Dopamine in the cerebellum helps regulate social behaviors via its action on D2 receptors. Changes in D2 levels in Purkinje cells alter sociability and preference for social novelty without affecting motor function.
Researchers propose a new framework for three seemingly unconnected forms of creativity.
Neurexin regulates the survival of cerebellar granule cells independently of synapses. The findings shed new light on the mechanisms behind neurodevelopmental disorders like schizophrenia and ASD.
Even mild COVID-19 infection can lead to cognitive alterations and brain shrinkage, researchers report. The findings could help explain the brain changes that contribute to long-COVID.
Researchers have identified a new target in the brain that underpins the freezing response associated with anxiety and fear. The findings could provide a new drug target for anxiety-related disorders.
A new study identifies a neural network that appears to be responsible for the development of tics and tic disorders. Researchers say deep brain stimulation applied to this network helps alleviate symptoms of tics.
Persistency allows value signals to be most efficiently coded across the brain, specifically in the retrosplenial cortex.
Inadequate sleep can harm brain organization in early adolescence, researchers report. The disorganization can have an impact on cognitive processes, including attention, memory, emotional regulation, and controlling behaviors.
Constant hunger associated with Prader-Willi syndrome is, in part, the result of disordered signaling in the cerebellum, an area of the brain associated with motor control and learning.
Researchers have identified a new, rare neurodevelopmental disorder associated with a homozygous mutation in the PRDM13 gene. Features of the disorder included intellectual disabilities, ataxia with cerebellar hypoplasia, and delayed puberty with hypogonadotropic hypogonadism.
New collaborative studies shed light on the organization of cells in key areas of the mouse brain and the organization of transcriptome, epigenomic, and regulatory factors that provide the brain cells with purpose and function.
Almost half of the identified human accelerated regions of the genome appear to act as neurodevelopment enhancers, researchers say. The findings shed new light on the genetic basis of human evolution.
