Huntington’s disease is a devastating brain disorder that slowly robs people of movement, memory and personality. It is caused by a toxic protein that builds in brain cells and ultimately kills them. For years, scientists have known that this harmful protein doesn’t stay put – it spreads from one brain cell to another. However, exactly … Read more
A multiomic atlas of the aging human hippocampus uncovers how epigenetic regulation of neural stem cells and immature neurons may shape cognitive decline or resilience in later life. Study: Human hippocampal neurogenesis in adulthood, ageing and Alzheimer’s disease. Image Credit: MP Art / Shutterstock In a recent study published in the journal Nature, researchers delineated neurogenesis … Read more
The brain’s ability to carry out everything from forming memories to coordinating movement depends on its cells producing the right proteins at the right time. But directly measuring this protein production, known as translation, across different types of brain cells has been a challenge. Now, scientists at Scripps Research and UC San Diego have developed … Read more
Despite decades of research, the mechanisms behind fast flashes of insight that change how a person perceives their world, termed “one-shot learning,” have remained unknown. A mysterious type of one-shot learning is perceptual learning, in which seeing something once dramatically alters our ability to recognize it again. A new study, led by researchers at NYU … Read more
In experiments with mice, Johns Hopkins Medicine scientists report new evidence that precursors of myelin-producing cells – one of the few brain cell types that continue to be produced in the adult brain – undergo differentiation widely and at a constant pace, rather than “as needed” in response to injury or advancing age. The findings, … Read more
A mechanism involving potassium channels in the brain that control brain cell activity could provide a new and fundamentally different way of treating depression symptoms in adults with major depressive disorder, according to two complementary papers published recently by researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. In two new research articles, published … Read more
Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have upended decades-old dogma of how connections between brain cells are rearranged during states of heightened vigilance or attention. The team found that a brain chemical associated with alertness, attention and learning alters brain connectivity and function not by acting directly on neurons, the cells … Read more
A stem cell therapy trial aimed at reducing neuroinflammation in patients with presymptomatic Alzheimer’s disease is underway at UTHealth Houston. In Alzheimer’s disease, deposits of beta-amyloid and tau lead to the buildup of plaques and tangles in the brain, which cause dementia. An estimated 6.9 million Americans age 65 and older are living with Alzheimer’s disease … Read more
Air pollution contributes to nearly 7 million premature deaths each year, and its effects go far beyond the lungs. Breathing in wildfire smoke or automobile-related city smog doesn’t just increase the risk of asthma and heart disease-it may also contribute to brain diseases as diverse as Alzheimer’s and autism. Scientists at Scripps Research have discovered … Read more
Researchers led by Zhentao Zhang at Wuhan University, China have discovered a cholesterol metabolite that plays a critical role in the development of Parkinson’s disease in mice. Published in the open-access journal PLOS Biology on February 18th, the study shows that this metabolite is responsible for the formation of Lewy bodies and the death of … Read more