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Featured Genetics Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles Visual Neuroscience

·January 18, 2020·4 min read

Researchers identify gene with functional role in aging of eye

The gene Elovl2 appears to play a significant role in age-associated functional and anatomical aging in mouse retinas. The finding has direct implications for age-related eye diseases, such as macular degeneration. When the expression of the gene was boosted, age-related visual function improved.

Featured Neuroscience

·January 14, 2020·5 min read

Alcohol dependence results in brain-wide remodeling of functional architecture

Using a novel imaging technique, researchers produce a whole mouse brain atlas, which reveals how alcohol addiction, and abstinence, alter the functional architecture of the brain.

Featured Neurology Neuroscience

·January 1, 2020·5 min read

Objective subtle cognitive difficulties predict amyloid accumulation and neurodegeneration

Amyloid accumulation occurs faster in those who have objectively-defined cognitive difficulties than older people who are considered to be cognitively normal. Mild cognitive impairment is also associated with faster hippocampal and entorhinal cortex atrophy.

Autism Featured Genetics Neuroscience

·December 26, 2019·5 min read

Measuring mutations in sperm may reveal risk for autism in future children

Spontaneous mutations in a father's sperm may be linked to autism spectrum disorder in their offspring. UCSD researchers have developed a new method of quantifying the mutations and assessing the likelihood that the mutations will contribute to ASD.

Brain Cancer Featured Genetics Neurology Neuroscience

·November 21, 2019·5 min read

Non-coding DNA located outside chromosomes may help drive glioblastoma

Extra DNA is critical for maintaining cancer-causing gene activation and supporting the cancer cell's ability to survive.

Image shows a child standing under a street lamp alone

Autism Featured Genetics Neuroscience

·September 23, 2019·4 min read

Perturbed genes regulating white blood cells linked to autism genetics and severity

Blood gene expression analysis uncovered a critical gene network that is disrupted in Autism. The disrupted gene network is related to fetal brain development and is also dysregulated in ASD cellular models. The findings provide further evidence that genetic factors influencing brain development during pregnancy are a primary cause of autism spectrum disorder.

Featured Genetics Neurology Neuroscience

·September 15, 2019·3 min read

How the eyes might be windows to the risk of Alzheimer’s disease

Adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), a precursor to Alzheimer's disease, have greater pupil dilation when taking cognitive tests than their cognitively normal peers. Task-evoked pupillary response may be a cost-effective, and low invasive screening test for those at genetic risk for Alzheimer's before the symptoms of the disease take hold.

Featured Neuroscience

·August 29, 2019·6 min read

Machine learning algorithm can’t distinguish these lab mini-brains from preemie babies

Machine learning is unable to tell the difference in brain activity between a lab-grown mini-brain and that of a preterm infant who has reached full-term.

This shows brain slices with a glioblastoma tumor

Brain Cancer Featured Neurology Neuroscience

·August 8, 2019·5 min read

Adding MS drug to targeted cancer therapy may improve glioblastoma outcomes

Teriflunomide, a drug commonly used to treat multiple sclerosis, shows promise for the treatment of glioblastoma when coupled with targeted cancer therapies.

Featured Neuroscience

·June 24, 2019·4 min read

Culture shapes how we learn to reason?

Young children in the USA may be subject to culture-specific influences that bias their reasoning toward objects.

Featured Neuroscience

·May 22, 2019·4 min read

Early life exposure to nicotine alters neurons, predisposes brain to addiction later

Mouse study reveals neonatal nicotine exposure primes the ventral tegmental area, making the animals more susceptible to the effects of nicotine when exposed again later in life.