Tianqiao & Chrissy Chen Institute – Change perception, change your world | Chen Institute

By measuring thousands of neurons along the surface, or cortex, of the brain in animals as they reacted to predictable and surprising images, the researchers observed that low frequency alpha and beta brain waves, or rhythms, originating in the brain’s frontal cognitive regions tamped down neural activity associated with predictable stimuli. That paved the way […]

Infants’ brains may be shaped by levels of stress their mother experiences during pregnancy, a study has revealed. Stress levels in mothers – measured by a hormone linked to anxiety and other health problems – is related to changes in areas of the infant brain associated with emotional development, the study suggests. Doctors say the […]

A proof-of-concept study conducted in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease offers new evidence that copper isotopes can be used to detect the amyloid-beta protein deposits that form in the brains of people living with – or at risk of developing – Alzheimer’s.

New research found the stronger a memory is first encoded, the easier it is for a person to notice subsequent changes and to integrate them into their updated understanding. “The bigger the discrepancy is between a previous memory and what happens the next time,” Zacks said, “the stronger the signal is that you need to […]

Rodríguez-Romaguera, Ung, Stuber and colleagues examined a brain region within the amygdala called the BNST (bed nucleus of the stria terminalis), which has been linked in prior research to fear and anxiety-like behaviors in mice. Increasingly, scientists view this region as a promising target for future psychiatric drugs. In this case, the researchers zeroed in […]

Researchers in Rice’s Department of BioSciences, propose that degeneration, at the cellular level, occurs in two distinct phases that are marked by very different activities of protein signaling pathways that regulate basic cell functions. “We would like clinicians and other researchers to understand that the two phases of degeneration represent distinct entities, with distinct alterations […]

By studying the memory and brain tissue from a large group of genetically diverse mice, the team found that the expression of the gene Dlgap2 is associated with the degree of memory loss in mice and risk for Alzheimer’s dementia in humans. Further research will ascertain how the gene influences dementia and mental function. Dlgap2, […]