Reversing Alzheimer’s Gene Blockade Can Restore Memory, Other Cognitive Functions
Neuroscientists show that HDAC2 enzyme could be a good target for new drugs. MIT neuroscientists have shown that an enzyme overproduced in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients creates a blockade that shuts off genes necessary to form new memories. Furthermore, by inhibiting that enzyme in mice, the researchers were able to reverse Alzheimer’s symptoms. The [...]
Molecular Duo Dictate Weight and Energy Levels
Yale University researchers have discovered a key cellular mechanism that may help the brain control how much we eat, what we weigh, and how much energy we have. The findings, published in the Feb. 28 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience, describe the regulation of a family of cells that project throughout the nervous system [...]
How to Control a Prosthesis with Your Mind
New brain-machine interfaces that exploit the plasticity of the brain may allow people to control prosthetic devices in a natural way. Imagine a piece of technology that would let you control an apparatus simply by thinking about it. Lots of people, it turns out, have dreamed of just such a system, which for decades has [...]
Study Shows How The Brain Responds To Deceptive Advertising
Several specific regions of our brains are activated in a two-part process when we are exposed to deceptive advertising, according to new research conducted by a North Carolina State University professor. The work opens the door to further research that could help us understand how brain injury and aging may affect our susceptibility to fraud [...]
Low Levels of Omega-3 Fatty Acids May Cause Memory Problems
A diet lacking in omega-3 fatty acids, nutrients commonly found in fish, may cause your brain to age faster and lose some of its memory and thinking abilities, according to a study published in the February 28, 2012, print issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Omega-3 fatty acids include [...]
Naked Mole Rats Bear Lifesaving Clues
Could blind, buck-toothed, finger-sized naked mole-rats harbor in their brain cells a survival secret that might lead to better heart attack or stroke treatments? University of Illinois at Chicago biologist Thomas Park and colleagues at UIC and the University of Texas Heath Science Center at San Antonio think the subterranean lifestyle of the pasty-looking rodents [...]
Memory Formation Triggered by Stem Cell Development
Researchers at the RIKEN-MIT Center for Neural Circuit Genetics have discovered an answer to the long-standing mystery of how brain cells can both remember new memories while also maintaining older ones. They found that specific neurons in a brain region called the dentate gyrus serve distinct roles in memory formation depending on whether the neural [...]
An Off Switch for Pain
Chemists build light-controlled neural inhibitor. The notion of a pain switch is an alluring idea, but is it realistic? Well, chemists at LMU Munich, in collaboration with colleagues in Berkeley and Bordeaux, have now shown in laboratory experiments that it is possible to inhibit the activity of pain-sensitive neurons using an agent that acts as [...]
Research Scientists Create Potent Molecules Aimed at Treating Muscular Dystrophy
The new approach could have implications for many genetic diseases. While RNA is an appealing drug target, small molecules that can actually affect its function have rarely been found. But now scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute have for the first time designed a series of small molecules that act against [...]
Molecular Basis of Touch Sensation
MDC researchers identify new function of a well-known gene A gene known to control lens development in mice and humans is also crucial for the development of neurons responsible for mechanosensory function, as neurobiologists of the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch have now discovered. They found that in mice in which they [...]
