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Neuroscience

Neuroscience research articles are provided.

What is neuroscience? Neuroscience is the scientific study of nervous systems. Neuroscience can involve research from many branches of science including those involving neurology, brain science, neurobiology, psychology, computer science, artificial intelligence, statistics, prosthetics, neuroimaging, engineering, medicine, physics, mathematics, pharmacology, electrophysiology, biology, robotics and technology.

Featured Neuroscience

·October 16, 2012·3 min read

Attack! Silent Watchmen Charge to Defend the Nervous System

Research provides the first evidence that mechanisms regulated by the Runx1 gene control the balance between the surveillant versus activated microglia states.

An image of fly spinal cord equivalent is shown.

Featured Neuroscience

·October 11, 2012·6 min read

Novel Mechanisms Underlying Major Childhood Neuromuscular Disease Identified

A study suggests that spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), a genetic neuromuscular disease in infants and children, results primarily from motor circuit dysfunction, not motor neuron or muscle cell dysfunction, as is commonly thought. In a second study, the researchers identified the molecular pathway in SMA that leads to problems with motor function.

A statue of a child playing an accordion is shown.

Featured Neuroscience

·October 9, 2012·2 min read

Neuroscientists Launch 5 Year Study of Music Education and Child Brain Development

Researchers at USC Brain and Creativity Institute will explore the effects of intense music training on cognitive development in LA Phil's YOLA at HOLA program. The five-year research project will offer researchers an opportunity to provide new insights and add data about the role of early music engagement in learning and brain function.

Electrophysiology Featured Neuroscience

·October 8, 2012·2 min read

Discovery of Gatekeeper Nerve Cells Explains the Effect of Nicotine on Learning and Memory

Researchers discovered a new group of nerve cells that regulate processes of learning and memory. These cells act as gatekeepers and carry a receptor for nicotine, which can help explain our ability to remember and sort information. The newly discovered gatekeeper nerve cells, also called OLM-alpha2 cells, provide an explanation to how the flow of information is controlled in the hippocampus.

Entorhinal cortical neurons and traces are shown and described in the caption.

Electrophysiology Featured Neuroscience

·October 8, 2012·5 min read

Researchers Discover that the Sleeping Brain Behaves as if it’s Remembering Something

UCLA researchers have for the first time measured the activity of a brain region known to be involved in learning, memory and Alzheimer's disease during sleep. They discovered that the entorhinal cortex behaves as if it's remembering something, even under anesthesia, a finding that counters conventional theories about memory consolidation during sleep.

A brain image is next to a drawing of a 1918 brain map.

Featured Neuroscience

·October 4, 2012·2 min read

Researchers Create a Universal Map of Vision in the Human Brain

Researchers create a map of vision in the brain based upon an individual's brain structure, even for people who cannot see. Their result can, among other things, guide efforts to restore vision using a neural prosthesis that stimulates the surface of the brain.

Scientists in front of computer monitors examine microscope images showing the growth of axons.

Featured Neuroscience

·October 2, 2012·4 min read

Study Suggests Immune System Can Boost Regeneration of Peripheral Nerves

Research seeks the 'master knob' to turn on nerve repair. Modulating immune response to injury could accelerate the regeneration of severed peripheral nerves, a new study in an animal model has found. By altering activity of the macrophage cells that respond to injuries, researchers dramatically increased the rate at which nerve processes regrew.

Featured Neuroscience

·September 21, 2012·4 min read

Research Identifies Protein that Regulates Key Fate Decision in Cortical Progenitor Cells

Researchers solved an important piece of one of neuroscience's outstanding puzzles: how progenitor cells in the developing mammalian brain reproduce themselves while also giving birth to neurons that will populate the emerging cerebral cortex, the seat of cognition and executive function in the mature brain.

Featured Neuroscience

·September 20, 2012·2 min read

Brain Study Reveals the Roots of Chocolate Temptations

Researchers have new evidence in rats to explain how it is that chocolate candies can be so completely irresistible. The urge to overeat such deliciously sweet and fatty treats traces to an unexpected part of the brain and its production of a natural, opium-like chemical.

Featured Neuroscience

·September 19, 2012·4 min read

Human Brains Share a Consistent Genetic Blueprint and Possess Enormous Biochemical Complexity

Scientists at the Allen Institute for Brain Science reported that human brains share a consistent genetic blueprint and possess enormous biochemical complexity. The findings stem from the first deep and large-scale analysis of the vast data set publicly available in the Allen Human Brain Atlas.

Featured Neuroscience

·September 18, 2012·2 min read

Brain Neurons and Diet Influence Onset of Obesity and Diabetes in Mice

The absence of a specific type of neuron in the brain can lead to obesity and diabetes in mice report researchers. The outcome, however, depends on the type of diet that the animals are fed.

Featured Neuroscience

·September 17, 2012·4 min read

Blue Brain Project Accurately Predicts Connections Between Neurons

Proof of concept: Researchers identify principles to support brain simulation models. Blue Brain Project has identified key principles that determine synapse-scale connectivity by virtually reconstructing a cortical microcircuit and comparing it to a mammalian sample. These principles now make it possible to predict the locations of synapses in the neocortex.