Tag: Mechanism

When people see a toothbrush, a car, a tree—any individual object—their brain automatically associates it with other things it naturally occurs with, allowing humans to build context for their surroundings and set expectations for the world. By using machine-learning and brain imaging, researchers measured the extent of the “co-occurrence” phenomenon and identified the brain region

Active or voluntary learning is a major topic in education, psychology, and neuroscience. Over the years, numerous studies have shown that when learning occurs through voluntary action, there is a modulation of attention, motivation and cognitive control that makes the process much more effective. Consequently, memory is benefited. However, although the physiological processes underlying this

Research led by Si-Qiong June Liu, MD, Ph.D., Professor of Cell Biology and Anatomy at LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine, discovered a surprising reciprocal interaction between chemicals in the brain resulting in accelerated loss of molecules that regulate brain cell communication. The research team’s findings are published online in Nature Communications, available here.

When antibody-producing immune cells encounter infectious pathogens for the first time, they engage a signal cascade to generate a massive activation signal within seconds. The mechanisms underlying this acute initial activation have not been fully understood. In a new study by Yale Cancer Center, scientists have identified the short endosomal protein interferon-inducible transmembrane protein 3

Many people who suffer a stroke are permanently disabled. Stroke remains the leading cause of long-term disability in the United States. Paralysis of one side of the body, speech and language problems, vision problems and memory loss are some of the major consequences of stroke injury. Every year, nearly 800,000 people in the United States

Obesity, a global epidemic, is a known contributor to several cancers, including breast, colon, and pancreatic. Stopping the obesity epidemic could be a critical aid in preventing and treating numerous cancers. Researchers with the laboratory of Craig Tomlinson, Ph.D., at Dartmouth’s and Dartmouth-Hitchcock’s Norris Cotton Cancer Center have found a critical target in this cause.

Studies that started in zebrafish have now pointed to a role for collagen secretion in a wide variety of clinical symptoms—and in a newly identified genetic syndrome. Ela Knapik, MD, associate professor of Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and her colleagues discovered the syndrome caused by mutation of a single gene and named it

Researchers from the UCLA School of Dentistry have provided insight into how the mechanical process of bone loss works and have also identified a protein that is responsible for recycling of the cells that can also promote bone loss. The team showed that by eliminating a key protein responsible for the activation of bone loss,

Researchers from Duke-NUS Medical School have uncovered a potential mechanism behind cancer suppression in bats that may lead to future therapies for human cancers. The research shows that bat cells accumulate less toxic chemicals than human cells, where these chemicals are moved out of the system mediated by a cell surface pump protein, known as

About 40 percent of the affected patients with Huntington’s disease—a neurodegenerative pathology- show depression symptoms, even in early stages before the apparition of the typical motor symptoms of the disease. An altered function of Cdk5 kinase—an essential enzyme in several cell signalling pathways- could explain the physiopathology of the depressive-like behaviour in Huntington’s disease, according

It’s a common expression to say that your brain is full. Although the brain doesn’t literally fill up, in recent years researchers have discovered that the brain does sometimes push out old memories in order to take up new ones. Now, a team at Scripps Research has shown for the first time the physiological mechanism

The number of osteoporosis medications that promote bone formation are few compared to those that suppress bone resorption. A research group led by Kumamoto University scientists has discovered that the gene SIRT7 is important for bone formation, and has discovered a new mechanism to activate gene functions essential for bone formation. The researchers believe that

A study led by Luísa Lopes, Group Leader at Instituto de Medicina Molecular João Lobo Antunes (iMM; Portugal) and published today in the prestigious journal Molecular Psychiatry, describes a new mechanism involved in memory loss associated with aging. The work developed over three years by a team of Portuguese, French and German scientists now shows

Scientists at the Ovarian Cancer Action Research Centre at Imperial College London have discovered a mechanism that deactivates ovarian cancer cells. The findings, published in EMBO Reports, could lead to better treatments for women with ovarian cancer. The research has found a new mechanism for a protein named OPCML. This protein is known as a

The waste-management system of the cell appears to play an important role in the spread of Alzheimer’s disease in the brain. A new study has focused on small, membrane-covered droplets known as exosomes. It was long believed that the main task of exosomes was to rid the cell of waste products. However, the understanding of

One of the most frequent causes of drug-resistant epilepsy, considered a difficult disease to control, is a brain malformation known as focal cortical dysplasia. Patients with this problem present with discreet disorganization in the architecture of a specific region of the cortex, which may or may not be associated with the presence of nerve cells