04.08.2012 Researchers Find Genetic Cause for Body Tremors
Researchers at the University of Montreal and its affiliated CHU Sainte-Justine and CHUM hospitals have linked some cases of Essential Tremor (ET) to a specific genetic problem. ET is the most common movement disorder, becoming increasingly frequent with increasing age, which is characterized by an involuntary shaking movement (tremor) that occurs with motion, particularly when doing precise fine movement. The researchers will be publishing their findings today in The American Journal of Human Genetics
30.07.2012 Brain Development is Delayed in Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder
Is attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) due to a delay in brain development or the result of complete deviation from typical development? In the current issue of Biological Psychiatry, Dr. Philip Shaw and colleagues present evidence for delay based on a study by the National Institutes of Health
28.07.2012 Connectomics: Mapping the Neural Network Governing Male Roundworm Mating
In a study published today online in Science, researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have determined the complete wiring diagram for the part of the nervous system controlling mating in the male roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans, an animal model intensively studied by scientists worldwide
21.07.2012 Scientists Read Monkeys’ Inner Thoughts
By decoding brain activity, scientists were able to ‘see’ that 2 monkeys were planning to approach the same reaching task differently – even before they moved a muscle
12.07.2012 Why the Thrill is Gone: Scientists Identify Potential Target for Treating Major Symptom of Depression
Stanford University School of Medicine scientists have laid bare a novel molecular mechanism responsible for the most important symptom of major depression: anhedonia, the loss of the ability to experience pleasure. While their study was conducted in mice, the brain circuit involved in this newly elucidated pathway is largely identical between rodents and humans, upping the odds that the findings point toward new therapies for depression and other disorders
04.07.2012 When Anxiety Won’t Go Away
Researchers decode a molecular mechanism that sheds light on how trauma can become engraved in the brain
28.06.2012 Study Finds Genes Associated with Hippocampal Atrophy
In a genome-wide association (GWA) study, researchers from Boston University Schools of Medicine (BUSM) and Public Health (BUSPH), have identified several genes which influence degeneration of the hippocampus, the part of the brain most associated with Alzheimer disease (AD). The study, which currently appears online as a Rapid Communication in the Annals of Neurology, demonstrates the efficacy of endophenotypes for broadening the understanding of the genetic basis of and pathways leading to AD
27.06.2012 Neural Fingerprints of Memory Associations
Researchers have long been interested in discovering the ways that human brains represent thoughts through a complex interplay of electrical signals. Recent improvements in brain recording and statistical methods have given researchers unprecedented insight into the physical processes underlying thoughts. For example, researchers have begun to show that it is possible to use brain recordings to reconstruct aspects of an image or movie clip someone is viewing, a sound someone is hearing or even the text someone is reading.
18.06.2012 Clues to Nervous System Evolution Found in Nerve-less Sponge
UC Santa Barbara scientists turned to the simple sponge to find clues about the evolution of the complex nervous system and found that, but for a mechanism that coordinates the expression of genes that lead to the formation of neural synapses, sponges and the rest of the animal world may not be so distant after all. Their findings, titled “Functionalization of a protosynaptic gene expression network,” are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
01.06.2012 Neuroscientists Reach Major Milestone in Whole-Brain Circuit Mapping Project
Neuroscientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) reached an important milestone today, publicly releasing the first installment of data from the 500 terabytes so far collected in their pathbreaking project to construct the first whole-brain wiring diagram of a vertebrate brain, that of the mouse
11.05.2012 Revealing the Stars of Brain Adaptability
Star-shaped brain cells called astrocytes are found to bridge the gap between global brain activity and localized circuits
26.04.2012 Learning Mechanism of the Adult Brain Revealed
They say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. Fortunately, this is not always true. Researchers at the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience (NIN-KNAW) have now discovered how the adult brain can adapt to new situations.
19.04.2012 Migraine Patients Find Pain Relief in Electrical Brain Stimulation
Chronic migraine sufferers saw significant pain relief after four weeks of electrical brain stimulation in the part of the brain responsible for voluntary movement, the motor cortex, according to a new study
13.04.2012 Brain Network Reveals Disorders
Researchers at ETH Zurich and the University of Zurich identify a new method of unerringly detecting the presence of pathophysiological changes in the brain
11.04.2012 Data Mining Opens the Door to Predictive Neuroscience
Researchers at the EPFL have discovered rules that relate the genes that a neuron switches on and off, to the shape of that neuron, its electrical properties and its location in the brain
