Neuroscience News

Neuroscientists Identify Neurons that Make Pain Unpleasant

The unpleasantness of pain is an emotional phenomenon distinct from pain’s sensory qualities. To study how the brain processes pain-related emotions, Corder et al used neural calcium imaging in freely behaving mice. The team identified brain circuits that respond to pain and directly tested their causal role in motivational behaviors associated with acute and chronic pain. Image credit: Corder et al, doi: 10.1126/science.aap8586.
Jan 22, 2019 by News Staff

Pain sensation and the emotional experience of pain are not the same. A research team at Stanford University has now identified a group of neurons in mice responsible for the latter. The unpleasantness of pain is an emotional phenomenon distinct from pain’s sensory qualities. To study how the brain processes pain-related emotions, Corder et al used neural calcium imaging in freely behaving mice. The team identified brain circuits that respond to...

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ExLLSM (expansion/lattice light-sheet microscopy) images neural structures with molecular contrast over millimeter-scale volumes, including (clockwise from top right) mouse pyramidal neurons and their processes; organelle morphologies in somata; dendritic spines and synaptic proteins across the cortex; stereotypy of projection neuron boutons in Drosophila; projection neurons traced to the central complex; and (center) dopaminergic neurons across the brain, including the ellipsoid body (circular inset). Image credit: Gao et al, doi: 10.1126/science.aau8302.

Powerful New 3D-Imaging Technique Maps Fruit Fly and Mouse Brains in Unprecedented Detail

Jan 18, 2019 by News Staff

A revolutionary new technique combines a rapid 3D microscopy technique known as lattice light-sheet microscopy with expansion microscopy for nanoscale...

When we remember a past event, the brain reconstructs that experience in reverse order. Image credit: Gerd Altmann.

Study Shows How Human Brain Reconstructs Memories

Jan 14, 2019 by News Staff

Remembering is a reconstructive process, yet little is known about how the reconstruction of a memory unfolds in time in the brain. In a study published...

Ribic et al discovered a new molecular mechanism that is essential for brain maturation and may be used to restore plasticity in aged brains. Image credit: Adema Ribic / Tufts University School of Medicine.

Neuroscientists Uncover Way to Restore Cortical Plasticity in Mature Brain

Jan 9, 2019 by News Staff

In a study on mice, a team of researchers from Tufts University School of Medicine and Yale University School of Medicine has discovered a molecular mechanism...

In a proposed neuromodulation device, two of the new chips would be embedded in a chassis located outside the head. Each chip could monitor electrical activity from 64 electrodes located into the brain while simultaneously delivering electrical stimulation to prevent unwanted seizures or tremors. Image credit: Rikky Muller / University of California, Berkeley.

Researchers Develop Wireless ‘Pacemaker for the Brain’

Jan 8, 2019 by News Staff

A team of researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, has developed a novel neurostimulator that can listen to and stimulate electric current...

Thanarajah et al combined functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and positron emission tomography (PET) to assess the brain’s response to food intake and discovered immediate and delayed dopamine release in distinct areas of the human brain; the study authors also identified areas where dopamine release reflected subjective wanting to eat, shedding light on how the brain transforms energetic signals into the desire to eat. Image credit: Thanaraja et al, doi: 10.1016/j.cmet.2018.12.006.

Study: Our Brain Rewards Us Twice Per Meal

Jan 2, 2019 by News Staff

Our brain rewards us for every meal by releasing dopamine, a neurotransmitter that plays a starring role in motivating behavior. According to a new study,...

The new study by Burke Quinla et al suggests that the experience of chronic peer victimization during adolescence might induce psychopathology-relevant deviations from normative brain development. Early peer victimization interventions could prevent such pathological changes. Image credit: Alexas Fotos.

Study: Bullying Affects Structure of Adolescent Brain

Dec 17, 2018 by News Staff

Chronic peer victimization during adolescence impacts mental health via structural brain changes, according to new research published in the journal Molecular...

He et al found that a single workout can activate POMC neurons (shown in green in yellow) for up to 2 days; these neurons are important regulators of blood glucose levels and energy balance. Image credit: He et al, doi: 10.1016/j.molmet.2018.08.011.

Exercise Can Boost Metabolism, Animal Study Shows

Dec 7, 2018 by News Staff

A new study shows neurons in mice that influence metabolism are active for up to two days after a single workout. The study, published in the journal Molecular...

In fruit flies, dopamine neurons regulate both learning and forgetting. Berry et al identify a locus for the storage and retrieval of a short-term memory trace and show that a single dopamine neuron regulates both formation and disruption of this trace. Image credit: Berry et al, doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2018.09.051.

Neuroscientists Decode Physiological Mechanism of Remembering and Forgetting

Nov 30, 2018 by News Staff

In a study of fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster), a team of researchers from the Scripps Research Institute Florida has shown the physiological mechanism...

The endorestiform nucleus is found near the brain-spinal cord junction. Image credit: George Paxinos, Neuroscience Research Australia.

Australian Neuroscientist Discovers Hidden Region in Human Brain: Endorestiform Nucleus

Nov 23, 2018 by News Staff

Professor George Paxinos from Neuroscience Research Australia has discovered a hidden region of the human brain. The endorestiform nucleus is found near...

MRI study reveals that repeated blows to the head cause microscopic changes in young football players’ brains. Image credit: Andzelika Tokarska.

Playing High School Football Can Cause Microstructural Changes in Gray Matter, MRI Study Reveals

Nov 21, 2018 by News Staff

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) brain scans have revealed that playing a single season of high school football can cause significant microscopic changes...

Arshamian et al examined the effect of respiration on consolidation of episodic odor memory.

Study: Breathing through Nose Enhances Memory Consolidation in Humans

Oct 25, 2018 by Enrico de Lazaro

Nose breathing improves the transfer of experience to long-term memory, according to a new study published in the journal JNeurosci. Arshamian et al examined...

The entrainment of theta brain waves with a commercially available device boosts memory performance. Image credit: Gerd Altmann.

Theta-Wave Entrainment Device Improves Episodic Memory

Oct 24, 2018 by News Staff

According to new research from the University of California, Davis, the entrainment of theta brain waves with a commercially available device not only...

Brain mapping helps neuroscientists understand how specific areas function and how to create new drugs and targeted treatments. Image credit: Jim Stanis and Tyler Ard, USC Mark and Mary Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute.

Neuroscientists Create Most Detailed Map Ever of Hippocampus

Oct 12, 2018 by News Staff

A team of neuroscientists at the University of Southern California Mark and Mary Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute has produced the most detailed...

Brain areas reflecting choice set value: areas shown in red to yellow exhibit a linear increase in fMRI activity as a function of S during the exposure stage of the pooled choice trials. Image credit: Reutskaja et al, doi: 10.1038/s41562-018-0440-2.

Neuroscientists Identify Brain Areas Responsible for Choice Overload

Oct 8, 2018 by News Staff

Scientists have long known that we are overwhelmed by too many choices. Now, Caltech Professor Colin Camerer and co-authors have discovered what’s happening...

Dr. David Ferrier’s monkey brain map, 1874: the highlighted area labeled ‘EF’ is the area he observed to cause eye and head movements when electrically stimulated.

Neuroscientists Find Brain Area Linked to High-Risk Behavior

Sep 26, 2018 by News Staff

Rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) who learned how to gamble have helped neuroscientists locate an area of the brain linked to risky behavior. The findings,...

Microscopy image of OLM cells. Scale bar - 20 µm. Image credit: Mikulovic et al, doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-05907-w.

Neuroscientists Find ‘Bravery Neurons’ in Hippocampus

Sep 10, 2018 by News Staff

An international group of neuroscientists from Sweden and Brazil has found that some cells in a brain area called hippocampus play a key role in risk-taking...

In people with bipolar disorder, the left side of the amygdala is less active and less connected with other parts of the brain than in people with depression. Image credit: Westmead Institute for Medical Research.

Amygdala Neurons Could Hold Key to Accurately Diagnosing Unipolar Depression, Bipolar Disorder

Sep 6, 2018 by News Staff

A team of scientists, led by Dr. Mayuresh Korgaonkar of the Westmead Institute for Medical Research and the University of Sydney, used MRI scanning to...

Drivers of brain aging. Image credit: Daniel G. Amen.

Scientists Identify Drivers of Brain Aging

Aug 30, 2018 by News Staff

In a large brain imaging study published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, a team of neuroscientists and psychiatrists evaluated over 60,000 brain...

A reconstruction of a rosehip neuron. Image credit: Tamas Lab, University of Szeged.

New Type of Human Neuron Discovered: Rosehip Neuron

Aug 29, 2018 by News Staff

An international team of neuroscientists from the United States and Hungary has uncovered a new type of human brain cell that has never been seen in mice...

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