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Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles Psychology

·September 13, 2019·4 min read

How emotion affects action

Researchers have identified a comprehensive circuit mechanism that governs how emotional states can influence movement through connections in the basal ganglia. The mechanism represents a way in which emotional states relate to changes in action control in depression, anxiety, and OCD.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·August 27, 2019·4 min read

Neurological brain markers might detect risk for psychotic disorders

Researchers have identified a new biomarker for psychosis in the striatal dopamine neurons. Those at risk for psychosis showed increased activation in the striatum for positive feedback and decreased activation when faced with negative feedback.

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Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles Psychology

·August 1, 2019·3 min read

Brain activity may help predict success of CBT in depression

Only 45% of patients with major depressive disorder find benefit from cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). A neuroimaging study reveals those who respond to CBT have greater neural activity in the right striatum and right amygdala pretreatment than those who find little benefit from the treatment. The findings could serve as a biomarker to discover who will respond to CBT.

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Autism Featured Genetics Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles

·July 25, 2019·4 min read

Brain protein mutation from child with autism causes autism-like behavioral change in mice

Researchers implanted a genetic mutation that encodes the DAT protein from a child with ASD into mice. The mice began to exhibit autism-like behavioral deficits. Mice with the DAT T356M mutation had reduced social interaction and a loss in social dominance. The mice also demonstrated an increase in hyperactivity. At the physiological level, the researchers found impaired striatal dopamine transmission and clearance.

Featured Neuroscience

·July 23, 2019·5 min read

Study Advances Understanding of How Brains Remember Decisions

The medial prefrontal cortex persistently encodes value based decision variables.

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Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles Psychology

·July 20, 2019·3 min read

Pioneering new study on dopamine and stress

A neuroimaging study on house sparrows reveals changes in the dopaminergic system could be a physiological mechanism underlying the negative behavioral effects of chronic stress. The findings shed light on stress and resilience in wildlife and humans.

Featured Neuroscience

·June 25, 2019·3 min read

How the brain helps us make good decisions, and bad ones

The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) appears to play a significant role in our ability to make decisions. A network connecting the OFC and nucleus accumbens translates negative outcomes into values, while the OFC-amygdala circuit helps stabilize action values.

This shows brain scans from teen cannabis users

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·June 20, 2019·4 min read

Early-and-regular cannabis use by youth is associated with alteration in brain circuits that support cognitive control

Compared to peers who do not use cannabis, teens and young adults with significant marijuana use history have reduced activation in brain areas that support cognitive control and conflict resolution.

Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles

·June 19, 2019·5 min read

Information addiction: How information is like snacks, money, and drugs to your brain

Obtaining new information may be addictive. Study finds information acquisition shares the same dopamine producing reward system pathway as food, financial rewards and drugs.

Featured Neurology Neuroscience

·June 6, 2019·5 min read

Ultrasound method restores dopaminergic pathway in brain at Parkinson’s early stages

Using transcranial focused ultrasound in combination with injectable microbubbles, researchers open a pathway through the blood-brain barrier. The technique allows drugs to penetrate the brain and trigger therapeutic effects for those with neurodegenerative diseases.

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Featured Genetics Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles Psychology

·May 3, 2019·5 min read

Hotspot in the genome may drive psychosis in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder

A cluster of epigenetic marks in an enhancer at IGF2 could enhance dopamine synthesis associated with psychosis in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. The findings may help in devising more effective treatments and screening strategies for both disorders.