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Research findings shed light on brain’s ability to make split-second decisions

When animals hunt or forage for food, they must constantly weigh whether the chance of a meal is worth the risk of being spotted by a predator. The same conflict between cost and benefit is at the heart of many of the decisions humans make on a daily basis.

25 Apr 2017

Caltech researchers discover brain region that judges intensity, ambiguity of facial expressions

Have you ever thought someone was angry at you, but it turned out you were just misreading their facial expression? Caltech researchers have now discovered that one specific region of the brain, called the amygdala, is involved in making these (sometimes inaccurate) judgments about ambiguous or intense emotions.

25 Apr 2017

Low levels of NPTX2 protein in the brain may lead to learning and memory loss in Alzheimer's disease

Working with human brain tissue samples and genetically engineered mice, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers together with colleagues at the National Institutes of Health, the University of California San Diego Shiley-Marcos Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, Columbia University, and the Institute for Basic Research in Staten Island say that consequences of low levels of the protein NPTX2 in the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease (AD) may change the pattern of neural activity in ways that lead to the learning and memory loss that are hallmarks of the disease.

25 Apr 2017

Combination of genetics and experience gives each individual a unique sense of smell, study finds

Researchers from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and their collaborators have shown that receptors in the noses of mice exposed to certain smells during life are different to genetically similar mice that lived without those smells.

25 Apr 2017

Scientists use stem cells to identify underlying cellular defects that cause Angelman syndrome

Researchers at UConn Health used stem cells derived from patients with Angelman syndrome to identify the underlying cellular defects that cause the rare neurogenetic disorder, an important step in the ongoing search for potential treatments for Angelman and a possible cure.

25 Apr 2017

Working memory training combined with brain stimulation can improve performance, research shows

Your Saturday Salsa club or Introductory Italian class might be even better for you than you thought. According to Sandia National Laboratories cognitive scientist Mike Trumbo, learning a language or an instrument or going dancing is the best way to keep your brain keen despite the ravages of time. Not only do you enhance your cognition but you also learn a skill and have fun.

25 Apr 2017

Synchronized voltage rhythms in SCN could play role in maintaining the body’s circadian clock

Cells in the brain's master circadian clock synchronize voltage rhythms despite asynchronous calcium rhythms, which might explain how a tissue-wide rhythm is maintained.

24 Apr 2017

New model for toxicity risk assessment could reduce reliance on animal testing

Traditional toxicological investigations performed on animals (in vivo) are expensive, time-consuming and may cause animal suffering.

24 Apr 2017

UCLA research overturns paradigm about how axons grow during embryonic development

New research by scientists at the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA overturns a long-standing paradigm about how axons -- thread-like projections that connect cells in the nervous system -- grow during embryonic development.

21 Apr 2017

Johns Hopkins researchers discover group of nerve cells in the skin responsible for ‘active touch’

Working with genetically engineered mice -- and especially their whiskers -- Johns Hopkins researchers report they have identified a group of nerve cells in the skin responsible for what they call "active touch," a combination of motion and sensory feeling needed to navigate the external world.

21 Apr 2017

Researchers reveal promising performance of retinal prosthesis implanted in rats

Researchers at Okayama University report in the Journal of Artificial Organs the promising performance of a retinal prosthesis material when implanted in rats. The material is capable of converting external light stimuli into electric potentials that are picked up by neurons.

21 Apr 2017

Research shows potential way to limit damage to the brain caused by seizure disorder

Tiny vesicles isolated from adult mesenchymal stem cells and administered intranasally can limit the damage to the brain of animal models caused by a seizure disorder called status epilepticus, according to research published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

21 Apr 2017

Traditional hearing tests fail to diagnose patients with common inner ear damage

Traditional clinical hearing tests often fail to diagnose patients with a common form of inner ear damage that might otherwise be detected by more challenging behavioral tests, according to the findings of a University at Buffalo-led study published in the journal Frontiers in Neuroscience.

20 Apr 2017

“Young” blood revitalizes elderly mice’s learning and memory skills, say researchers

Researchers have found that infusing elderly mice with human umbilical cord blood boosts the animals’ learning and memory capabilities. The team, from Stanford University School of Medicine, also identified a single protein in the blood that seemed to be responsible for the improved cognitive performance.

20 Apr 2017

Researcher aims to eliminate chemotherapy-resistant ovarian tumors using virus treatment

In some cases, the Lassa virus starts with a fever and general weakness, moving toward headache, muscle pain, possible facial swelling, deafness, and worse. About 15 percent of patients hospitalized with severe cases die.

20 Apr 2017

Scientists find new way to measure tau protein levels in the blood

Damaging tangles of the protein tau dot the brains of people with Alzheimer's and many other neurodegenerative diseases, including chronic traumatic encephalopathy, which plagues professional boxers and football players.

20 Apr 2017

TSRI scientists reveal important role of genetics in brain circuits

Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla have revealed new clues to the wiring of the brain. A team led by Associate Professor Anton Maximov found that neurons in brain regions that store memory can form networks in the absence of synaptic activity.

19 Apr 2017

SLU researchers make advances in understanding plaque-causing protein in neurological disorders

In a recent paper published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry Yuna Ayala, Ph.D., assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at Saint Louis University, and her research team made advances in understanding how a protein causes damaging plaques to build up in neurodegenerative illnesses like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and a form of dementia called frontotemporal lobar degeneration.

19 Apr 2017

Johns Hopkins study shows that healthy adult gut loses and regenerates nerve cells

Johns Hopkins researchers today published new evidence refuting the long-held scientific belief that the gut nerve cells we're born with are the same ones we die with.

19 Apr 2017

MIT researchers develop new technique to make high-resolution images of tissues

MIT researchers have developed a way to make extremely high-resolution images of tissue samples, at a fraction of the cost of other techniques that offer similar resolution.

17 Apr 2017

Neurons News and Research

Research findings shed light on brain’s ability to make split-second decisions

Caltech researchers discover brain region that judges intensity, ambiguity of facial expressions

Low levels of NPTX2 protein in the brain may lead to learning and memory loss in Alzheimer's disease

Combination of genetics and experience gives each individual a unique sense of smell, study finds

Scientists use stem cells to identify underlying cellular defects that cause Angelman syndrome

Working memory training combined with brain stimulation can improve performance, research shows

Synchronized voltage rhythms in SCN could play role in maintaining the body’s circadian clock

New model for toxicity risk assessment could reduce reliance on animal testing

UCLA research overturns paradigm about how axons grow during embryonic development

Johns Hopkins researchers discover group of nerve cells in the skin responsible for ‘active touch’

Researchers reveal promising performance of retinal prosthesis implanted in rats

Research shows potential way to limit damage to the brain caused by seizure disorder

Traditional hearing tests fail to diagnose patients with common inner ear damage

“Young” blood revitalizes elderly mice’s learning and memory skills, say researchers

Researcher aims to eliminate chemotherapy-resistant ovarian tumors using virus treatment

Scientists find new way to measure tau protein levels in the blood

TSRI scientists reveal important role of genetics in brain circuits

SLU researchers make advances in understanding plaque-causing protein in neurological disorders

Johns Hopkins study shows that healthy adult gut loses and regenerates nerve cells

MIT researchers develop new technique to make high-resolution images of tissues

Human iPSCs: A Full Guide to Advanced in Vitro Models and Applications eBook

Bringing real-time analytics to downstream bioprocess monitoring

Designing fluidic architecture for scalable diagnostic platforms

Evaluating new approaches for rare disease genomics

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