One per cent of adults and five per cent of children are unable to achieve what most of us take for granted–speaking fluently. Instead, they struggle with words, often repeating the beginning of a word, for example “G-g-g-g-g-ood morning” or get stuck with single sounds, such as “Ja” for “January” although they know exactly what...
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Orange light as a potential mental health treatment
The emergency psychiatric centre at St. Olavs Hospital in Trondheim, Norway, where researchers from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology are testing the effectiveness of orange light in helping psychiatric patients. Credit: Håvard Kallestad Can orange light therapy help people who have serious mental disorders? “Emergency psychiatric care hasn’t seen much new thinking about...
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Major cause of dementia discovered
A montage of three images of single striatal neurons transfected with a disease-associated version of huntingtin, the protein that causes Huntington’s disease. Nuclei of untransfected neurons are seen in the background (blue). The neuron in …more An international team of scientists have confirmed the discovery of a major cause of dementia, with important implications for...
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Hope for autism: Optogenetics shines light on social interactions
IMAGE: FROM LEFT: HEEJAE JANG, MALAVIKA MURUGAN, ILANA WITTEN AND THEIR COLLEAGUES HAVE IDENTIFIED A NEURAL SUBSTRATE FOR SOCIAL LEARNING IN MICE, WITH POSSIBLE RELEVANCE TO DISORDERS SUCH AS AUTISM. Ilana Witten didn’t set out to study spatial learning. She thought she was investigating how mice socialize–but she discovered that in mouse brains, the social...
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Electrical Stimulation in Brain Bypasses Senses, Instructs Movement
The brain’s complex network of neurons enables us to interpret and effortlessly navigate and interact with the world around us. But when these links are damaged due to injury or stroke, critical tasks like perception and movement can be disrupted. New research is helping scientists figure out how to harness the brain’s plasticity to rewire...
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Healthy mitochondria could stop Alzheimer’s
Whole-brain hemisphere sections of Alzheimer’s mice, the model APP/PSEN1, before and after treatment with the NAD+ booster Nicotinamide riboside (NR). The beta-amyloid plaque content in the brain of the APP/PSEN1 mice (left), clearly …more Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia and neurodegeneration worldwide. A major hallmark of the disease is the accumulation...
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Glial cells, not neurons, lead the way in brain assembly
Brain formation in worms goes awry when glial cell signaling is disrupted (right). As the very first neurons come together to form the brain, they need pointers to end up in the right places. Where do these directions come from? Rockefeller scientists have discovered that they originate from an unlikely source, revealing that the cells...
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Spray-on skin that ends misery of burn scars: Battery-powered device uses own patient’s skin and special solution to help victims in just 30 minutes
Spray-on skin is the new pioneering treatment for burn victims Spray-on skin created with a postage stamp-sized piece of the patient’s own skin It is placed in a battery-powered device in a special solution containing enzymes The technology can help burns victims heal without painful skin grafts When little Zed Merrick scolded himself with a...
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Tapeworm drug could lead the fight against Parkinson’s disease
Immunohistochemistry for alpha-synuclein showing positive staining (brown) of an intraneural Lewy-body in the Substantia nigra in Parkinson’s disease. Researchers at Cardiff University, in collaboration with the University of Dundee, have identified a drug molecule within a medicine used to treat tapeworm infections which could lead to new treatments for patients with Parkinson’s disease. Parkinson’s...
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Existing cancer medication offers potential to treat Huntington’s disease
A drug already used to treat certain forms of cancer may also be an effective therapy for Huntington’s disease, according to a new study in the latest issue of Science Translational Medicine. The same study also increases our understanding of how this drug, and other medications like it, may offer hope for other neurodegenerative diseases like...