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Review article provides novel insight into brain changes in alcohol-related sleep-wake disturbances

A review article published online in Behavioral Brain Research provides novel insight into changes that happen in the brain as a result of chronic alcohol exposure that can lead to disruptions in the sleep cycle.

30 Sep 2014

Neural recordings can be used to forecast spontaneous decisions

You're waiting at a bus stop, expecting the bus to arrive any time. You watch the road. Nothing yet. A little later you start to pace. More time passes. "Maybe there is some problem", you think. Finally, you give up and raise your arm and hail a taxi. Just as you pull away, you glimpse the bus gliding up. Did you have a choice to wait a bit longer? Or was giving up too soon the inevitable and predictable result of a chain of neural events?

30 Sep 2014

Scientists show how individual neurons in the human brain react to morphed faces

An international team of scientists, involving Professor Rodrigo Quian Quiroga, director of the Centre for Systems Neuroscience and Head of Bioengineering at the University of Leicester, has shown how individual neurons in the human brain react to ambiguous morphed faces.

29 Sep 2014

Understanding how neurons encode information

Nathan Urban, interim provost and the Dr. Frederick A. Schwertz Distinguished Professor of Life Sciences, and Robert Kass, professor of statistics and machine learning, have received a $930,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to apply biological and statistical neuroscience approaches in order to create a better overall understanding of how neurons encode information.

29 Sep 2014

Cedars-Sinai to participate in a consortium studying motor neuron disorders

Investigators at the Cedars-Sinai Board of Governors Regenerative Medicine Institute have received a grant from the National Institutes of Health to participate in a consortium taking the study of motor neuron disorders - such as Lou Gehrig's disease and spinal muscular atrophy - to a new, comprehensive perspective.

26 Sep 2014

BRD4 protein appears to play key role in keeping stem cells in immature "pluripotent" state

A protein implicated in several cancers appears to play a pivotal role in keeping stem cells in an immature "pluripotent" state, according to a new study by NYU Langone Medical Center scientists.

26 Sep 2014

International researchers identify novel causes for severe childhood epilepsies

In the largest collaborative study so far, an international team of researchers, including scientists from VIB and Antwerp University identified novel causes for severe childhood epilepsies.

26 Sep 2014

Northwestern scientists develop first animal model for ALS dementia

The first animal model for ALS dementia, a form of ALS that also damages the brain, has been developed by Northwestern Medicine- scientists. The advance will allow researchers to directly see the brains of living mice, under anesthesia, at the microscopic level. This will allow direct monitoring of test drugs to determine if they work.

25 Sep 2014

Mfn2 protein: A future therapeutic target for neuronal death reduction in ischemic stroke

A new study published in the prestigious publication The EMBO Journal shows that the mitochondrial protein Mfn2 may be a future therapeutic target for neuronal death reduction in the late phases of an ischemic stroke.

24 Sep 2014

New study sheds light on longstanding question about role of mitochondria in motor neuron diseases

A new study by researchers at the University of Utah School of Medicine sheds light on a longstanding question about the role of mitochondria in debilitating and fatal motor neuron diseases and resulted in a new mouse model to study such illnesses.

22 Sep 2014

Novel technique uses genetic tool and light to map neural networks

For years, neuroscientists have been trying to develop tools that would allow them to clearly view the brain's circuitry in action-from the first moment a neuron fires to the resulting behavior in a whole organism.

22 Sep 2014

Researchers discover key cell-signaling pathway that contributes to development of Alzheimer's disease

Researchers at Jacksonville's campus of Mayo Clinic have discovered a defect in a key cell-signaling pathway they say contributes to both overproduction of toxic protein in the brains of Alzheimer's disease patients as well as loss of communication between neurons - both significant contributors to this type of dementia.

21 Sep 2014

Researchers identify control mechanism for mood disorders

Researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have identified a control mechanism for an area of the brain that processes sensory and emotive information that humans experience as "disappointment."

19 Sep 2014

Activation of MMP-9 enzyme leads to behavioral problems connected to chronic stress

Why is it that when people are too stressed they are often grouchy, grumpy, nasty, distracted or forgetful? Researchers from the Brain Mind Institute at EPFL have just highlighted a fundamental synaptic mechanism that explains the relationship between chronic stress and the loss of social skills and cognitive impairment. When triggered by stress, an enzyme attacks a synaptic regulatory molecule in the brain. This was revealed by a work published in Nature Communications.

19 Sep 2014

Adding common epilepsy drug to morphine can result in better pain control, say IU researchers

Adding a common epilepsy drug to a morphine regimen can result in better pain control with fewer side effects. Moreover, the combination can reduce the dosage of the opioid needed to be effective, according to a team of pain researchers at Indiana University.

17 Sep 2014