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神经元可通过调节自身代谢减缓变性过程
一部分的神经退行性病变由线粒体的代谢障碍所引起。线粒体对维持神经元的正常供能尤为重要,而许多理论都认为,当线粒体的代谢出了问题,那么神经元的变性和死亡将不可避免,因为神经元几乎不具备通过调整自身代谢状况来适应外界剧烈变化的能力。在对变性神经元的全蛋白组进行分析后,该团队发现,上述这种观点是有误的。事实上,当线粒体的功能产生障碍时,神经元内的代谢过程会发生重组,开始进行三羧酸循环回补反应。这一适应性改变能减缓神经元变性的进程,如果终止该反应,神经元便会迅速死亡。对神经元这种代谢上的适应能力的理解有助于线粒体异常类神经疾病的靶向药开发。
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To Perceive Faces, Your Brain Relies on a Process Similar to Computer Face Recognition Systems
Some patients with a disorder called hemi-PMO see distortions in the same half of a person’s face, regardless of the angle they view the face. Findings suggest the visual system standardizes all the faces we perceive using the same process, so they can be better compared to faces we have seen before.
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Head Movements Control the Activity of Primary Visual Cortex in a Luminance-Dependent Manner
The vestibular system broadcasts head-movement-related signals to sensory areas throughout the brain, including visual cortex. These signals are crucial for the brain’s ability to assess whether motion of the visual scene results from the animal’s head movements. However, how head movements affect visual cortical circuits remains poorly understood. Here, we discover that ambient luminance profoundly […]
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ADAPTATION IN SINGLE NEURONS PROVIDES MEMORY FOR LANGUAGE PROCESSING
To understand language, we have to remember the words that were uttered and combine them into an interpretation. How does the brain retain information long enough to accomplish this, despite the fact that neuronal firing events are very short-lived? Hartmut Fitz from the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics and his colleagues propose a neurobiological explanation […]
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Survival Mechanism Activated by the Brain in Conditions of Uncertainty
A new Tel Aviv University study examined the brain’s reactions in conditions of uncertainty and stressful conflict in an environment of risks and opportunities. The researchers identified the areas of the brain responsible for the delicate balance between desiring gain and avoiding loss along the way.
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Pinpointing the cells that keep the body’s master circadian clock ticking
UT Southwestern scientists have developed a genetically engineered mouse and imaging system that lets them visualize fluctuations in the circadian clocks of cell types in mice. The method, described online in the journal Neuron, gives new insight into which brain cells are important in maintaining the body’s master circadian clock. But they say the approach […]
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Hormones control paternal interest in offspring
Basing their research on an unexpected interspecies difference between rats and mice, researchers at Karolinska Institute and Stockholm University have mapped a system in the brain that controls paternal behaviour towards offspring. A key component in this behaviour is the hormone prolactin, which prepares females for motherhood and has now been shown to control paternal […]
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Evidence in mice that electroacupuncture reduces inflammation via specific neural pathways
Stimulating the nervous system using small electric current by acupuncture could tamp down systemic inflammation in the body, suggests new research in mice from a team of neuroscientists in the U.S. and China. The research, publishing August 12 in the journal Neuron, helps to map the neuroanatomical underpinnings of this ancient medical practice.
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New theory suggests autism may not be tied to mind blindness
Tracking the extent to which other people think differently from yourself appears to be more relevant than understanding someone else’s thoughts per se. Neuroscientists at Ghent University and the University of New South Wales (Sydney) came to this conclusion.