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glutamate

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·August 13, 2020·4 min read

The Neuroscience of Getting and Staying Motivated

The key to performance and motivation lies within the ratio of glutamine and glutamate in the nucleus accumbens. The ratio of glutamine to glutamate relates specifically to stamina.

Featured Genetics Neurology Open Neuroscience Articles

·June 24, 2020·3 min read

Genetic malfunction of brain astrocytes triggers migraine

Familial hemiplegic migraine type 2 (FHM2) causes a malfunction of astrocytes in the cingulate cortex. Manipulating astrocytes in the cingulate cortex reversed the disfunction, preventing an increase in migraine-like symptoms in mice carrying the FHM2 defect.

Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles

·April 16, 2020·2 min read

Insight into the synapses

The direct contact of mGluR4 receptors with other key proteins plays a significant role in the regulation of synaptic activity.

Brain Cancer Electrophysiology Featured Neurology Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles

·April 6, 2020·4 min read

Brain tumors impact normally helpful cells

Glioma brain tumors alter the function of astrocytes, possibly contributing to seizures many brain cancer patients experience. Astrocytes encasing gliomas exhibit different molecular signatures based on their proximity to the cancer cells. Those directly touching the cancer cells become elongated and swollen, mimicking the astrocyte's response to other epilepsy-related brain injuries.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·March 30, 2020·2 min read

How stress remodels the brain

A single, stressful event causes rapid and long-lasting retraction of astrocyte branches. Stress induces this change by halting the production of GluA1.

This shows synaptic transmission in action

Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles Psychology

·February 24, 2020·4 min read

Antibodies: The body’s own antidepressants

When autoantibodies are able to enter the bran and act on NMDA receptors, people experience relief from symptoms of anxiety, depression, and stress.

This is a 3d reconstruction of a synapse

Featured Neuroscience

·February 19, 2020·4 min read

Researchers identify neurons capable of coordinating functional networks in the brain

A single neuron, through its axon, is capable of simultaneously producing different effects in separate areas of the cerebral cortex.

Autism Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles

·January 27, 2020·7 min read

Prescription drug improves symptoms of autism by targeting brain’s chemical messengers

A drug commonly prescribed for edema improves the symptoms for young children on the autism spectrum with no significant side effects. The drug, bumetanide, decreases the ratio of GABA to glutamate in the brain.

Featured Neuroscience

·January 22, 2020·5 min read

Glutamate in the brain has unexpected qualities

A new analysis method shows the brain regulates its signals using glutamate in more ways than previously thought.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·January 1, 2020·3 min read

New Year’s anxiety hangover? Here’s what’s happening in your brain

Hangxiety, the feeling of waking up with anxiety the morning after heavy drinking, is a common symptom associated with a hangover. Researchers explain how a heavy night's drinking alters neurochemistry, leaving some of us prone to waking with anxiety.

This shows the location of the ventral pallidum in the brain

Featured Neuroscience

·December 31, 2019·3 min read

How the brain balances pleasure and pain

Different classes of neurons in the ventral pallidum control positive and negative motivations, sending opposing signals along a shared motivation-processing circuit.

This shows a person laying with their head on the table and an empty alcohol bottle

Featured Genetics Neurology Neuroscience

·December 30, 2019·6 min read

Hangovers happen as your body tries to protect itself from alcohol’s toxic effects

Researchers explore the biology behind hangovers, including how excessive alcohol consumption alters glutamate, serotonin, and dopamine. The paper also examines how to reduce the effects of a heavy night's drinking.