By optimizing neurons with CRISPR gene editing technology, researchers will have new ways to study genetic influences on brain health and disease, a new study reports.
A new long term study of young marijuana users tracks the brain's response to reward over time. The findings indicate a lower response to reward in marijuana users.
Researchers say Matcha, a traditional Japanese tea, can help boost mood and mental performance. Match tea powder activates dopaminergic neural networks and improves depressive symptoms in mice that previously experienced stress as a result of social isolation.
Higher levels of glutathione in the nucleus accumbens correlated with better and more steady performance in motivation-based tasks. Findings suggest improvements in accumbal anti-oxidant function that can be acquired via diet or supplementation may be a feasible approach to help boost motivation.
Researchers report that motivation could aid the recovery of motor function following spinal cord injury.
Manipulating the activity of Activin receptors could decrease relapse behaviors in cocaine addiction, a new study suggests.
Using optogenetics to manipulate the brains of opioid addicted mice, researchers discover a neural pathway that appears to be responsible for symptoms of withdrawal.
A new study sheds light on the neurobiology of cravings for certain foods women experience while pregnant. According to researchers, during pregnancy, the brain undergoes alterations to functional connections in the reward systems, as well as taste and sensorimotor centers. Pregnant females become more sensitive to sweet foods and develop binge eating behaviors toward high-calorie foods. Pregnancy induces a full reorganization of the mesolimbic neural circuits via D2R dopaminergic neurons in the nucleus accumbens.
Mice that spent time running on wheels developed twice the normal number of new neurons and showed an increased ability to distinguish new objects from familiar objects, a new study reports.
Brain circuitry responsible for motivation and pleasure is activated when a person experiences pain. The findings reveal a link as to why some people may overeat when they experience chronic pain.
Drug combination targets brain circuits in the nucleus accumbens and completely eliminate chronic pain behavior.
Alpha synuclein's non-amyloidal component (NAC) aids the protein's movement through axons. When the NAC region is removed, alpha-synuclein did not move within axons.
