Rising star of brain found to regulate circadian rhythms
The circadian system that controls normal sleep patterns is regulated by a group of glial brain cells called astrocytes, according to a study published online on April 14th in Current Biology, a Cell...
View Article'Optogenetics' used to control reward-seeking behavior
Using a combination of genetic engineering and laser technology, researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have manipulated brain wiring responsible for reward-seeking behaviors,...
View ArticleRedefining how the brain plans movement
In 1991, Carl Lewis was both the fastest man on earth and a profound long jumper, perhaps the greatest track-and-field star of all time in the prime of his career. On June 14th of that year, however,...
View ArticleStem cells hint at potential treatment for Huntington's disease
Huntington's disease, the debilitating congenital neurological disorder that progressively robs patients of muscle coordination and cognitive ability, is a condition without effective treatment, a slow...
View ArticleStanford and MIT scientists win Perl-UNC Neuroscience prize
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has awarded the 12th Perl-UNC Neuroscience prize to Karl Deisseroth, MD, PhD of Stanford University and Edward Boyden, PhD and Feng Zhang, PhD of the...
View ArticleManipulation of a specific neural circuit buried in complicated brain...
A collaborative research team led by Professor Tadashi ISA from The National Institute for Physiological Sciences, The National Institutes of Natural Sciences and Fukushima Medical University and Kyoto...
View ArticleTransgenic technique to 'eliminate' a specific neural circuit of the brain in...
Japanese researchers developed a gene transfer technique that can "eliminate" a specific neural circuit in non-human primates for the first time in the world.
View ArticleTriangles guide the way for live neural circuits in a dish
Korean scientists have used tiny stars, squares and triangles as a toolkit to create live neural circuits in a dish.
View ArticleClassifying neural circuit dysfunctions using neuroeconomics
The traditional approach to psychiatric diagnosis is based on grouping patients on the basis of symptom clusters. This approach to diagnosis has a number of problems, as symptoms are not necessarily...
View ArticleHow attention helps you remember
A new study from MIT neuroscientists sheds light on a neural circuit that makes us likelier to remember what we're seeing when our brains are in a more attentive state.
View ArticleThe brain's circuit diagram: New method facilitates the mapping of...
(Medical Xpress)—The human brain accomplishes its remarkable feats through the interplay of an unimaginable number of neurons that are interconnected in complex networks. A team of scientists has now...
View ArticleHow the common fruit fly is helping scientists to study alcohol-related...
Scientists have shown how the common fruit fly Drosophila, which possess similar electrophysiological and pharmacological properties as humans, could now be used to screen and develop new therapies for...
View ArticleResearchers provide definitive proof for receptor's role in synapse development
Jackson Laboratory researchers led by Associate Professor Zhong-wei Zhang, Ph.D., have provided direct evidence that a specific neurotransmitter receptor is vital to the process of pruning synapses in...
View ArticleAtypical brain circuits may cause slower gaze shifting in infants who later...
Infants at 7 months of age who go on to develop autism are slower to reorient their gaze and attention from one object to another when compared to 7-month-olds who do not develop autism, and this...
View ArticleResearchers visualize memory formation for the first time in zebrafish
In our interaction with our environment we constantly refer to past experiences stored as memories to guide behavioral decisions. But how memories are formed, stored and then retrieved to assist...
View Article'Should I stay or should I go?' Neuroscientists link brain cell types to...
Neuroscientists from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, led by Assistant Professor Adam Kepecs, have linked the activity of two types of brain nerve cells, neurons, to decisions made during particular type...
View ArticleVisualizing a memory trace
In mammals, a neural pathway called the cortico-basal ganglia circuit is thought to play an important role in the choice of behaviors. However, where and how behavioral programs are written, stored and...
View ArticleAll together now: Novel mechanism directs both dendritic and axonal growth in...
(Medical Xpress)—Although the brain-as-computer metaphor is flawed in several ways, dendrites and axons may be considered respectively as a neuron's input and output compartments – and determining how...
View ArticleNeural simulations hint at the origin of brain waves
For almost a century, scientists have been studying brain waves to learn about mental health and the way we think. Yet the way billions of interconnected neurons work together to produce brain waves...
View ArticleNeurons in the rat brain use a preexisting set of firing sequences to encode...
Specialized neurons called place cells, located in the hippocampus region of the brain, fire when an animal is in a particular location in its environment, and it is the linear sequence of their firing...
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