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What Makes Memories So Detailed and Enduring
The study, published in Nature Communications, describes a newly discovered mechanism of learning in the brain shown to stabilize memories and reduce interference between them. Its findings also provide new insight into how humans form expectations and make accurate predictions about what could happen in future.
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Study Suggests Unconscious Learning Underlies Belief in God
Individuals who can unconsciously predict complex patterns, an ability called implicit pattern learning, are likely to hold stronger beliefs that there is a god who creates patterns of events in the universe, according to neuroscientists at Georgetown University.
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ranscriptional Reprogramming of Distinct Peripheral Sensory Neuron Subtypes after Axonal Injury
Primary somatosensory neurons are specialized to transmit specific types of sensory information through differences in cell size, myelination, and the expression of distinct receptors and ion channels, which together define their transcriptional and functional identity. By profiling sensory ganglia at single-cell resolution, we find that all somatosensory neuronal subtypes undergo a similar transcriptional response to […]
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Cashew shell compound appears to mend damaged nerves
In laboratory experiments, a chemical compound found in the shell of the cashew nut promotes the repair of myelin, a team from Vanderbilt University Medical Center reported Aug. 17 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
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Becoming a nerve cell: Timing is of the essence
Mitochondria are small organelles that provide the energy critical for each cell in our body, in particular in the high fuel-consuming brain. In this week’s edition of Science, a Belgian team of researchers led by Pierre Vanderhaeghen (VIB-KU Leuven, ULB) finds that mitochondria also regulate a key event during brain development: how neural stem cells […]
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Young children would rather explore than get rewards
Young children will pass up rewards they know they can collect to explore other options, a new study suggests.Researchers found that when adults and 4- to 5-year-old children played a game where certain choices earned them rewards, both adults and children quickly learned what choices would give them the biggest returns.
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Clear Contrast: Q&A with Mikhail Shapiro, Ph.D
One of the most challenging aspects of studying the brain is that it’s so hard to access within living organisms. Mikhail G. Shapiro, PhD, TCCI®-affiliated, Professor of Chemical Engineering and Heritage Medical Research Institute Investigator was recently interviewed by the Dana Foundation about his team’s recent discovery of an “erasable” contrast agent which makes it easier to study […]
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Stress, sleep, and immunity
Scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) and Stanford University have pinpointed the circuit in the brain that is responsible for sleepless nights in times of stress—and it turns out that circuit does more than make you toss and turn. Their study, done in mice, ties the same neuronal connections that trigger insomnia to stress-induced […]
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Vitamin B1 Deficiency a Key Factor in the Development of Alcohol-Related Dementia
Researchers hypothesize vitamin B1 (thiamine) deficiency may play a significant role in dementia associated with alcohol use disorder. It is known iron deposits in the brain contribute to neurodegenerative diseases. Those with AUD have elevated levels of both iron in their blood and thiamine deficiency. Thiamine is vital for maintaining the blood-brain barrier. Thiamine deficiency […]
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Imagery reveals autism-related brain differences
People with autism spectrum disorder have lower levels of a protein that regulates the amount of serotonin in the brain, a paper from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry reports. For their study, the researchers used a molecular brain imaging technique to compare people with and without autism; their results offer […]