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

Caltech scientists have answered a long-debated question about the role of serotonin in relation to sleep, finding that it IS necessary for sleep in Zebrafish and mouse models.   The work is a collaboration between the Caltech laboratories of David Prober, professor of biology and affiliated faculty member of TCCI® at Caltech and Viviana Gradinaru, […]

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) affects an estimated one in 59 people in the United States, causing a variety of difficulties with social communication and repetitive behavior. Many factors, including genetic and environmental effects, are believed to influence symptoms, and there are no approved treatments. Now, using mouse models, Caltech researchers have discovered that gut bacteria […]

Yuki Oka, an assistant professor of biology and Chen Scholar at Caltech, wanted to better understand how the brain processes satiation and pleasure signals related to drinking. He was curious for example why, after you have exercised on a hot day, a cool glass of water will quench your thirst immediately—even before your body has […]

New research conducted by Dean Mobbs, assistant professor of cognitive neuroscience at Caltech shows that individuals with anxiety escape distant threats of danger sooner. The study appeared online May 20 in the journal Human Nature Behavior and was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health and the Tianqiao & Chrissy Chen Institute for Neuroscience.   Read more […]

Seeking to discover basic limits on the brain’s plasticity, a new Caltech study discovered that learning is indeed easier when related to skills one already has because pre-existing neuronal structure constrains what one can learn. In other words, it is likely that the skills we already have developed restrict what we can learn easily in […]