A research team led by Professor TAKUMI Toru of Kobe University’s Graduate School of Medicine (also a Senior Visiting Scientist at RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research) have identified ‘social cells’ in the brain that are related to social behavior. The cells were identified via Ca imaging (*1) conducted using a microendoscope (*2). It is […]

When nerve cells aren’t busy exchanging information, they’re supposed to keep quiet. If they’re just popping off at random, like in a noisy classroom, it obscures the signals they’re supposed to be transmitting. But in the most common genetic cause of schizophrenia, it seems that nerve cells won’t shut up, Stanford University School of Medicine […]

Navigating through life requires balancing emotion and reason, a feat accomplished by the brain region “area 32” of the anterior cingulate cortex. The area maintains emotional equilibrium by relaying information between cognitive and emotional brain regions, according to new research in monkeys published in JNeurosci.

A new study into the causes of sensorimotor impairments prevalent among autistic people could pave the way for better treatment and management in the future, say psychologists. Publishing findings in the leading journal BRAIN [today: Friday 25 September], the scientists from the universities of Exeter and Bath present fresh evidence that sensorimotor difficulties associated with […]

Our aging brains collect tangles and sticky plaques that can interfere in our cognition and memory. But some older adults with this neuropathology have more cognitive resilience than others, reports a new Northwestern Medicine study.

While cannabis use during pregnancy is on the rise, researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have found evidence that the resulting children are more likely to have psychopathology in middle childhood.

Stanford scientists identified brain circuitry that plays a role in the mysterious experience called dissociation, in which people can feel disconnected from their bodies and reality.

Some highly effective medications also happen to be highly mysterious. Such is the case with the antidepressant drugs known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs: They are the most common treatment for major depression and have been around for more than 40 years, yet scientists still do not know exactly how they work. Nor […]

Patients with autoimmune inflammation of their thyroid may be at greater risk of developing anxiety, according to a study being presented at e-ECE 2020. The study found that people with anxiety may also have inflammation in their thyroid gland that can be reduced by taking the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory, ibuprofen. These findings suggest that thyroid function […]

In the great nature vs. nurture debate, nature just got a win. UCI research led by Amal Alachkar found that too much of a certain amino acid in utero caused schizophrenia in mice despite the quality of postpartum caregiving – and the study suggests that the same would be true with humans.