Neural in Biological News

Researchers develop 'brain-reading' methods

... tasks have their own distinct pattern of neural connections stretching across the brain, similar ... than that. It has the ability to rearrange neural connections for different functions. By examining the pattern of neural connections, you can predict with a high degree ...

22nd Congress of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology, Sept. 12-16, 2009, Turkey

... scientists greater insight into the brain. Today neural activity in normal and pathological conditions ... direct targeting of specific sites of relevant neural activity, thereby maximising the efficacy of the ... (gren et al., 2008). Furthermore, cognitive and neural mechanisms involved in emotion processing can be ...

Neural stem cell differentiation factor discovered

... neural stem cells represent the cellular backup of our ... neuronal signal transmission. But how does a neural stem cell know" which way it is supposed to ... the antagonistic effects of EGFL7 in adult neural stem cells. The self-renewal potential of these ...

Tumor suppressor gene in flies may provide insights for human brain tumors

... balance of self-renewal and differentiation of neural stem cells," said Hongyan Wang, Ph.D, assistant ... cell growth in their larval brains. The flies' neural stem cells did not become neurons (nerve cells) ... brain tumor suppressors work together to control neural stem cell divisions. "Our discovery suggests ...

Brain-computer interface, developed at Brown, begins new clinical trial

... safety and feasibility research of the BrainGate neural Interface System, which consists of an implanted ... that interprets these signals. The BrainGate neural System may allow people with paralysis to control ... at MGH and Brown, demonstrated that the neural signals associated with the intent to move a limb ...

Georgetown University's Howard J. Federoff, M.D., Ph.D. receives Bernard Sanberg Memorial Award

... Fla. (May 4, 2009) The American Society for neural Therapy and Repair (ASNTR), holding its 16th ... research contributions in the field of neural therapy and repair. The award is presented every ... contribution and its impact in advancing neural repair," said John Sladek, PhD, professor of ...

Immigrant women may be at higher risk of having a baby with a birth defect

... we aim to better educate new mothers and prevent neural tube defects in their babies." neural tube defects are birth defects of the spinal cord ... and anencephaly. Research has shown the risk of neural tube defects can be reduced by nearly 50 per cent ...

Creating ideal neural cells for clinical use

... human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) into neural progenitor cells that may be ideal for ... outlines a method to create these committed neural precursor cells (C-NPCs) that is replicable, does ... uniform conversion of embryonic stem cells into neural progenitors is the first step in the development ...

Mollusks taste memories to build shells

... studies may help neuroscientists understand how neural networks work in the brain and throughout the body, where neural nets cover our skin and all internal organs. ... firing thresholds nine parameters in all as a neural network that determines how much calcium and ...

Low levels of vitamin B12 may increase risk for neural tube defects

... after conception may have an increased risk of a neural tube defect, according to an analysis by ... had 5 times the risk of having a child with a neural tube defect compared to women with the highest ... them from absorbing sufficient amounts of B12. neural tube defects are a class of birth defects ...

Ex vivo neural stem cell expansion

... insight into the effective generation of neural stem cells outside of the neurogenic niche. ... group protein, Bmi-1, maintains forebrain neural stem cell self-renewal. Overexpression of Bmi-1 in adult and embryonic forebrain neural progenitor cells increases stem cell self-renewal ...

Researchers capture wave of brain activity linked to anticipation

... of the Journal of Neuroscience , they say this neural clairvoyance involves strong activity in areas of ... heard in sequence before did not have that same neural bustle. "This now explains how it is that, ... no one has shown what that looks like in terms of neural action," says Rauschecker. He adds that this ...

Caltech researchers help unlock the secrets of gene regulatory networks

... focuses on the gene regulatory network underlying neural crest formation in the lamprey, the most primitive living vertebrate. The neural crest is a group of embryonic cells that are pinched off during the formation of the neural tube--the precursor to the spinal cord--and then ...

Rice University psychologist finds women's brains recognize, encode smell of male sexual sweat

... salient socioemotional information. Distinctive neural mechanisms underlie the processing of emotions in ... vocal expressions. The findings help explain the neural mechanism for human social chemosignals. The understanding of human smell at the neural level is still at the beginning stage. The ...

Neural mechanisms of value bias in the human visual cortex

... of incoming sensory information, or about the neural mechanisms that track the relative value of ... magnetic resonance imaging to estimate changes in neural activity as human subjects selected one of two ... etc.). In addition, these modifications of neural activity were primarily driven by the reward ...

New 'smart' materials for the brain

... The study was conducted in the Laboratory of neural Microcircuitry at EPFL in Switzerland and led by ... Henry Markram, head of the Laboratory of neural Microcircuitry and an author on the paper, adds: ... interfacing of electromechanical devices with neural tissue, 2) understanding how to stimulate ...

Practice as well as sleep may help birds learn new songs

... birds learn new songs The reorganization of neural activity during sleep helps young songbirds to ... and learning new speech dialects. However, the neural mechanisms involved in the nighttime ... of neurons], changing the structure of the neural networks. These changes interact with changes ...

Exercise increases brain growth factor and receptors, prevents stem cell drop in middle age

... the age-related decline in the production of neural stem cells in the hippocampus of the mouse brain, ... production and maturation of new stem cells. neural stem cells and progenitor cells differentiate ... study, "Exercise enhances the proliferation of neural stem cells and neurite growth and survival of ...

New molecular insight into vertebrate brain development

... signaling pathway in the regulation of vertebrate neural development, identifying new factors and ... brain requires the formation of a hollow neural tube, which serves as the rudimentary central ... controlled proliferation and differentiation of neural progenitor cells into various specialized cell ...

Acoustical Meeting, Nov. 10-14, 2008 in Miami, Florida

... using electrodes placed on the scalp in which the neural transcription of music, and subtle changes in the ... that some poor readers demonstrate a diminished neural transcription of those very sound elements ... readers don't suffer from a general disruption of neural transcription. Instead the problem lies in those ...

NARSAD announces 2008 Prizes for Outstanding Achievement in Research on Mental Health Disorders

... conducting promising research on the genetic and neural causes of schizophrenia, who will be awarded the ... research focuses on understanding the genetic and neural causes of schizophrenia, and also encompasses ... was one of the first investigators to pursue the neural basis of schizophrenia endophenotypes using ...

Forsyth scientists trigger cancer-like response from embryonic stem cells

... stem cell: the pigment cell lineage of the neural crest. When mutated, these pigment cells ... invasive of blood vessels, liver, heart, and neural tube, leading to a deeply hyper-pigmented ... voltage potential as a novel regulator of neural crest function in embryonic development, and ...

Moths with a nose for learning

... involve a mechanism that allows integration of neural activities (mental representations) that are not ... to characterize how odors are represented by this neural population and how this representation gets ... was presented a few seconds after the onset of neural activity. Since most Kenyon cells have finished ...

Is that song sexy or just so-so?

... the study. "Our results demonstrate a possible neural mechanism by which hormones may alter the ... Across most of the network, song-specific neural responses were higher in the "breeding" females ... than a single region of the brain. "The same neural mechanism may be operating in humans," Maney ....

Duke stem cell biologist wins 3 major awards in 1 month

... physician-scientist whose work reveals secrets of neural stem cells, offering hope for children born with ... over five years. This award is for work on neural stem cells and their role in brain injury and ... experiments to investigate how mutations in neural stem cells can give rise to brain tumors, and how ...

Penn announces $50M Penn Integrates Knowledge neurosciences initiative

... and research capacity in medicine and the neural and behavioral sciences, Penn can drive progress ... needed to improve our understanding of the neural basis of behavior, including human cognition and ... million gift from Anne and Jerome Fisher. A new neural and Behavioral Sciences Building in the School of ...

A second career for a growth factor receptor: keeping nerve axons on target

... interaction could operate in numerous events in neural development." O'Leary believes that ... and axon guidance, both critical for neural development directly collaborate to develop neural connectivity. Findings such as these lend ...

Alcohol consumption can cause too much cell death, fetal abnormalities

... He thinks the damage results from the death of neural crest cells, versatile cells that travel a lot ... These cells are developing at the same time as neural tube cells that form the brain and spinal cord. ... occurs in development. His focus is these neural crest cells, which help form the upper part of ...

Caltech researchers awarded $10M for molecular programming project

... professor of computer science, computation and neural systems, and bioengineering at Caltech, and ... and Betty Moore Professor of Computation and neural Systems and Electrical Engineering at Caltech; ... computer science, and computation and neural systems at Caltech; and Eric Klavins, assistant ...

From humming fish to Puccini: Vocal communication evolved with ancient species

... even to the simplest Celine Dion melody. But the neural circuitry that led to the human love song not to ... Baker of New York University found that the neural network behind sound production in vertebrates ... the fishes' hums. Comparing the system to the neural circuitry behind vocalizations of amphibians, ...

Researchers link early stem cell mutation to autism

... Institute for Medical Research have shown that neural stem cell development may be linked to Autism. ... the myocyte enhancer factor 2C (MEF2C) protein in neural stem cells had smaller brains, fewer nerve cells ... direct link between a developmental disorder of neural stem cells and the subsequent onset of autism. ...

Salk researchers reprogram adult stem cells in their natural environment

... Studies achieved the same feat with adult neural stem cells still in place in the brain. They ... website, not only attests to the versatility of neural stem cells but also opens up new directions for ... Diseases. Throughout life, adult neural stem cells generate new brain cells in two small ...

Genome sequence of small marine creature sheds light on vertebrate origins

... , +86-20-3933-2990) 3. Hijacking of neural crest genes In vertebrates, the peripheral ... develop from a specific set of cells, known as neural crest cells. In this report, researchers in the ... that are similar to vertebrate genes related to neural crest cells, however in cephalochordates they are ...

Worm-like marine animal providing

... on innate immunity to ward off infection. The neural crest cells of vertebrates are an excellent ... have acquired new functions. In all vertebrates, neural crest cells migrate from the developing neural tube throughout the body, giving rise to such ...

Brain stem cells can be awakened, say Schepens scientists

... for the PNAS study findings by demonstrating that neural stem cells exist in every part of the brain, but ... that only two parts of the brain contained neural stem cells and could turn them on to regenerate ... culture or injected into the brain, stimulates neural stem cells to divide and become new neurons. ...

Pitt faculty receive awards to explore next-generation technologies

... language. Medical care tailored to your DNA, or neural stem cells readily available for treating ... platform for better understanding how to harvest neural stem cells for therapeutic use for neurological ... a surface of electroactive polymers on which neural stem cells can be directed to become functional ...

Origin of cells for connective tissues of skull and face challenged

... argue, do not come from a portion of embryonic neural epithelium called the neural crest, as widely believed, but rather from a ... vertebrates from other creatures." The neural crest was first identified by classical ...

ASNTR awards go to Parkinson's Disease research and patient advocate at May meeting

... Fla. (May 8, 2008) The American Society for neural Therapy and Repair (ASNTR) has awarded The 2008 ... research contributions in the field of neural therapy and repair. The annual award is based ... contribution and its impact in advancing neural repair, said John Sladek, PhD, professor of ...

Detecting dangerous chemicals with lasers, exploring the brain's circuitry with light and more

... light, but these methods often require labeling neural cells with electrically-sensitive dyes that may ... probe that can directly sense naturally occurring neural activity. They have imbedded gold nanoparticles ... can monitor. (Talk CWM3, "Detection of neural Cell Activity Using Plasmonic Gold ...

Protein protects embryonic stem cells' versatility and self-renewal

... are believed to develop from undifferentiated neural stem cells in the external granule layer of the ... overexpress REST, which is not found in most neural cells. "We found that REST is a critical factor ... researchers hypothesize that by maintaining the neural stem cells stemness, REST prevents their ...