Neuroscience News

Alzheimer’s Amyloid-Beta and Tau Proteins Act as Prions, New Research Finds

The normal form of amyloid beta has been tagged with a yellow marker in these cells, making healthy cells a uniform pale yellow (left). Contact with prion forms of amyloid beta -- for example in extracts from human brain tissue -- forces these yellow proteins into the sticky prion form as well, leading to the formation of bright yellow clumps (right). Image credit: Prusiner Lab / UCSF Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases.
May 7, 2019 by News Staff

Prions are misfolded versions of a protein that can spread like an infection by forcing normal copies of that protein into the same self-propagating, misfolded shape. According to new research led by the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), Alzheimer’s disease is a double-prion disorder in which amyloid beta and tau proteins together destroy the brain. Using novel lab tests, UCSF researchers Stanley Prusiner and Carlo Condello and their...

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A brain-machine interface created Anumanchipalli et al can generate natural-sounding synthetic speech by using brain activity to control a virtual vocal tract. Image credit: University of California San Francisco.

Speech Synthesized from Brain Signals

Apr 29, 2019 by News Staff

A team of neuroscientists at the University of California San Francisco used brain signals recorded from epilepsy patients to program a computer to mimic...

Overview of observed standardized regression coefficients (b values) for the associations between total body fat and fractional anisotropy (FA)- and mean diffusivity (MD)-based DTI tracts for men and women. Standardized regression coefficients reflect the standard deviation (SD) change in FA and MD, respectively, per standard deviation (6.5% in women and 5.5% in men) change in total body fat. Results were adjusted for age, ethnicity, Townsend deprivation index, assessment center (baseline visit and imaging visit), smoking, alcohol use, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and intracranial volume. Image credit: Dekkers et al, doi: 10.1148/radiol.2019181012.

Excessive Body Fat Linked to Smaller Gray Matter Volume, New Study Says

Apr 25, 2019 by News Staff

A team of researchers in the Netherlands has found that higher levels of body fat are associated with differences in the form and structure of the brain,...

Left: topography of the predominantly contralateral beta oscillatory activity during rest periods predictive of micro-offline learning, indicated by the LME (linear mixed effects) model coefficient. Right: frontoparietal beta activity predicted micro-offline gains throughout the duration of early-learning rest periods. Image credit: Bönstrup et al, doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2019.02.049.

Study: Human Brain Uses Short Rest Periods to Strengthen Memories

Apr 16, 2019 by News Staff

In a study published in the journal Current Biology, a team of researchers from the United States, Switzerland and Israel found that taking short breaks,...

Davis et al detected BMAA in the cerebral cortex of stranded dolphins; they also report Alzheimer-like neurodegenerative changes in the brains of dolphins containing BMAA. Image credit: NASA.

Scientists Find Cyanobacterial Neurotoxin and Amyloid Plaques in Brains of Stranded Dolphins

Mar 29, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

High levels of BMAA (β-methylamino-L-alanine), a neurotoxin produced by cyanobacterial blooms, and beta-amyloid plaques, a hallmark in human beings of...

Wang et al report a strong, specific human brain response to ecologically-relevant rotations of Earth-strength magnetic fields. Image credit: Gerd Altmann.

First Neuroscientific Evidence that Humans Have Geomagnetic Sense

Mar 19, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

An international team of neuroscientists and geoscientists from Caltech, the University of Tokyo, Princeton University and Tokyo Institute of Technology...

Weiler et al show that, for postural hand control, even the fastest spinal feedback pathway can produce efficient corrective responses, forcing a re-evaluation of how the nervous system derives the control laws that support motor behavior. Image credit: Medium69 / Jmarchn.

Study: Spinal Cord Contributes to Sophisticated Hand Function

Feb 13, 2019 by News Staff

It is well known that neural circuits in the spinal cord control seemingly simple things like the pain reflex in humans, and some motor control functions...

Advance marks critical step toward brain-computer interface systems that hold immense promise for those with limited or no ability to speak. Image credit: Kai Kalhh.

Experimental Brain-Computer Interface Translates Brain Signals into Recognizable Speech

Jan 30, 2019 by News Staff

A team of researchers at Columbia University has developed a speech brain-computer interface system that translates brain signals into intelligible, recognizable...

The rocking bed used by the researchers. Image credit: Laurence Bayer and Aurore Perrault.

Rocking Boosts Deep Sleep and Memory Consolidation, Two New Studies Show

Jan 30, 2019 by News Staff

Two new studies, one of which was conducted in young adults and the other in mice, add to evidence for the benefits of a rocking motion during sleep. In...

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.

Neuroscientists Identify Neurons that Make Pain Unpleasant

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...

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...

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