Brain News and Research

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The human brain is the center of the human nervous system and is a highly complex organ. Enclosed in the cranium, it has the same general structure as the brains of other mammals, but is over three times as large as the brain of a typical mammal with an equivalent body size.

The Role of Vitamin A in the Pathogenesis of Psychiatric Disorders

A group of researchers in Newcastle has been investigating the part that vitamin A plays in the pathogenesis of psychiatric disorders.

12 Mar 2024

Zebrafish Circadian Clock Unaffected by Lack of Functional Eyes

Functional eyes are not required for a working circadian clock in zebrafish, as a research team including CNRS scientists has now shown.

11 Mar 2024

Unraveling the Complexities of Sugar Sensing in Insects

Insects have numerous receptors on their tongues, each of which can detect a different kind of sugar, unlike humans who have a single receptor on their tongues that can detect all kinds of sweets, including artificial sweeteners like aspartame.

7 Mar 2024

The Incredible Impact of Mass Spectrometry on Brain Imaging

Researchers Jonathan Sweedler, a professor of chemistry, and Fan Lam, a professor of bioengineering, at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, described how spatial omics technologies can unveil the molecular complexity of the brain at various scales.

6 Mar 2024

Study Reveals Genomic Insights into Vocal Learning Across Mammals

The vocalizations of humans, bats, whales, seals and songbirds vastly differ from each other. Humans and birds, for example, are separated by some 300 million years of evolution.

1 Mar 2024

Researchers Unveil a Key Gene with a Central Role in Learning and Memory Across Mammalian Brain Cells

Discoveries in mice could guide the quest for treatments aimed at addressing brain developmental disorders in children with SYNGAP1 gene mutations.

1 Mar 2024

Discovery of Crym-Positive Astrocytes Sheds Light on Neuropsychiatric Disorders

UCLA Health researchers have discovered a group of specialized support cells in the brain that can regulate behaviors associated with human neuropsychiatric disorders.

1 Mar 2024

Astrocyte-Rich Brain Organoid Model Unveils Insights into Neuroinflammation

The brain is typically depicted as a complex web of neurons sending and receiving messages. But neurons only make up half of the human brain.

1 Mar 2024

Genomic Study Warns of H5N1 Adaptation to Marine Mammals

The highly pathogenic avian influenza virus H5N1 has adapted to spread between birds and marine mammals, posing an immediate threat to wildlife conservation, according to a study from the University of California, Davis, and the National Institute of Agricultural Technology (INTA) in Argentina.

29 Feb 2024

Scientists Discover Dual Challenges in DNA Replication Process

Half a century ago, scientists Jim Watson and Alexey Olovnikov independently realized that there was a problem with how our DNA gets copied.

29 Feb 2024

Neuroscientists Uncover Significance of Glial Cells in Brain Communication

Neuroscientists at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center have found that an often-overlooked type of brain cell called glia has more of a role in brain function than previously thought.

29 Feb 2024

New "Tissue-in-a-CUBE" Offers Alternative to Animal Testing in Drug Development

A research team at the RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research (BDR) in Japan has succeeded in establishing a model of the blood-brain barrier using modularized tissue derived from human cells.

29 Feb 2024

Genetic Mechanisms of Alzheimer's Revealed in Colombian Kindred

UC Santa Barbara researchers and collaborators in Colombia, Brazil and Germany are progressing toward an understanding of mechanisms that underlie Alzheimer's disease, in particular an early-onset, genetic form that has afflicted generations of an extended family in Colombia.

28 Feb 2024

Integrating Environmental Factors in Genetic Research: A New Perspective

It has long been known that there is a complex interplay between genetic factors and environmental influences in shaping behavior.

28 Feb 2024

Scientists Develop First Full Model of Early Human Central Nervous System with Stem Cells

The first stem cell culture method that produces a full model of the early stages of the human central nervous system has been developed by a team of engineers and biologists at the University of Michigan, the Weizmann Institute of Science, and the University of Pennsylvania.

27 Feb 2024

How Seba's Short-Tailed Bats Navigate Their Acoustic World

The world of bats is full of sounds. They utilize vocalizations for both navigation and communication with their conspecifics. For the latter, they produce ultrasonic noises that reverberate and allow them to form a mental "image" of their environment

26 Feb 2024

Breaking Down the Complex Mechanisms of Neurodegeneration

By using a novel neuronal cell culture model, researchers at the University of Zurich have illuminated the complex mechanisms behind neurodegeneration.

23 Feb 2024

Mutation in E. coli's Cellulose Machinery Unveiled as Cause of Severe Infections

Queensland researchers have discovered that a mutation allows some E. coli bacteria to cause severe disease in people while other bacteria are harmless, a finding that could help to combat antibiotic resistance.

22 Feb 2024

Study Reveals Gut Microbiome's Influence on Premature Aging in Chronic HIV Patients

The Wistar Institute's associate professor Mohamed Abdel-Mohsen, Ph.D., has demonstrated, with his lab and collaborators, a connection between viral damage to the gut and premature biological aging.

22 Feb 2024

Uncovering How to Protect Nerves in Neurodegenerative Diseases

Researchers at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine have led a team that has discovered a novel therapeutic strategy for treating neurodegenerative illnesses, raising the prospect of better care for conditions like multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and Vanishing White Matter disease.

21 Feb 2024