Nervous System News and Research

Latest Nervous System News and Research

Scientists mimic the natural development of mammal using stem cells

The tiny mouse embryo has a heart that beats. Its muscles, blood vessels, gut and nervous system are beginning to develop. But this embryo is unusual: It was made in a lab, out of mouse embryonic stem cells, and represents the most sophisticated in vitro (in a dish) model of a mammal ever so created.

29 Jun 2021

Study delves into the link between smoking and suicidal behaviors

Psychiatry and Clinical Psychology residents Iván Echeverria, Miriam Cotaina and Antonio Jovani, from the Hospital Provincial of Castellón, doctor Ana Benito and doctor Gonzalo Haro from the TXP research group of the CEU UCH, and doctor Rafael Mora, have published the results of their latest research: a meta-analysis on suicide, the first cause of external death in Spain.

25 Jun 2021

Study shows how inhibitory neurons play a key role to facilitate signal transmission

When looking at a complex landscape, the eye needs to focus in on important details without losing the big picture--a charging lion in a jungle, for example. Now, a new study by Salk scientists shows how inhibitory neurons play a critical role in this process.

25 Jun 2021

Study could help identify genes linked to aging process

To better understand the role of bacteria in health and disease, National Institutes of Health researchers fed fruit flies antibiotics and monitored the lifetime activity of hundreds of genes that scientists have traditionally thought control aging.

25 Jun 2021

Research reveals how autonomic nervous system influences deep sleep in sleepwalkers

Somnambulism - otherwise known as sleepwalking - is a phenomenon which has fascinated the public and neurologists for decades, but a lot of what causes it remains a mystery.

25 Jun 2021

Study identifies the cell of origin of medulloblastoma

The study was conducted by an international collaboration involving the research team led by Luca Tiberi of the Armenise-Harvard Laboratory of Brain Cancer at the Department of Cellular, computational and integrative biology - Cibio of UniTrento, the Paris Brain Institute-Institut du Cerveau at Sorbonne Université in Paris, the Hopp Children´s Cancer Center (KiTZ) in Heidelberg, Germany, and Sapienza University in Rome.

24 Jun 2021

New microscopy technique reveals the cellular make-up of Wilm's tumors

A new technique to look at tumors under the microscope has revealed the cellular make-up of Wilm's tumors, a childhood kidney cancer, in unprecedented detail.

24 Jun 2021

Turning down glial genes can help mitigate Huntington's disease pathogenesis

The brain is not a passive recipient of injury or disease. Research has shown that when neurons die and disrupt the natural flow of information they maintain with other neurons, the brain compensates by redirecting communications through other neuronal networks.

24 Jun 2021

Eating 2.5 grams of pure natural cocoa powder improves daytime visual acuity

Eating 2.5 grams of pure natural cocoa powder serves to improve visual acuity in healthy young adults and in daylight conditions, according to research by the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM) and the ICTAN (Institute of Food and Nutrition Science and Technology) of the CSIC.

23 Jun 2021

Can antioxidants help manage neurological complications in COVID-19?

In a recent study published in Antioxidants, researchers evaluated the use of antioxidants as potential adjuvants for the treatment of COVID-19.

23 Jun 2021

Albumin supplementation improves human fertility, fights infection

A new University of California, Irvine-led study reveals albumin (Alb), among the most abundant proteins in the body, activates a proton channel (hHv1), also widespread in the body, giving sperm the ability to penetrate and fertilize an egg, and allowing white blood cells to secrete large amounts of inflammatory mediators to fight infection.

22 Jun 2021

MS symptoms often appear long before the diagnosis, study finds

Years before they are diagnosed, persons with multiple sclerosis (MS) make significantly more visits to doctors and hospitals than others.

22 Jun 2021

Research findings on the links between air pollution and neurodegeneration

There is growing awareness that air pollutants are playing a critical role in the development of neurodegenerative diseases.

22 Jun 2021

New human organoid mimics the earliest developmental steps of the nervous system in embryos

The progression from a round ball of cells to an embryo with a head and a tail is one of the most critical steps in an organism's development. But just how cells first start organizing themselves with directionality along this head-to-tail axis is hard to study because it happens in the earliest days of embryonic development, in the confines of a mammal's uterus.

22 Jun 2021

New method accurately detects virulent infections in advance

When viruses infect cells, changes in the cell nucleus occur, and these can be observed through fluorescence microscopy.

21 Jun 2021

New breakthrough could lead to a cure for common childhood cancer

Scientists studying a common childhood cancer have made a major breakthrough which could lead to a cure for some youngsters who would not have survived the condition.

21 Jun 2021

Novel interactions between proteins play a critical role in the brain injury recovery process

Patients with brain injury (caused by stroke or trauma) primarily rely on rehabilitation therapy for recovery, as there are no other known effective treatment methods. The rate of recovery from brain injury observed in adults is significantly slower (or the recovery is impossible) than that observed in young children.

21 Jun 2021

Controlling brain state transitions using a molecule responsive to light

A study led by researchers from IBEC and IDIBAPS achieves, for the first time, the control of brain state transitions using a molecule responsive to light, named PAI.

18 Jun 2021

Alarming COVID study indicates long-term loss of gray matter and other brain tissue

In a research paper recently uploaded to the preprint server medRxiv* by Prof. Gwenaëlle Douaud et al. (June 15th, 2021), participants that had taken part in a brain study prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic were invited back for a series of follow-up tests, revealing significant losses of grey matter surrounding the olfactory and gustatory system in those that had been infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).

18 Jun 2021

New details on transport protein could help develop drugs for neurological diseases

New details on the structure and function of a transport protein could help researchers develop drugs for neurological diseases that are better able to cross the blood-brain barrier.

18 Jun 2021