with high alcohol use than men

Female college students appear to be more affected by high alcohol use than men, which may lead to less interest in academics, according to new research including by faculty at Binghamton University, State University of New York.

1 Jun 2020

Study shows mental toll of being a frontline healthcare worker during COVID-19

They worked in hospitals hundreds of miles from the epicenter of COVID-19. Their city of 24 million people locked down hard enough, and did enough testing, that it only had a few hundred cases of the disease.

1 Jun 2020

Out-of-sync gamma waves in the brain may underlie learning issues in psychiatric disorders

A new UC San Francisco study has pinpointed a specific pattern of brain waves that underlies the ability to let go of old, irrelevant learned associations to make way for new updates.

1 Jun 2020

Researchers show how ketamine fights difficult-to-treat depression

The anaesthetic drug ketamine has been shown, in low doses, to have a rapid effect on difficult-to-treat depression.

31 May 2020

Neanderthal gene in women boosts infertility

It is still unclear why some women go into labor for long periods, and some face a high risk of childbirth. Also, some women fall pregnant quickly, while others may take years before they conceive. The answer may be due to a gene inherited from the Neanderthals, an extinct species or subspecies of archaic humans who lived in Eurasia until about 40,000 years ago.

31 May 2020