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synapses

Featured Neurology Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles

·August 30, 2019·4 min read

Blue Brain finds how neurons in the mouse neocortex form billions of synaptic connections

Scientists generated statistical instances of the micro-connectome, containing over 10 million neurons. The model spans five orders of magnitude and contains 88 billion synaptic connections.

Featured Genetics Neurology Neuroscience

·August 27, 2019·4 min read

High-fat diet in utero protects against Alzheimer’s later

High-fat diets during pregnancy may protect the developing brain from Alzheimer's in those with genetic risk factors.

Electrophysiology Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles

·August 22, 2019·4 min read

How the brain finds order amidst chaos

Amidst noise and chaos, cortical neurons work in a team to communicate and allow the brain to find order.

This is a diagram from the research paper

Featured Genetics Neurology Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles

·August 16, 2019·2 min read

Gene linked to Alzheimer’s disease is involved in neuronal communication

Study reveals how CD2AP may enhance Alzheimer's susceptibility. The gene affects neural communication by regulating the levels of regulatory proteins present around synapses.

This shows a child looking at a DNA double helix

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.

Electrophysiology Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles

·July 12, 2019·4 min read

The way a single neuron processes information is never the same

When a neuron receives information, dendrites functionally work together to adjust for the complexity of the input.

Featured Genetics Neurology Neuroscience

·July 9, 2019·4 min read

Sorting protein in neurons defends against neurodegenerative disease

VPS35 is a novel critical component of tau metabolism and the pathology of neurodegenerative diseases.

Featured Neuroscience

·July 1, 2019·3 min read

Sleep readies synapses for learning

Hippocampal neurons become longer and stronger following a period of sleep deprivation. The study supports the hypothesis that sleep may weaken synapses, which are strengthened from learning, allowing for learning to occur after waking.

Featured Genetics Neurology Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles

·June 27, 2019·3 min read

Dementia study links gene with damage to brain connections

Post mortem examinations of brain tissue from Alzheimer's patients revealed synapses contained clumps of clusterin, in addition to amyloid beta. The clumps were more abundant in those with genetic risk factors from Alzheimer's disease.

This shows how the AI discovered the mutations

Autism Featured Genetics Neuroscience

·May 27, 2019·5 min read

New causes of autism found in ‘junk’ DNA

Using artificial intelligence, researchers discover mutations in noncoding regions of the human genome that may result in autism. The noncoding mutations are associated with altered gene regulation in children with ASD. Additionally, the mutations affect gene expression in the brain and genes already linked to autism, such as those responsible for neuron development and migration.

Autism Featured Genetics Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles

·May 16, 2019·6 min read

Brain changes in autism traced to specific cell types

Studying brain tissue samples from people with ASD revealed a common set of alterations in genes associated with synaptic communication between neurons. The changes were identified mainly in neurons in the uppermost layers of the neocortex.

Featured Neurology Neuroscience Visual Neuroscience

·May 7, 2019·6 min read

Why visual stimulation may work in fight against Alzheimer’s: Mouse study

Inducing gamma oscillations with visual stimulation via a process known as gamma entrainment using sensory stimuli, or GENUS, was shown to reduce amyloid plaques and phosphorylated tau in mouse models of dementia. Providing GENUS daily during the early stages of neurodegeneration helps preserve neural and synaptic density across multiple brain areas and improves cognitive performance for learning and spatial memory tasks.