Social isolation is stressful. Scientists have known it for decades. They also know that isolation causes changes to occur in the brains of rodents and primates. But most studies examine the effects of isolation during childhood; and the ones that do focus on adulthood tend to use male subjects. For the first time, researchers in Spain show that long-term social isolation causes part of the...
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A montage of three images of single striatal neurons transfected with a disease-associated version of huntingtin, the protein that causes Huntington's disease; By: Dr. Steven Finkbeiner, Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease, The Taube-Koret Center for Huntington's Disease Research, and the University of California San Francisco; licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license. Patients with Huntington's disease deteriorate physically, cognitively, and emotionally. There is no cure for the inherited...
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Gaunt facial features and a frighteningly thin figure are physical hallmarks of anorexia nervosa, an eating disorder that predominantly affects adolescent girls. But in addition to extreme weight loss, changes take place that aren't as visually apparent. For the first time, scientists in New York have found evidence of brain plasticity in the activity-based anorexia (ABA) mouse model. Led by Dr. Chiye Aoki of New York...
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Humans and gorillas are approximately 98% identical on a genetic level, however there is little published research exploring Alzheimer's disease pathology in gorillas. A new paper reports that gorillas display similarities in advanced age to humans ̶ including the presence of Alzheimer's disease precursors like amyloid-beta (Aβ) plaques and tau lesions. The study, published in the Journal of Comparative Neurology, provides evidence of Alzheimer's disease precursors in the western...
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Foods like tuna fish and Brazil nuts are rich in selenium, a mineral that scientists say has antioxidant effects, keeping the brain healthy and free of clutter so cells can work smoothly together. A key element of this process is Selenoprotein P (Sepp1) – a protein that delivers selenium to neurons by binding with another protein – ApoER2. Neuroscientists at the University of Hawaii say...
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Scientists hypothesize that during puberty, experiences influence brain development in ways that shape brain structure and even behavior in adulthood. One type of experience that often arises in the minds of pubescent teens and adolescents is sex. But a study published in the journal Hormones and Behavior suggests engaging in sexual activity too soon could be detrimental to the adult brain, and may lead to...
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Each year, nearly ninety thousand children are born extremely premature in the United States – that is, before 28 weeks gestation. Most of them survive, but about half the survivors suffer from severe health problems throughout their childhood and into adulthood, including learning and behavioral disorders such as ADHD. “Treatment options are clearly urgently required to prevent the brain damage and associated memory deficits that follow...
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When it comes to health, kidneys are critical. From regulating blood composition to maintaining calcium levels, the pair of bean-shaped organs perform several essential tasks. Needless to say, interruption to kidney function can be disastrous. Working with scientists in South Korea, researchers at the University of Virginia found a surprisingly simple treatment for renal ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) in mice, which is a model of acute kidney...
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A new optical clearing agent developed by scientists in Japan clears brain tissue samples with greater transparency and less time than other clearing agents, according to a paper published in Nature Neuroscience. “Combined with two-photon microscopy, SeeDB allowed us to image fixed mouse brains at the millimeter-scale level,” say the authors, who after clearing the brain tissue with SeeDB, captured images with a multiphoton Olympus microscope,...
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Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have found that formoterol ̶ an FDA-approved drug for treating asthma and similar respiratory disorders ̶ improves cognitive function in mice genetically altered to exhibit symptoms of Down syndrome including cognitive disability. Formoterol was chosen for the study because it activates β2 adrenergic receptors (β2ARs) on neurons, a task also carried out by norepinephrine, a neurotransmitter with a...
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