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大脑如何平衡情感和理性
具有情感障碍的人群其大脑内的情绪处理区域会进入失控状态，这种情感失衡被发现是由于患者大脑内的情感区域与认知区域的失联所致。为了使理性和感性达到一定的平衡，诸如背外侧前额叶皮层（DLPFC）等认知区域就需要与负责情感表达的25区等脑区进行沟通和交流。然而，由于这两块区域相距较远，就必须要有一个中间区域协助信息的传递——这个区域便是位于前扣带皮层的32区。正常人大脑中的DLPFC区域会与32区最里层的神经元相连，并通过32区将抑制信号传递到25区。而抑郁症患者大脑内的DLPFC区域却长期处于缄默状态，无法对情感表达区域进行适当的抑制，由此便造成了25区的过度活跃。
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TCCI®-affiliated Professor Wins NIH Director’s Pioneer Award
Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz, Bren Professor of Biology and Biological Engineering is one of four Caltech faculty members to receive grants from the NIH’s High Risk, High Reward Research Program. Zernicka-Goetz, a TCCI®-affiliated faculty member, received a NIH Director’s Pioneer Award which “challenges investigators at all career levels to pursue new research directions and develop groundbreaking, high-impact […]
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New clues about the link between stress and depression
Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have identified a protein in the brain that is important both for the function of the mood-regulating substance serotonin and for the release of stress hormones, at least in mice. The findings, which are published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, may have implications for the development of new drugs for depression […]
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Neuroscientists discover a molecular mechanism that allows memories to form
When the brain forms a memory of a new experience, neurons called engram cells encode the details of the memory and are later reactivated whenever we recall it. A new MIT study reveals that this process is controlled by large-scale remodeling of cells’ chromatin. This remodeling, which allows specific genes involved in storing memories to […]
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Millimetre-precision drug delivery to the brain
Focused ultrasound waves help ETH researchers to deliver drugs to the brain with pinpoint accuracy, in other words only to where their effect is desired. This method is set to enable treatment of psychiatric and neurological disorders and tumours with fewer side effects in the future.
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NIH scientists reveal how the brain may fuel intense neural communication
Our thoughts, feelings, and movements are controlled by billions of neurons talking to each other at trillions of specialized communication points called synapses. In an in-depth study of neurons grown in laboratory petri dishes, National Institutes of Health researchers discovered how the chattiest of some synapses find the energy to support intense conversations thought to […]
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Stem cells can help repair spinal cord after injury
Spinal cord injury often leads to permanent functional impairment. In a new study published in the journal Science researchers at Karolinska Institutet show that it is possible to stimulate stem cells in the mouse spinal cord to form large amounts of new oligodendrocytes, cells that are essential to the ability of neurons to transmit signals, […]
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‘Social cells’ related to social behavior identified in the brain
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 […]
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Penn Medicine Researchers Discover A Rare Genetic Form of Dementia
A new, rare genetic form of dementia has been discovered by a team of Penn Medicine researchers. This discovery also sheds light on a new pathway that leads to protein build up in the brain — which causes this newly discovered disease, as well as related neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s Disease — that could be […]
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How Aggression Leads to More Aggression
Like a champion fighter gaining confidence after each win, a male mouse that prevails in several successive aggressive encounters against other male mice will become even more aggressive in future encounters. This phenomenon is interesting to scientists who study behavioral neuroscience because aggression is an innate behavior in the brain. Now a team of Caltech […]