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COVID-19 infection may be part of a ‘perfect storm’ for Parkinson’s disease
Can COVID-19 infection increase the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease? That’s the question posed by a new commentary published in the journal Trends in Neurosciences, which explores three known case studies of people developing Parkinson’s-like symptoms in the weeks following infection with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. While rare, these cases provide important insights […]
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Researchers Find Gene to be Key Regulator of Progranulin Expression; Modifies the risk of Multiple Neurodegenerative Diseases
Professor Yu Jintai from Fudan University-affiliated Huashan Hospital and his research team recently published a major discovery in the journal Science Advances. In research supported by TCCI®, the team discovered that the FAM171A2 gene is a key regulator of progranulin (PGRN) expression in cerebrospinal fluid and can reduce the risk of multiple neurodegenerative diseases. […]
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New model of human brain ‘conversations’ could inform research on brain disease, cognition
A team of Indiana University neuroscientists has built a new model of human brain networks that sheds light on how the brain functions. The model offers a new tool for exploring individual differences in brain networks, which is critical to classifications of brain disorders and disease, as well as for understanding human behavior and cognitive […]
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Significant link found between air pollution and neurological disorders
Air pollution was significantly associated with an increased risk of hospital admissions for several neurological disorders, including Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and other dementias, in a long-term study of more than 63 million older U.S. adults, led by researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The study, conducted with colleagues at Emory University’s […]
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The right cells in the right spot
Far away, in the periphery of its visual field, a tiny zebrafish larva detects a small dot moving sideways. Is it prey or is it a threat, for instance, a distant predator sneaking up on it? Within the shortest possible time, the fish decides that it must be potential prey. The larva turns toward the […]
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What lies between grey and white in the brain
Traditionally, neuroscience regards the brain as being made up of two basic tissue types. Billions of neurons make up the grey matter, forming a thin layer on the brain’s surface. These neuronal cells are interlinked in a mindboggling network by hundreds of millions of white matter connections, running in bundles, deeper in the brain. Until […]
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UMD-Led Study Shows Fear and Anxiety Share Same Bases in Brain
Anxiety, the most common family of mental illnesses in the U.S., has been pushed to epic new heights by the COVID-19 pandemic, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimating that nearly 1 in 3 U.S. adults and a staggering 41% of people ages 18-29 experienced clinically significant anxiety symptoms in late August. Now, […]
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‘Happy ending effect’ can bias future decisions, say scientists
Humans are hard-wired to prefer experiences that end well, and the influence of previous experience declines the longer ago it happened. This means we can’t always trust that choices we make based on previous experience will serve our best interests in the future. New research, published today in the Journal of Neuroscience, has revealed that […]
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Remembering Novelty
The brain and its functions still pose many open questions. One of them is how exactly we form long-term memories about the environment. In a new study Ryuichi Shigemoto and his group from the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (IST Austria) together with researchers from Aarhus University and the National Institute for Physiological Sciences […]
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New study reveals how the nervous system mutes or boosts sensory information to make behavioral decisions
Fruit flies may be able to teach researchers a thing or two about artificial intelligence. University of Michigan biologists and their colleagues have uncovered a neural network that enables Drosophila melanogaster fruit flies to convert external stimuli of varying intensities into a “yes or no” decision about when to act. The research, scheduled to publish […]