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Neuroscientists decode how visual cues can reorganize the activity of compass neurons

If you've ever woken up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and stumbled around in the dark, banging into walls or dressers in a room you've walked through countless times, you've experienced the effects of inadequately calibrated neurons.

21 Nov 2019

Exploring the links between chronic stress, inflammation and depression

Chronic stress can inflame our brain, destroy the connections between our neurons and result in depression, scientists say.

21 Nov 2019

Inflammatory processes drive progression of neurodegenerative brain diseases

Inflammation drives the progression of neurodegenerative brain diseases and plays a major role in the accumulation of tau proteins within neurons.

20 Nov 2019

Teenage drinking increases risk of anxiety and alcohol problems in adulthood

A recent study suggests that teenage drinking may predispose a person to anxiety and alcohol abuse in later life.

18 Nov 2019

Study sheds light on how Zika virus causes microcephaly in newborns

A new study led by researchers at Baylor College of Medicine revealed how in utero Zika virus infection can lead to microcephaly in newborns. The team discovered that the Zika virus protein NS4A disrupts brain growth by hijacking a pathway that regulates the generation of new neurons.

14 Nov 2019

Leukemia type B cell can transform into a macrophage through epigenetic changes

All the tissues of our body have the same DNA, but they perform very different functions and have very different aspects.

13 Nov 2019

Scientists find driver for more deadly prostate cancer

A transcription factor that aids neuron function also appears to enable a cell conversion in the prostate gland that can make an already recurrent cancer even more deadly, scientists say.

13 Nov 2019

Understanding neural processes behind motor behaviours and learning

Researchers have provided new insight into the neural processes behind movement and learning behaviours, according to a study published today in eLife.

12 Nov 2019

Scientists identify new mechanism for the development of Parkinson's disease

An international research team including scientists from the University of Cologne have identified a new mechanism for the development of Parkinson's disease, which could prove to be the starting point for the development of a more targeted therapy.

12 Nov 2019

Study may shake up certain conventional theories on workings of sense of smell

Is a pair of brain structures called the olfactory bulbs, which are said to encode our sense of smell, necessary? That is, are they essential to the existence of this sense? Weizmann Institute of Science researchers recently showed that some humans can smell just fine, thank you, without olfactory bulbs.

11 Nov 2019

Future drugs aimed at halting cell-inactivation process may help prevent Parkinson's disease

In neurodegenerative conditions like Parkinson's disease, a specific group of neurons start to die one by one, causing movement problems and other symptoms. Scientists have long focused on finding out why these neurons die. Now it turns out, they might not even be dead.

11 Nov 2019

Adult SMA patients treated with Nusinersen show improvement in motor function

A study published in the Journal of Neuromuscular Diseases presents the first evidence of mild improvement or stabilization of motor and respiratory function in adults with spinal muscular atrophy type 3 (SMA3) treated with Nusinersen, which was the case even in patients who have had the disease for 20 years or more.

11 Nov 2019

Humans can have normal olfaction without typical olfactory bulbs

Our sense of smell depends on the transmission of olfactory information from the nose to the olfactory bulb in the brain through the olfactory nerve. And without olfactory bulbs, smell isn't possible--or so scientists thought.

8 Nov 2019

Study shows how myelinated mammalian nerves propagate nerve impulses at high frequencies

University of Alabama at Birmingham researchers, for the first time ever, have achieved patch-clamp studies of an elusive part of mammalian myelinated nerves called the Nodes of Ranvier.

6 Nov 2019

Disruption of cannabinoid receptors has detrimental effect on the development of zebrafish

Disrupting natural cannabinoid receptors has a detrimental effect on the development of zebrafish, according to new research by University of Alberta biologists.

6 Nov 2019

Tumour conversion of glial cells when exposed to bowel cancer secretions

A new study has shown that glial cells of the gut (part of the enteric nervous system) when exposed to secretions from colon cancer cells are convert into tumours themselves. These altered glial cells then convert into promoters of tumours said the study researchers.

31 Oct 2019

Scientists identify protein that pulls the brake on nerve growth

During embryonic development, nerve cells form thin, long extensions, which they use to wire up a complex network, the brain. Scientists from the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases in Bonn have now identified a protein that regulates the growth of these extensions by pulling a brake.

31 Oct 2019

Key gene mutated in familial Alzheimer's regulates differentiation of neurons

An international team of researchers led by the Institute of Neuroscience at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona describes a new route that promotes differentiation of neurons.

30 Oct 2019

TDP-43 study could speed up the diagnosis and treatment of ALS

A new study suggests that TDP-43 may be used as a biomarker in the diagnosis and treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

30 Oct 2019

Brain function changes could help diagnose and manage depression

Ever heard of the lateral habenula? Very few, outside of neuroscience, probably have. Yet a new study, published in the journal Neuron, shows that characteristic changes in the way this area of the brain fires can result in a total loss of will to do anything – which is characteristic of one form of depression.

29 Oct 2019