Tag: "neurons" at biology news

Brain networks strengthened by closing ion channels

...eside on dendritic spines, the tiny protrusions on neurons that are specialized for receiving information. Th...unction. Stress, for example, appears to flood PFC neurons with cAMP, which opens HCN channels, temporarily disconnects networks, and impairs higher cognitive ...

Neural bottleneck found that thwarts multi-tasking

... complex and sophisticated brain, with 100 billion neurons processing information at rates of up to a thousand times a second, we still have such a crippling inability to do two tasks at once?" Marois, associate professor of Psychology, asked. "For example, what is it about our brain that gives us such a har...

Conceptualizing a cyborg

... pioneered in Smith's lab. Two adjacent plates of neurons are grown in a bioreactor. Axons sprout out to connect the neuron populations on each plate. The plates are then slowly pulled apart over a series of days, aided by a precise computer-controlled motor system, until they reached a desired length. ...

Experience affects new neuron survival in adult brain; study sheds light on learning, memory

Experience in the early development of new neurons in specific brain regions affects their survival a...he adult brain, new research shows. How these new neurons store information about these experiences may explain how they can affect learning and memory in adu...

Scientists produce neurons from human skin

...’s Faculty of Medicine have succeeded in producing neurons in vitro using stem cells extracted from adult hum...is team described the method used to produce these neurons in a recent issue of the Journal of Cellular Physiology. The researchers used skin obtained from pl...

Motor protein plays key role in connecting neurons

...sts say. In another piece of the puzzle of how neurons form connections, researchers have found myosin X ... a synapse," says Dr. Xiong, who is dissecting how neurons first connect with the goal of helping restore communication lost in spinal cord injuries and other ...

Morphine makes lasting -- and surprising -- change in the brain

...al to this process. In LTP, connections between neurons ?called synapses, the major site of information ex...napses, Kauer found, were those between inhibitory neurons and dopamine neurons. In a healthy brain, inhibitory cells would limit the release of dopamine, the ...

Killing the messenger RNA -- But which one?

... in the brain, excess uric acid can damage sensory neurons and cause deafness. Working with a strain of transgenic mice unable to perform RNA editing and normal control mice, the researchers found that a complete lack of the edited version of the microRNA in question had the effect of driving production o...

The influence of the menstrual cycle on the female brain

...dulates neuron activity in the brain. Dopaminergic neurons use dopamine as a neurotransmitter/neuromodulator. 2. Structures including the ventral striatum, the anterior cingulate cortex, and the orbitofrontal cortex. 3. Dopaminergic system: all the brain structures innervated by dopaminergic neurons. 4...

MIT: Pulsing light silences overactive neurons

.... Such diseases often must be treated by removing neurons that fire incorrectly. The new MIT research could ...n the future, controlling the activity patterns of neurons may enable very specific treatments for neurological and psychiatric diseases, with few or no side e...

Drug treatment improves learning in mice with Down syndrome symptoms, Stanford/Packard study shows

... longer periods of time as older, drug-experienced neurons are replaced by younger cells. The researchers believe that the key to the improvement lies in the fact that PTZ blocks the action of an inhibitory neurotransmitter called GABA. Normal brains maintain a precise ratio between neuronal excitation an...

Brain tissue reveals possible genetic trigger for schizophrenia

...portantly in "synaptic plasticity," the ability of neurons to make connections with one another. "And those connections between neurons come and go all the time. It's a normal process for them to be pruned and grow again, depending on w...

Brain works more chaotically than previously thought

...e nerve cell extensions. Rather, it seems that the neurons release their chemical messengers along the entire..., the accepted scientific understanding of the way neurons communicate, which has prevailed for over a hundred years, will have to be revised. In 1897 Sir Char...

New research shows why too much memory may be a bad thing

...author. "Altogether, our findings suggest that new neurons in the hippocampus have different, and in some cas... Saxe hypothesized that the growth of too many new neurons could actually be more harmful than helpful to working memory. To examine this hypothesis, they desi...

Decoy pill saves brain cells

...s that the neurotransmitter glutamate, which tells neurons to fire, can also destroy them. If over-activated, glutamate receptors start a chain reaction that raises the concentration of calcium and activates calpain, among other toxic enzymes. But Baudry and Xu observed that in one receptor, mGluR1?, the ...

How does your brain tell time?

...r words, if one could measure the response of many neurons in the brain to a tone or a flash of light, the response would not only reveal the nature of the event, but the other events that preceded it and when they occurred. The UCLA team tested the model by asking research volunteers in the study to judg...

It's in your head: The brain's own globin defends you from shock and stroke

...oglobin (skeletal muscle), neuroglobin is found in neurons and is most prevalent in areas of the brain that have adapted to physiological stress, such as stroke. Unlike hemoglobin or myoglobin, however, neuroglobin's primary function does not appear to involve transporting oxygen. Instead, the authors sugges...

A potential biological cause for sudden infant death syndrome

... 5HT1A), an abnormally high number of serotonergic neurons (neurons that make and release serotonin), a preponderance of immature serotonergic neurons, and evidence for insufficient amounts of the serotonin transporter protein, which "recycles" serotonin so that nerve cells can reuse it. "We provide...

Cloned mice created from fully differentiated cells, a milestone in cloning research

...tly from fully differentiated B cells, T cells and neurons had failed beyond the blastocyst stage. Only with a second step that involved combining the blastocyst with a fertilized embryo, which produces what biologists call a chimera, or by performing another nuclear transfer using the embryonic stem cells d...

Computer with brain connections changing quality of life of paralyzed

...action. ALS is a progressive disease that destroys neurons affecting movement. The study appears in the latest issue of Psychophysiology. The article reviews the usefulness of currently available brain-computer –interfaces (BCI), which use brain activity to communicate through external devices, such as compu...

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