Neurons News and Research

RSS

Unlocking the Mysteries of Fetal Brain Development

Cheryl Rosenfeld has dedicated three decades to investigating the transmission of biological information from mothers to babies during pregnancy.

6 Dec 2023

AI Helps Scientists See Neurons in Moving Animals

A collaborative team from EPFL and Harvard has introduced an advanced artificial intelligence (AI) technique to track neurons within animals in motion.

5 Dec 2023

Misfolded Proteins: How They Damage Neurons and Cause Neurodegeneration

Neurodegenerative diseases are characterized by the deposition of clumped proteins in the brain and progressive neuronal cell death.

5 Dec 2023

Unveiling the Role of the Cerebellum in Human Cognitive Evolution

The development of advanced cognitive functions in humans has primarily been associated with the growth of the neocortex, a brain region responsible for conscious thought, movement, and sensory perception.

30 Nov 2023

New Tool Tracks Mouse Movements and Brain Activity

Mice exhibit constant activity, regardless of external stimuli such as the presence of a nearby cat. Their ongoing actions, which include whisker movement, environmental exploration, and self-grooming, trigger neural responses spanning various brain regions.

21 Nov 2023

Artificial System Develops Key Characteristics Similar to Human Brains Under Physical Constraints

Cambridge scientists have shown that placing physical constraints on an artificially-intelligent system – in much the same way that the human brain has to develop and operate within physical and biological constraints – allows it to develop features of the brains of complex organisms in order to solve tasks.

21 Nov 2023

Study Reveals Crucial Protein’s Role in Brain Cell Development

Scientists from the University of Wisconsin–Madison have pinpointed a crucial protein associated with the formation of a specific type of brain cell implicated in conditions such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.

20 Nov 2023

New Model Reveals How Cells Maintain Epigenetic Memory During Cell Division

Every cell in the human body contains the same genetic instructions, encoded in its DNA. However, out of about 30,000 genes, each cell expresses only those genes that it needs to become a nerve cell, immune cell, or any of the other hundreds of cell types in the body.

17 Nov 2023

More Genes Changed By Early Life Stress Than Head Injury

Researchers recently discovered a phenomenon as they delved into the investigation of whether early-life stress exacerbates the impact of a childhood head injury on health and behavior in later years.

16 Nov 2023

Rare Genetic Variant Found to Protect Against Alzheimer's Disease

Researchers at Gladstone Institutes have discovered that a rare genetic variant known as the "Christchurch mutation" can block detrimental effects of apolipoprotein E4, the best-established risk factor for the most common form of Alzheimer's disease.

14 Nov 2023

New Drug-Like Molecule Enhances Mitophagy, Protects Against Neurodegeneration

Having healthy mitochondria, the organelles that produce energy in all our cells, usually portends a long healthy life whether in humans or in C. elegans, a tiny, short-lived nematode worm often used to study the aging process.

14 Nov 2023

Role of Inhibitory Interneurons in Memory Expression

Memory, a crucial aspect of human survival, is intricately connected to how humans encode, retrieve, and react to external stimuli.

9 Nov 2023

Distinctive Taste Receptors Between a Moth’s Larval and Adult Stages

New research reveals that the cotton bollworm (Helicoverpa armigera) employs distinct sugar-sensing mechanisms in its larval and adult stages to fulfill its dietary preferences.

8 Nov 2023

Novel Gene Therapy Targets Core Motor Symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease

A team of researchers from the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology (SIAT) at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and their collaborators have devised a gene therapy approach aimed at selectively manipulating the affected circuitry in Parkinson’s disease.

6 Nov 2023

Unlocking the Secrets of Memory: Key Protein Regulates Hippocampal Plasticity

Mount Sinai researchers have shed valuable light on the mechanism of a key protein that regulates the plasticity and function of the hippocampus, a key brain region involved in memory and learning, and that decreases with age in mice.

3 Nov 2023

Study Identifies Significant Changes in Peptides During Pyroglutamination

Peptides are biomolecules formed when two or more amino acids that perform key functions in the human organism, such as hormones, neurotransmitters, painkillers and antibiotics, bind together. For this reason, they are much studied and used by the pharmaceutical industry, for example.

2 Nov 2023

Scientists Unlock the Structure of Vesicular Monoamine Transporter 2

Neurons talk to each other using chemical signals called neurotransmitters. Scientists at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital have drawn on structural biology expertise to determine structures of vesicular monoamine transporter 2 (VMAT2), a key component of neuronal communication.

2 Nov 2023

DNA’s Role in Glioblastoma: Insights from Umeå University’s Research

A groundbreaking research conducted at Umeå University in Sweden has revealed that the three-dimensional arrangement of DNA can impact the development of aggressive brain cancer, glioblastoma.

1 Nov 2023

Kingfisher Genes Reveal Secrets of How They Dive Without Sustaining Brain Damage

If you've ever belly-flopped into a pool, then you know: water can be surprisingly hard if you hit it at the wrong angle. But many species of kingfishers dive headfirst into water to catch their fishy prey.

24 Oct 2023

New Insight Into How Cancer Cells Function in Softer Tissue Environments

A collaborative research team from the University of Turku and Turku Bioscience Centre, in conjunction with Misvik Biology Ltd in Finland, has introduced a novel technique for investigating the behavior of cancer cells in both softer and stiffer tissue environments.

19 Oct 2023