Tag: Neurons

The brain processes information using both slow and fast currents. Until now, researchers had to use electrodes placed inside the brain in order to measure the latter. For the first time, researchers from Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin and the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), Berlin Institute, successfully visualized these fast brain signals from the outside – and

Alzheimer’s disease is known for its slow attack on neurons crucial to memory and cognition. But why are these particular neurons in aging brains so susceptible to the disease’s ravages, while others remain resilient? A new study led by researchers at the Yale School of Medicine has found that susceptible neurons in the prefrontal cortex

Using genetic engineering, researchers at UT Southwestern and Indiana University have reprogrammed scar-forming cells in mouse spinal cords to create new nerve cells, spurring recovery after spinal cord injury. The findings, published online today in Cell Stem Cell, could offer hope for the hundreds of thousands of people worldwide who suffer a spinal cord injury

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has claimed well over 2.4 million lives, but its long-term sequelae are still being identified. The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) produces an infection that may be associated with a wide spectrum of disease, from asymptomatic to critical or terminal respiratory failure or multi-organ dysfunction. A new

Amyloid plaques are aggregates of misfolded proteins that form in the spaces between nerve cells. These abnormally configured proteins are thought to play a central role in Alzheimer's disease. The amyloid plaques first develop in the areas of the brain concerned with memory and other cognitive functions. The amyloid hypothesis Amyloid plaques form when pieces

SORLA is a protein trafficking receptor that has been mainly studied in neurons, but it also plays a role in cancer cells. Professor Johanna Ivaska's research group at Turku Bioscience observed that SORLA functionally contributes to the most reported therapy-resistant mechanism by which the cell-surface receptor HER3 counteracts HER2 targeting therapy in HER2-positive cancers. Removing

The human brain has about as many neurons as glial cells. These are divided into four major groups: the microglia, the astrocytes, the NG2 glial cells, and the oligodendrocytes. Oligodendrocytes function primarily as a type of cellular insulating tape: They form long tendrils, which consist largely of fat-like substances and do not conduct electricity. These

When you are faced with a choice — say, whether to have ice cream or chocolate cake for dessert — sets of brain cells just above your eyes fire as you weigh your options. Animal studies have shown that each option activates a distinct set of neurons in the brain. The more enticing the offer,

The gut-brain axis describes the two-way communication between the neurons that make up the central nervous system, which includes the brain, and the so-called peripheral nervous system, which includes the gut. There is increasing evidence that the brain can influence gut health and function, and vice versa. Researchers are uncovering how this communication link between

Here’s something new to consider being thankful for at the dinner table: the long evolutionary journey that gave you your big brain and your long life. Courtesy of our primate ancestors that invented cooking over a million years ago, you are a member of the one species able to afford so many cortical neurons in

Hallucinations are spooky and, fortunately, fairly rare. But, a new study suggests, the real question isn’t so much why some people occasionally experience them. It’s why all of us aren’t hallucinating all the time. In the study, Stanford University School of Medicine neuroscientists stimulated nerve cells in the visual cortex of mice to induce an

Most neurons have many branching extensions called dendrites that receive input from thousands of other neurons. Dendrites aren’t just passive information-carriers, however. According to a new study from MIT, they appear to play a surprisingly large role in neurons’ ability to translate incoming signals into electrical activity. Neuroscientists had previously suspected that dendrites might be

Neonatal exposure to nicotine alters the reward circuity in the brains of newborn mice, increasing their preference for the drug in later adulthood, report researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine in a study published “in press” April 24, 2019 in Biological Psychiatry. A UC San Diego School of Medicine team of

Researchers from the National Institute for Physiological Sciences in Japan have identified the neurons responsible for relaying sweet taste signals to the gustatory thalamus and cortex in mice. While the peripheral taste system has been extensively investigated, relatively little is known about the contribution of CNS gustatory neurons in the sensation of taste. In this

How to retrain your brain to say ‘no’ to overeating: Scientists discover neurons that make us ‘forget’ we want food More than two thirds of American adults are overweight or obese   Some 45 million people go on a diet every year in the US  But just restricting calories is not enough to keep off weight

As the adage goes “neurons that fire together, wire together,” but a new paper published today in Neuron demonstrates that, in addition to response similarity, projection target also constrains local connectivity. Researchers from the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre have been looking to elucidate the rules of connectivity of neurons in the neocortex with the long term

A study led by Boston Children’s Hospital and the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) may open up new opportunities for treating neuropathic pain, a difficult-to-treat type of chronic pain due to damage to the nervous system that can make the lightest touch intensely painful. In a report today in Nature, scientists led by Zhigang

Capturing the activity of neurons in the form of electric impulses isn’t easy. Information processing happens on different time scales and involves quick changes in voltage, ion concentrations and multiple signaling molecules. In a new study published in the journal Nature Communications, scientists from the Optical Neuroimaging Unit at the Okinawa Institute of Science and

A new study provides fresh evidence that the decline in the capacity of brain cells to change, called “plasticity,” rather than a decline in total cell number may underlie some of the sensory and cognitive declines associated with normal brain aging. Scientists at MIT’s Picower Institute for Learning and memory show that inhibitory interneurons in

The dentate gyrus of the hippocampus is part of the brain that helps form memories. It is also one of just two areas in the adult brain where new neurons are continuously formed. The dentate gyrus is part of a circuit that receives electrical signals from an area of the brain cortex that processes sensory