Examination of internal 'wiring' of yeast, worm, and fly reveals conserved circuits
First-of-its-kind analysis published in the Feb. 8 PNAS supports the concept of a basic wiring diagram for all eukaryotes. Researchers in California, Israel, and Germany have compared three distantly related species ?baker's yeast, a worm, and the fruit fly ?and reported that protein "wiring" connections in one species are often conserved in all three. This first-of-its-kind analysis of t...Brain-injury rehabilitation depends on acetylcholine circuitry
The ability of the brain to recover from such injury as stroke or trauma depends on a particular circuitry of neurons that "talk" to one another using the brain chemical acetylcholine, researchers led by James Conner and Mark Tuszynski in the Neural repair Group at UCSD have discovered. Their finding in rats could help enhance rehabilitation to recover from such injuries by leading to the develop...Depression gene may weaken mood-regulating circuit
A brain scan study suggests that a suspect gene may increase susceptibility to anxiety and depression* by weakening a circuit for processing negative emotion. People with the depression-linked gene variant showed less gray matter and weaker connections in the mood-regulating circuit. How well the circuit was connected accounted for nearly 30 percent of their anxious temperament, researchers at th...Deep sleep short-circuits brain's grid of connectivity
In the human brain, cells talk to one another through the routine exchange of electrical signals. But when people fall into a deep sleep, the higher regions of the brain - regions that during waking hours are a bustling grid of neural dialogue - apparently lose their ability to communicate effectively, causing consciousness to fade. Writing today (Sept. 30) in the journal Science, a team o...Nicotine triggers the same brain reward circuitry as opiates
In experiments with mice, researchers have found that nicotine triggers the same neural pathways that give opiates such as heroin their addictively rewarding properties--including associating an environment with the drug's reward. However, unlike opiates, nicotine does not directly activate the brain's opiate receptors, but activates the natural opioid reward pathway in the brain. The rese...Research Reveal A New Angle On Neural Circuits.
Researchers from the Brandeis University in US are offering new insight into how the brain’s neural circuits are actually shaped by experience.// Research from Brandeis University, which has been published online earlier in the in ‘Nature’, has thrown much needed insights into the probable shaping of the neural circuits by experience. The researchers in the article have provided new e...Zinc – A New Key Player In Brain Circuitr
The new findings of a study shed light on a nagging mystery in neurobiology: why the connections among certain types of neurons contain// considerable pools of free zinc ions. Zinc - a new key player adds to the multitude of substances that regulate neuronal signaling in the brain and spinal cord – says the research. By engineering a mouse with a mutation affecting a neuronal zinc targe...Scientists Find Single Circuit Channeling Depression in Rats
Scientists and doctors long baffled by the multiple causes and brain processes for depression may now have a single "holy grail" brain pathway to focus on for treatment, according to a new research study released Thursday. Studying the brains of rats, researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have discovered a single brain circuit that appears to funnel all the mech...