by Northwestern University Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Northwestern Medicine scientists have identified the cause of a genetic subtype of autism and schizophrenia that results in social deficits and seizures in mice and humans. Scientists have discovered a key feature of this subtype is a duplicated gene that results in overactive or overexcited brain circuits. The...
by University of Oxford Credit: University of Oxford Associate Professor Miriam Klein-Flügge and colleagues looked at brain connectivity and mental health data from nearly 500 people. In particular, they looked at the connectivity of the amygdala—a brain region well known for its importance in emotion and reward processing. The researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging...
As reported in Nature Materials, researchers used magnetic signals to activate targeted neurons that controlled the body position of freely moving fruit flies in an enclosure. “To study the brain or to treat neurological disorders the scientific community is searching for tools that are both incredibly precise, but also minimally invasive,” says study author Jacob Robinson,...
by Jade Boyd, Rice University Researchers from Rice University, Duke University, Brown University and Baylor College of Medicine developed a magnetic technology to wirelessly control neural circuits in fruit flies. They used genetic engineering to express heat-sensitive ion channels in neurons that control the behavior and iron nanoparticles to activate the channels. When researchers activated a...
MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY IMAGE: IN THIS IMAGE OF THE PARAFASCICULAR (PF) THALAMUS, THE BLUE CELLS PARTICIPATE IN REWARD PROCESSING/DEPRESSION, THE RED CELLS ARE CRITICAL FOR MOTOR LEARNING, AND THE GREEN CELLS ARE IMPORTANT FOR GENERAL LOCOMOTION. THE ‘FR’ STANDS FOR A FIBER BUNDLE. CREDIT: YING ZHANG AND DHEERAJ ROY CAMBRIDGE, MA — Parkinson’s disease...
by University of North Carolina Health Care New adult-born neurons that contribute to memory and emotion regulation. Credit: Song Lab, UNC-CH We humans lose mental acuity as an unfortunate side effect of aging. And for individuals with neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, the loss of cognitive function, often accompanied by mood disorders such...
Imagine the brain as a giant switchboard covered with thousands of buttons, knobs, dials and levers that control aspects of our thought, emotions, behaviour, and memory. (You can think of the movie Inside Out if you like). For more than a century, neuroscientists have been methodically flipping these switches on and off, alone or in combination, to try to...
by Nicholas Weiler, Stanford University Illustration of experimental approach to stimulate TRPV1-expressing neurons using tissue-penetrating infrared light and amplifying MINDS molecules. Credit: Wu et al, Nature Biomedical Engineering (2022) DOI: 10.1038/s41551-022-00862-w Imagine the brain as a giant switchboard covered with thousands of buttons, knobs, dials and levers that control aspects of our thought, emotions, behavior, and memory. (You...
by Vanderbilt University Graphical abstract. Credit: DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2021.12.027 Stressful experiences can lead to adaptive or detrimental behaviors. Understanding how stress can affect our brains can help understand basic brain function and is also essential to discerning causes and treatments for some diseases. A group of researchers led by Jeffrey Conn, professor of pharmacology at Vanderbilt,...
by The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain A new study shows that researchers can remotely control the brain circuits of numerous animals simultaneously and independently through the internet. The scientists believe this newly developed technology can speed up brain research and various neuroscience studies to uncover basic brain...
