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Tag: "plasticity" at biology news

Brain-injury rehabilitation depends on acetylcholine circuitry

...the specific type of brain circuitry on which this plasticity depended was not known. Conner and his colleagues...In other experiments, the researchers compared the plasticity of brain reorganization in a brain region known to be "cholinergic independent" with the area govern...

Brain May Be Less Plastic Than Hoped

...language skills. But in adults, the case for brain plasticity has been less clear. A series of studies in the 1980s and 1990s seemed to show that, in adult animals, neurons “filled in?blank spots in the motor and visual cortex after these areas fell silent from lack of sensory input due to injury. This led to ...

Montreal researchers probe the genetic basis of memory

...aper Translational control of hippocampal synaptic plasticity and memory by the eIF2a kinase GCN2, which was published in the August 25th issue of the journal Nature, provides the first genetic evidence that protein synthesis is critical for the regulation of memory formation. This new discovery is the fruit ...

Divergent life history shapes gene expression in brains of salmon

...s known about the molecular basis of developmental plasticity such as that seen among 'sneaker' salmon." ...

New clue to cocaine addicts' quirky behavior

...nd Grace. "In this way, the disruption of synaptic plasticity by cocaine sensitization may contribute to the affective- and context-inappropriate impulsive behaviors that are characteristic of drug addiction." This work was supported by USPHS and National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression Y...

Life in deadly conditions

...ave studied shows that these organisms have a high plasticity with which they can adapt to the varying, extreme environmental conditions. The frugality of Natronomonas pharaonis, with the possibility of simplifying the nutrient solution, opens new possibilities for experimentally investigating the metabolic net...

A new window into structural plasticity in the adult visual cortex

...ons. It remains to be seen whether the structural plasticity seen here underlies observed functional reorganizations. Probing this question will depend on determining what kinds of structural changes might be expected, figuring out how to detect them, and then interpreting the changes. Studying the responses o...

MIT researcher finds neuron growth in adult brain

...ivity in the adult brain that she termed candidate plasticity genes or CPGs. Her group found that a surprisingly...e community has long thought that whatever limited plasticity existed in the adult brain did not involve any structural remodeling, mostly because no such remodel...

Neurons generated in the adult brain learn to respond to novel stimuli

... results show that these new neurons have a lot of plasticity and can contribute to important learning and memory functions of the brain, suggesting that similar, newly recruited neurons may be able to function in other parts of the brain," says Sanjay Magavi, PhD, who led the study as a fellow in the laborator...

What can change in the brain? Electrical synapses, research shows

... of neuroscience and co-author of the paper. "But plasticity governs many critical brain functions. Since electrical synapses help synchronize the activity of brain cells, these junctions probably help regulate specific brain rhythms that occur while you are awake or sleeping. So this work helps us better unde...

New study identifies key gene in development of connections between brain and spinal cord

...ow and where to develop. Researchers examined the plasticity of fetal cells to better understand at what developmental period cells are specialized (i.e., limited in their ability to take on new characteristics) or undifferentiated (i.e., able to be take on new function or characteristics). In attempting to ...

Forgotten by evolution?

...nary stages. Indeed, these cells are still showing plasticity which is a characteristic of stem cells, but no direct physiological function can be deduced from it. ...

Sooner is better with cochlear implants, Stanford scientist shows

...xperiment that reveals the tremendous capacity for plasticity in the developing brain," said Eric Knudsen, PhD, the paper's senior author and the Edward C. and Amy H. Sewall Professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine. Most people don't appreciate that speech is a product of both hearing and vision...

Intelligently designed molecular evolution

...sidues." The Berkeley researchers identified the plasticity residues for the Grand fir sesquiterpene synthase,...hat could do whatever you needed it to do." Since plasticity residues also play other important biological roles, in addition to the evolution of promiscuous pro...

Activation of a protein solidifies fear memory in the brain

...on. "These findings show bidirectional behavioral plasticity after memory retrieval," Taylor said. "Moreover, we find that amygdalar PKA activation does not affect other memory processes after retrieval, including extinction of fear memory, further showing that our findings are specific for a reconsolidation p...

How the brain learns to become addicted

...tial mechanism for the role of orexin signaling in plasticity related to addiction," concluded the researchers. The researchers wrote that this orexin-induced plasticity in the VTA "is likely an important substrate of behaviors relevant to addiction, as we show that act...

Malignant melanoma cells secrete protein required for embryo formation

...of Nodal, aggressive melanoma cells maintain their plasticity and modulate the microenvironment, as exemplified ...t. Further, the findings illuminate the remarkable plasticity of melanoma cells and the utility of the developing zebrafish as a model for studying the epigenetic...

Recent, rapid climate change is driving evolution of animal species

...conditions." However, adds Holzapfel, "phenotypic plasticity is not the whole story. Studies show that over the past several decades, rapid climate change has led to heritable, genetic changes in animal populations." Bradshaw and Holzapfel provide a number of examples of these changes: Canadian red squirrel...

Potato blight pathogenicity explained by genome plasticity

...ed, this study highlights the importance of genome plasticity in evolution. Understanding genome plasticity as a mechanism for environmental response and ecological adaptation in pathogenic organisms has impo...

Electronic chip, interacting with the brain, modifies pathways for controlling movement

...uit is turned off. "This unusually long-lasting plasticity may be related to the fact that the conditioning is associated with normal behavior," Fetz said. ...

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