Tag: "hippocampus" at biology news

Revolutionary nanotechnology illuminates brain cells at work

...ensor on the surface of rat hippocampal cells. The hippocampus is the part of the brain that is involved with emotional reactions, and it helps store learned information in memory. When neurons are activated, they secrete glutamate, and we could see this activity under the microscope by watching the color change...

One gene links newborn neurons with those that die in diseases such as Alzheimer's

...archers used similar techniques to assess UCHL1 in hippocampus and olfactory bulb neurons in mouse brains, areas where neurons are known to undergo spontaneous replacement. They found markedly low levels of UCHL1 in the replaceable neurons of both these regions. "Low levels of UCHL1 appear to be a feature of re...

Mice brains shrink during winter, impairing some learning and memory

...rchers found changes in a region of the brain ?the hippocampus ?that is involved in spatial memory. Mice in short days had a proportionally smaller hippocampus, as well as changes in spine density there that have been associated with spatially related memory and learning performance. "We predicted that when you...

Microscopic brain imaging in the palm of your hand

...s as a whole. For instance, the nerve cells of the hippocampus region of the brain give rise to important mental ...an the detailed images of the blood vessels in the hippocampus sections of the brains of live mice. The mice were injected with a fluorescein dye ?an FDA-approved ...

New clue to cocaine addicts' quirky behavior

...tex is involved in processing information, and the hippocampus is involved in learning and memory. The connectio...nd the interactions with the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus could affect the "plasticity" of connections in the neurons of the nucleus accumbens. This means tha...

Methamphetamine Abuse, HIV Infection Cause Changes in Brain Structure

...hought, reasoning, and memory), basal ganglia, and hippocampus (involved in memory and learning). The scientists stress that among the recent methamphetamine abusers in the study, the degree of volume increase in the parietal cortex was associated with worse cognitive function. “In HIV-infected people, the cog...

Study charts origins of fear

... believed to be associated with fear memory in the hippocampus and the amygdala, an almond-shaped structure in front of the hippocampus. To further test the protein's influence, researchers reduced the amount in mice and found they were less hesitant to avoid shocks. "We tested the animals using both spatial and...

Researchers know what you were about to say; fMRI used to detect memory storage and retrieval

...trapping" effect occurs as a brain area called the hippocampus helps sort through the storage bins of memory, returning the brain to its state at the time of the initial experience. Polyn believes that the knowledge of how the brain uses its memories could be applied to designing more detailed models of memory,...

Depression model leaves mice with molecular scar

...versed the social withdrawal behavior. BDNF in the hippocampus has been linked to memory, learning and depression, but Nestler said social defeat stress probably similarly affects other genes there as well. The researchers pinpointed how social defeat changes the BDNF gene's internal machinery. They traced the ...

Study ties 'new' cell-death mechanism to developmental and degenerative brain disorders

...ll death of Alzheimer's disease takes place in the hippocampus of the temporal lobe and that of Parkinson's disease occurs in the substantia nigra of the brain stem. Pulst said the new findings on neurodegeneration do not necessarily supersede the prevailing hypothesis of defective proteins. In fact, the two m...

Growth hormone is made in the brain, report scientists

...ve more dendritic spines (parts of neurons) in the hippocampus than do males. This is especially true when estrog...re high. They also produce more new neurons in the hippocampus during this time. ' "Sex differences in the brain is an area of research that has exploded in recen...

Learning and memory stimulated by gut hormone

...rst observed that peripheral ghrelin can enter the hippocampus and bind to local neurons promoting alterations in connections between nerve cells in mice and rats. Further study of behavior in the animals showed that these changes in brain circuitry are linked to enhanced learning and memory performance. Becau...

New compound stops brain cell degeneration in Alzheimer's disease

...nctions linked to the part of the brain called the hippocampus is a clinical hallmark of Alzheimer's disease. The...s brain inflammation and neuron dysfunction in the hippocampus and protect against cognitive decline in an animal model. Neuron dysfunction can lead to further gl...

Losing sleep undoes the rejuvenating effects new learning has on the brain

...estricted rats showed reduced survival rate of new hippocampus cells. The researchers used sleep-restricted rats...irston said. Previous studies have shown that the hippocampus is important for spatial learning. "The hippocampus also has the unique ability to generate new brai...

Drug triggers body's mechanism to reverse aging effect on memory process

...pakines or one that did not. They then studied the hippocampus region of the rats' brains, an area critical for memory and learning. They found that in the ampakine-treated rats, there was a significant increase in the production of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a protein known to play a key role in ...

Memory loss affects more of the brain than previously thought

...ntal cortex (during formation and retrieval), left hippocampus (during retrieval) and left cerebellum (during formation) and an increased level of activation in the posterior frontal lobes (during retrieval). "These findings suggest that we should be paying closer attention to frontal lobe function in detecting...

Septum keeps neurons in synch, can reduce epileptic seizures by 90 percent

... Texas at Brownsville/Texas Southmost College. The hippocampus is a part of the brain that plays a role in memory...integration, among other functions. Normally, the hippocampus oscillates at a frequency of 3-12 Hz, a frequency that is called the theta rhythm, Colom explained. ...

Life and death in the hippocampus: what young neurons need to survive

...istening to Gage, one gets the impression that the hippocampus is a dangerous place for a fledgling neuron trying to elbow its way into pre-existing networks. "It's rough in there!" he concedes. "The NMDA receptor-mediated event is a competition between mature cells vying for connectivity and young guys competin...

Researcher gives hard thoughts on soft inheritance

...thylation of a glucocorticoid receptor gene in the hippocampus in the brain. If the pups get lots of nurturing the glucocorticoid gene gets turned on and expressed early at a critical period, providing pups the beneficial outcome to handle stress later in life. Not enough nurturing and grooming, and the gene n...

Pure novelty spurs the brain

...the possibility that selective brain injury to the hippocampus could eliminate the positive effects of novelty in such patients and constitute one source of reduction in recognition memory in the patients. ...

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