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Medical University of South Carolina

Featured Genetics Neuroscience

·January 30, 2017·7 min read

Potassium Channels May Unlock Future Precision Medicine Treatments for Alcoholism

Researchers have identified specific potassium channel genes that are altered by alcohol addiction.

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Featured Genetics Neuroscience Psychology

·April 7, 2023·6 min read

New Genetic Finding Provides Clue for Personalizing Depression Treatment

The NPAS4 gene may play a critical role in linking long-term stress to depression and depressive behaviors. The findings may lead to new, targeted treatments for depression as a result of chronic stress.

Image shows the location of the thalamus in the human brain.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·March 1, 2017·6 min read

Brain Circuit That Supports Smoking Cessation Identified

Researchers report a person's ability to quit smoking could be influenced by a neural network associated with inhibiting automated behavior.

Autism Featured Genetics

·October 28, 2016·7 min read

Finding the Clues for Better Autism Treatments

Researchers shed light on what might be going wrong in the regulation of genes that govern the brain’s connectivity.

Featured Neurology Neuroscience Psychology

·January 13, 2023·4 min read

Cannabis and the Oral Microbiome: Exploring Their Impacts on the Brain

A new study seeks to better understand how cannabis use alters the oral microbiome and how this may have an impact on neurodegenerative disorders.

Featured Neurology Neuroscience

·March 28, 2023·6 min read

Individualized Brain Fingerprints Can Help to Uncover Early Signs of Alzheimer’s Disease

A novel neuroimaging technique allows physicians to visualize subtle brain changes on an individualized level in patients with pre-clinical Alzheimer's disease.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·April 29, 2020·2 min read

Feeling burned out? The contributors could be more related to depression than you think

Study contradicts the conventional belief that burnout is associated with workplace factors, and depressive symptoms are more heavily influenced by personal factors. Burnout, researchers say, is much more closely related to factors that drive depression than previously thought.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·February 9, 2023·5 min read

Putting the Brake on Risky Behaviors

A newly discovered neural circuit in the thalamus prevented reward-seeking behaviors when activated in a preclinical model. When blocked, this circuit increases high-risk reward-seeking behaviors. The findings could lead to new therapies for addiction and other disorders associated with high-risk reward-seeking behaviors.

Featured Neuroscience

·May 8, 2026·9 min read

Brain Stimulation Boosts Willpower to Quit Smoking

Addiction is a biological imbalance where reward systems overpower self-control. Researchers have demonstrated that using rTMS to stimulate the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex can restore this balance, reducing cigarette use by 11 per day. This "top-down" approach strengthens the brain's ability to resist cravings, offering a promising precision-medicine tool for those struggling to quit smoking.

This shows an ai generated image of cows

Featured Neuroscience Visual Neuroscience

·July 13, 2020·6 min read

Is What I See, What I Imagine? The Neural Overlap Between Vision and Imagination

Using artificial intelligence and neuroimaging, researchers have identified a link between mental imagery and vision. The brain uses similar visual areas for mental imagery and vision but uses low-level visual areas less precisely for mental imagery than vision.

Featured Genetics Neuroscience Psychology

·December 13, 2024·7 min read

Genetic Mechanism Links Emotional Experiences to Behavior Changes

Researchers have identified a genetic mechanism that regulates behavioral adaptations to emotional experiences by forming R-loops, unique RNA:DNA structures that activate target genes. The study focused on NPAS4, a gene implicated in stress and drug addiction, showing how blocking R-loops prevents maladaptive behaviors like cocaine seeking and stress-induced anhedonia in mice.