Tag: neurobiology
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Nation & World
New ALS gene identified
A collaborative research effort spanning nearly a decade between Harvard researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and King’s College London (KCL) has identified a novel gene for inherited amyotrophic lateral…
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Nation & World
Alzheimer’s-associated plaques may have impact throughout the brain
The impact of the amyloid plaques that appear in the brains of patients with Alzheimer’s disease may extend beyond the deposits’ effects on neurons — the cells that transmit electrochemical…
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Nation & World
Fresh insight into retinitis pigmentosa
Rods and cones coexist peacefully in healthy retinas. Both types of cells occupy the same layer of tissue and send signals when they detect light, which is the first step…
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Nation & World
Another step forward in ALS and stem cell research
A Harvard Stem Cell Institute research team has succeeded in deriving spinal motor neurons from human embryonic stem cells, and has then used them to replicate the Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) disease process in a laboratory dish.
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Nation & World
Newly discovered class of mouse retinal cells detect upward motion
Harvard researchers have discovered a previously unknown type of retinal cell that plays an exclusive and unusual role in mice: detecting upward motion. The cells reflect their function in the…
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Nation & World
Transitivity, the orbitofrontal cortex, and neuroeconomics
You study the menu at a restaurant and decide to order the steak rather than the salmon. But when the waiter tells you about the lobster special, you decide lobster…
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Nation & World
Researchers create colorful “Brainbow” images of the nervous system
By activating multiple fluorescent proteins in neurons, neuroscientists at Harvard University are imaging the brain and nervous system as never before, rendering their cells in a riotous spray of colors dubbed a “Brainbow.”
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Nation & World
Scientists identify switch for brain’s natural anti-oxidant defense
Scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute report they have found how the brain turns on a system designed to protect its nerve cells from toxic “free radicals,” a waste product of…
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Nation & World
Important signal uncovered in brain development
Nobody has counted them, but the best estimates put the number of human brain cells in the trillions. The best known among them, called neurons, do the heavy thinking and…
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Nation & World
Attention shoppers: Researchers find neurons that encode the value of different goods
Researchers at Harvard Medical School report in the April 23, 2006 issue of Nature that they have identified neurons that encode the values that subjects assign to different items. The…
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Nation & World
Protein underlies brain’s response to activity
Experience helps shape the brain, but how that happens – how synapses are remodeled in response to activity – is one of neurobiology’s biggest mysteries. Though axons and dendrites can…
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Nation & World
Brain protein may play role in innate and learned fear
In a paper published in the November 2005 issue of Cell, researchers reported that the protein stathmin is essential for the fear response – both the expression of innate fear…
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Nation & World
An existing diuretic may suppress seizures in newborns
A diuretic drug called bumetanide may serendipitously help treat seizures in newborns, which are difficult to control with existing anticonvulsants, according to a study in the November 2005 Nature Medicine.…
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Nation & World
Seeing seeing in action
Harvard Medical School researchers are seeing what seeing does to the brains of animals and making images that show for the first time single brain cells working together. The work,…
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Nation & World
First view of many neurons processing information in living brain
A Harvard Medical School (HMS) research team used a new technique to obtain the first close-up look at the neural circuits that produce vision in cats and rats. “Put simply,…
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Nation & World
Newly identified gene linked to brain development
Bilateral frontoparietal polymicrogyria (BFPP) is a recessive genetic disorder resulting in severely abnormal architecture of the brain’s frontal lobes, as well as milder involvement of parietal and posterior parts of…
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Nation & World
The brains behind writer’s block
“It’s likely that writing and other creative work involve a push-pull interaction between the frontal and temporal lobes,” Harvard Medical School neurology instructor Alice Flaherty speculates. If the temporal lobe…
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Nation & World
Stages of memory described in study
“To initiate a memory is almost like creating a word processing file on a computer,” explains researcher Matthew Walker, instructor of psychiatry at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard…
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Nation & World
Anti-inflammatory drugs may reduce Parkinson’s disease risk
In the first study to investigate the potential benefit in humans of the use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) in reducing the risk of Parkinson’s disease, Harvard School of Public…
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Nation & World
Study finds neural stem cells are not rejected when transplanted
Most transplanted tissues are seen by the recipient as foreign and are attacked by the immune system, but certain parts of the body do not mount attacks against foreign tissue…
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Nation & World
Combination therapy shows promise for delaying progression of Lou Gehrig’s disease
In a study, researchers reported that the combination of minocycline and creatine resulted in additive neuroprotection in the case of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. After…
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Nation & World
Stem cells reduce brain damage
Mice with the kind of brain damage caused by strokes or cerebral palsy received implants of stem cells that resulted in the spontaneous replacement of many of the missing cells,…
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Nation & World
Chili peppers and inflammation
Researchers have discovered that the burinng pain of arthritis is similar to the pain associated with eating chili peppers. “The receptor activated by chili peppers in the mouth and other…
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Nation & World
Science illuminates art
Monet and other painters exploited the parallel visual processing of color and brightness. A sunset seems to shimmer, a field of poppies seems to wave, and a river seems to…
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Nation & World
Peripheral ‘Swatch’ watches are powerful force in modulating body’s circadian rhythms
Clinicians have known for years that organs function at different rates — the heart beats, kidneys transport ions and electrolytes, the liver metabolizes lipids, sugars, and amino acids differently over…
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Nation & World
Early exposure to Ritalin may blunt desire for cocaine later in life
There are several controversies surrounding the use of Ritalin, or methylphenidate, a stimulant prescribed for children who have an abnormally high level of activity or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).…
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Nation & World
The fruit fly fight club
Fruit flies fight. The males will go after each other, fighting to establish dominance. Edward Kravitz, the George Packer Berry professor of neurobiology at Harvard Medical School, is using the…
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Nation & World
Scientists look people in the ‘I’
Harvard researchers seek a scientific answer to a question posed by 16th century philosopher René Descartes: “What is this ‘I’ that I know?” “Understanding the brain essence of self-awareness helps…
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Nation & World
Rules for music wired into the brain
“Music is in our genes,” says Mark Jude Tramo, a musician, prolific songwriter, and neuroscientist at Harvard Medical School. “Many researchers like myself are trying to understand melody, harmony, rhythm,…