Neuron in Biological News

Huntington's disease deciphered

... show what effect activation of that enzyme has on neuron function. Huntington's disease is an adult ... of axonal transport, the system within the neuron that shuttles proteins from the cell body where ... more and transporting more proteins in each neuron than you need," Brady said. "But as you get older ...

Tiny but toxic: MBL researchers discover a mechanism of neurodegeneration in Alzheimer's disease

... the loss of functional connections. It's when the neuron is no longer talking to its targets that you ... for their release) from place to place in the neuron on microtubule tracks. Brady's findings are ... at the synapse the point where the neuron connects to its target. "Disruptions in the ...

Mayo Clinic: Brain disorder suggests common mechanism may underlie many neurodegenerative diseases

... cargo efficiently over the lifetime of a neuron is fundamentally important, says Dr. Farrer. ... in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a motor neuron disease also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, the ... with frontotemporal dementia or with motor neuron disease. What these clumps represent is not ...

Chemist receives NIH funding to unravel tricks of neuronal wiring

... build a substrate that looks like what a growing neuron would encounter in the brain as it goes from the ... can watch in real time, with a microscope, how a neuron is guided through this pattern." Their ... neurobiological milieu. By watching the neuron grow in real time, he will be able to determine ...

Our unconscious brain makes the best decisions possible

... are published in today's issue of the journal neuron . Neuroscientists Daniel Kahneman and Amos ... right within the jumble of other random dots, the neuron coding for "rightward movement" would occasionally fire. As the test continued, the neuron would fire more and more frequently until it ...

Streamlining brain signals for speed and efficacy

... published in the current issue of the journal neuron , researchers at the Salk Institute for ... they found that no matter how fast the sensory neuron was firing, the same amount of neurotransmitter ... And instead of vacillating, the post-synaptic neuron took the information and transmitted it ...

Stabilizing force for good communication between neurons and muscle cells found

... another reason that usually works so well. A neuron sends a message, or neurotransmitter, to the ... to research published in the Oct. 9 issue of neuron . Dr. Mei suspects that other hsp siblings have a ... be lined up well, whether it's a muscle cell or neuron getting the message. "In central nervous system ...

Genetics of ALS progression

... involving the degeneration and death of motor neuron cells. ALS is one of the most common ... delineate how mutations in SOD1 lead to motor neuron cell death and the progression of ALS. The ... endoplasmic reticulum (ER) compartment of motor neuron cells. Beyond a certain threshold, this ER stress ...

Neurons hard wired to tell left from right

... possibility is that totally different types of neuron might be found on the left and right. ... saw that there are two types of habenular neuron and both types can be found on both left and ... right halves of the brain use the same types of neuron but in different combinations" explains Isaac ...

Motor neuron disease and toxic substances: Possible link?

... ANN ARBOR, Mich. Motor neuron disease is a rare, devastating illness in which ... in developing therapies to treat or prevent motor neuron disease. Now a team of University of Michigan ... a previously unknown type of inherited motor neuron disease. The discovery paves the way for ...

Paradigm shift in Alzheimers's research: new treatments

... cord23. At six months of age already a 33% CA1 neuron loss in the hippocampus, together with a drastic ... of long-term potentiation was observed24. CA1 neuron loss in these mice is likely to contribute to the ... deficits Moreover, we have studied the neuron loss in different cholinergic nuclei and found ...

Neural stem cell study reveals mechanism that may play role in cancer

... Then one of the processes is stabilized and the neuron translocates its body into a swelling that forms ... division, in which they produce one newborn neuron and one new neural stem cell. The understanding ... of time, up to many days, while the newborn neuron migrates to the cortex, and they are stuck ...

Protein regulates movement of mitochondria in brain cells

... understood, at any given time about half of the mobile mitochondria in the neuron are in the process of returning to the cell body perhaps to be recycled ... critical role in regulating the movement or transport of mitochondria in neuron cells. The protein, which they dubbed hypoxia upregulated mitochondrial ...

Capturing the birth of a synapse

... one of many finger-like filopodia, or spines, that reach out from one neuron is nabbed by neuroligin molecules on the membrane of another neuron. In ... synapses are the primary means for transmitting information from one neuron to the next," said Washbourne, who is a member of the UO's Institute of ...

Development of an artificial simulator of the nervous system to do research into diseases

... thanks to the fact that the simulator "compiles" the behaviour of a neuron or several types of neurons in a first stage and next, it simulates medium ... EDLUT means "an innovative version with regard to other simulators such as neuron and GENESIS", in the words of Ros, and those companies of the ...

ORNL, St. Jude track neurons to predict and prevent disease

... these vast amounts of data in record time. "St. Jude has identified neuron shape abnormalities and neuron migration issues that are linked to specific diseases," said Shaun Gleason ...

Researchers generate functional neurons from somatic cells

... the feasibility of using these cells to explore how changes in motor neuron activity contributes to the degeneration of these cells underlying these ... compared the ability of different human cell lines to generate motor neuron progenitors and fully differentiated motor neurons. "These findings ...

How mirror neurons allow us to learn and socialize by going through the motions in the head

... they were doing it themselves. This introduced the principle of the mirror neuron as a neuron capable of being triggered by imitation, as a mechanism both for learning ...

What makes an axon an axon?

... converted mature axons into dendrites by banishing a protein crucial for neuron development. The results suggest that this transformation could occur ... have teased out some of the molecular events that determine whether a neuron outgrowth will become an axon or a dendrite, they know little about what ...

Mediator in communication between neurons and muscle cells found

... first author on the paper published in the Oct. 23 issue of the journal neuron . "We know agrin is important and we know MuSK is important. The ... neuromuscular junction. In research published in the Oct. 9 issue of neuron , the same research team used the neuromuscular junction to identify ...

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

... retinal axons from going astray. They report in the Sept. 11 issue of neuron that p75, a protein previously known to regulate whether neurons live or ... screen for guidance molecules that repel growing axons. In it, an immature neuron is placed on a microscopic running track, just as it starts to develop an ...

'Cross fire' from the brain makes patients tremble

... in demonstrating the mechanisms which cause the so-called tremor: neuron clusters in the depths of the brain drive the tremor. This discovery ... and the basal ganglia are, however, transmitted to certain loop-like neuron pathways of the brain and spinal cord. Therefore, the dynamics are more ...

The Parkinson's Disease Foundation awards $950,000 in seed grants

... laboratory animals that spontaneously undergo progressive dopamine neuron loss by similar mechanisms. This would provide an enormously valuable ... results in Parkinson's. The lack of adequate animal models of progressive neuron loss in the area of the brain most affected in Parkinson's (known as the ...

The good and the bad of a potential Alzheimer's target

... of a protein called neprilysin can reduce the formation of plaques and neuron death associated with Alzheimer's, at the expense of reducing the flies' ... On the positive side, NEP expression did reduce plaque deposits and neuron damage in the flies as expected; on the other hand, NEP also reduced the ...

Origins of the brain

... at the number of neurons, none has looked at the molecular composition of neuron connections. We found dramatic differences in the numbers of proteins in the neuron connections between different species". "We studied around 600 ...

Language of a fly proves surprising

... that the impulses were like a primitive, but very regular languagewith the neuron firing at precise times depending on what the flys visual sensors were ... all the bandwidth available to it, Nemenman said. The motion-sensitive neuron adjusts its coding strategy and it uses the precise positioning of the ...

Genetic tags reveal secrets of memories' staying power in mice

... Yet, it's been a mystery how these new proteins -- born deep inside a neuron -- end up becoming part of the specific connections in far-off neuronal ... holding the memory. Synaptic connections are made onto small nubs on the neuron called spines. These spines come in three different shapes called thin, ...

UC Irvine scientists find new way to sort stem cells

... react differently when electric fields are applied. At one frequency, a neuron will be attracted to an electrode but an astrocyte will not, and at a different frequency, an astrocyte will be attracted but a neuron will not. Identifying and sorting stem cells is important when creating ...

Salk scientists identify key nerve navigation pathway

... the growth cone continuously pushes forward, while the lengthening neuron behind it matures into the part of the cell called the axon. Once the ... axon extending behind it. The defect is found in the structure of the neuron itself, said Pfaff, noting that the fundamental pieces, such as the ...

ISU researchers find possible treatment for spinal muscular atrophy

... off the list altogether. Most Spinal Muscular Atrophy sufferers -- more than 95 percent -- have a mutated or deleted gene called Survival Motor neuron 1 (SMN1) that doesn't correctly do its job of creating functional SMN proteins. Singh's solution is to replace that poor-performing gene with ...

Impact Factor names Cell top research journal

... other Cell Press titles increased their impact factor in the past year: Cancer Cell (+4.627%), Current Biology (+2.258%), Immunity (+6.815%), neuron (+5.667%), Structure (+3.173%), Biophysical Journal (+1.210%), and Developmental Cell (+3.586%). The impact factor is a measure of the ...

Fate in fly sensory organ precursor cells could explain human immune disorder

... cells go on to become the shaft and socket cells on the exterior of the fly's external sensory organ. The pIIb, through two divisions, become the neuron and sheath internal cells of the external sensory organ. These four types of cells become the sensory cluster. When a cluster of neurons is ...

UC Davis researchers visualize formation of a new synapse

... and can accumulate very soon after contact between cells," Barrow said. Barrow described what the team was able to visualize: "Axons of one neuron grow toward the dendrites of neighboring neurons. As they do so, finger-like structures called filopodia extend and retract rapidly from the tip of ...

Crustacean shell with polyester creates mixed-fiber material for nerve repair

... as those inside the body. The strength of the nerve guide is important for budding nerve cells. "This conduit serves as a guide to protect the neuron from injury," Zhang said. "If the tube is made of collagen, it's difficult to keep the conduit open because any stress and it's going to collapse." ...

Caltech scientists reveal how neuronal activity is timed in brain's memory-making circuits

... the spikes don't just happen any timethey pay attention to the phase of the ongoing theta oscillation. If you have access to the phase at which the neuron fired, you have additional information about where the rat was in space." When the data about neuronal firing, oscillation phase, and rat location ...

Protein identified as critical to insulating the body's wiring could also become treatment target

... neuregulin-1 and another receptor, ErbB4, help keep a healthy balance between excitation and inhibition of brain cells. Their studies published in neuron in 2007 showed neuregulin-1 and ErbB4, promote inhibition at the site of inhibitory synapses in the brain by increasing release of GABA, a major ...

Identification of a key molecular pathway required for brain neural circuit formation

... spinal cord injuries and neurodegenerative diseases. This new finding has been published in the current issue of the prestigious scientific journal neuron . Patricia T. Yam, Sbastien D. Langlois and Steves Morin, all at the IRCM, are listed as co-authors. The brain is composed of billions of ...

How an enzyme tells stem cells which way to divide

... containing aPKC (atypical protein kinase C) continues as a stem cell, while the other domain with Miranda becomes a differentiated cell such as a neuron that forms the central nervous system. Prehoda and co-author Scott X. Atwood, who studied in Prehoda's lab and recently earned his doctorate, ...

Brain protein central to both Parkinson's, drug addiction identified

... and into the space surrounding dopamine neurons. That's where another molecule known as the dopamine transporter picks it up and brings it into the neuron itself. When the team blocked or genetically removed oct3 in mice, the dopamine neurons in the brains did not die despite the presence of MPTP in ...

Autopilot guides proteins in brain

... control over neurons for basic research or for treatment of neurological disorders. Potentially, scientists could target only dendrites or axons in a neuron so as to study its outgoing or incoming impulses. In addition to these potential applications, the study is notable for its contribution to the ...