Neurons News and Research

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Cinnamon extract can prevent Alzheimer's

Alzheimer's, the degenerative brain disorder that disrupts memory, thought and behavior, is devastating to both patients and loved ones. According to the Alzheimer's Association, one in eight Americans over the age of 65 suffers from the disease.

28 Jun 2011

McMaster researchers to use tiny worms for Parkinson's project

McMaster researchers from three disciplines are deploying thousands of tiny worms and a homegrown invention to test drugs in a collaborative bid to defeat Parkinson's Disease.

27 Jun 2011

Scientists gain insight into how brains process memory and sense of orientation

How do our brains process memory and sense of orientation? Scientists are gaining insight by studying rats with implanted genes that prompt neurons to fire on command.

24 Jun 2011

Protein globin E helps avian eyes 'breathe' and contributes to visual acuity

Say what you will about bird brains, but our feathered friends sure have us -- and all the other animals on the planet -- beat in the vision department, and that has a bit to do with how their brains develop.

24 Jun 2011

Growth-braking tumor-suppressor gene slows growth of childhood brain tumors

Johns Hopkins researchers have found a likely explanation for the slow growth of the most common childhood brain tumor, pilocytic astrocytoma. Using tests on a new cell-based model of the tumor, they concluded that the initial process of tumor formation switches on a growth-braking tumor-suppressor gene, in a process similar to that seen in skin moles.

24 Jun 2011

New research helps explain how memories are stored at synapses

Have a tough time remembering where you put your keys, learning a new language or recalling names at a cocktail party? New research from the Lisman Laboratory at Brandeis University points to a molecule that is central to the process by which memories are stored in the brain. A paper published in the June 22 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience describes the new findings.

24 Jun 2011

Hunger hormone likely to cause stress-linked complex eating behaviors

We are one step closer to deciphering why some stressed people indulge in chocolate, mashed potatoes, ice cream and other high-calorie, high-fat comfort foods. UT Southwestern Medical Center-led findings, in a mouse study, suggest that ghrelin - the so-called "hunger hormone" - is involved in triggering this reaction to high stress situations.

24 Jun 2011

Oxytocin hormone holds promise for children with Prader-Willi syndrome

Prader-Willi syndrome is a rare genetic disorder which affects one child in 25,000. Children born with this syndrome have a range of complex neurological and developmental problems which continue into adult life. These can manifest as cognitive and behavioral difficulties, weight gain, problems in controlling their temper and attendant difficulties in socialization.

24 Jun 2011

GUMC neuroscientists: Speech perception must have evolved from animals

Neuroscientists at Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC) have defined, for the first time, three different processing stages that a human brain needs to identify sounds such as speech - and discovered that they are the same as ones identified in non-human primates.

23 Jun 2011

Insights into type I diabetes

A new signal pathway that renders the insulin-releasing beta cell more sensitive to high levels of blood glucose has been discovered by researchers at the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet. A second new study reveals a possible way to delay the disease by inhibiting a lipoprotein.

23 Jun 2011

New surprising details about flow of neurotransmitters between brain neurons

Two studies featuring research from Weill Cornell Medical College have uncovered surprising details about the complex process that leads to the flow of neurotransmitters between brain neurons -- a dance of chemical messages so delicate that missteps often lead to neurological dysfunction.

23 Jun 2011

Weak neural synchronization could serve as powerful, new biological marker of autism

In a novel imaging study of sleeping toddlers, scientists at the University of California, San Diego Autism Center of Excellence report that a diminished ability of a young brain's hemispheres to "sync" with one another could be a powerful, new biological marker of autism, one that might enable an autism diagnosis at a very young age.

23 Jun 2011

Scientists observe key aspects of how memory circuits in the brain refine themselves

Scientists at the University of Michigan Health System have for the first time demonstrated how memory circuits in the brain refine themselves in a living organism through two distinct types of competition between cells.

23 Jun 2011

Scientists find altering hormone levels change cellular development in brain

In a study that increases the understanding of the link between fetal development and obesity later in life, researchers at Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center (LA BioMed) found altering the levels of two common hormones, insulin and leptin, in utero changes the cellular development in the region of the brain that regulates appetite.

23 Jun 2011

UC Riverside research could lead to novel therapeutics for epileptic seizures

Researchers at the University of California, Riverside have made a discovery in the lab that could help drug manufacturers develop new antiepileptic drugs and explore novel strategies for treating seizures associated with epilepsy - a disease affecting about two million Americans.

22 Jun 2011

Two NJIT researchers receive U.S. Patent for nanoprobe array technique

Reginald C. Farrow and Zafer Iqbal, research professors at NJIT, were awarded a patent today for an improved method of fabricating arrays of nanoscale electrical probes. Their discovery may lead to improved diagnostic tools for measuring the spatial variation of electrical activity inside biological cells.

22 Jun 2011

Reduced levels of VAPB protein may play central role in causing ALS

An international team of scientists led by researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have used induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) derived from patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) to reveal for the first time how reduced levels of a specific protein may play a central role in causing at least one inherited form of the disease.

22 Jun 2011

Caffeinated coffee boosts blood GCSF levels, protects against Alzheimer's

A yet unidentified component of coffee interacts with the beverage's caffeine, which could be a surprising reason why daily coffee intake protects against Alzheimer's disease.

22 Jun 2011

Wayne State team receives $330,000 NSF grant to develop 3-D neural probe for tinnitus

A team of Wayne State University researchers was awarded $330,000 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to develop a 3-D neural probe. Their aim is to develop an implantable device that will suppress tinnitus, a neurological disorder that affects more than 250 million people worldwide.

21 Jun 2011

Study: Dyslexia gene controls cilia in brain neurons

Scientists at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have discovered that a gene linked to dyslexia has a surprising biological function: it controls cilia, the antenna-like projections that cells use to communicate.

20 Jun 2011