The deepest parts of the ocean are dark. For marine animals living one thousand feet below sea level and lower, the absence of light makes it challenging to find food, attract a mate, and identify predators. Some animals make their own light through a process called bioluminescence. Others have adapted in ways that help them detect light in an environment beyond the reach of the sun's...
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The human brain undergoes extraordinary development in utero, with major growth continuing throughout childhood, especially during the first year. Scientists know a lot about how the neurons and circuits of the human brain develop in infancy, but a lack of specific knowledge about key elements has left doctors mystified by certain childhood disorders like SIDS and autism. Neuroscientists at Ludwig-Maximillians-University of Munich have made new revelations...
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[caption id="attachment_5185" align="aligncenter" width="584"] The granule cell layer of the dentate gyrus. Image provided by Mark Maynard.[/caption] Binge drinking damages brain regions responsible for memory, decision-making, and behavioral control. After a binge, the brain begins to heal itself but not much is known about this self-repair process. In a study published in PLoS ONE, researchers used rats to find that binge drinking damages the hippocampus, and...
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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...
Read More 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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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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The placenta delivers nutrients from a mother's blood to a developing fetus. It also produces hormones that help the baby grow during its forty or so weeks in utero. But the placenta's powerhouse abilities don't end there. The organ provides a wealth of information about the infant's future health, allowing doctors to make predictions about whether or not the child will develop autism or, later...
Read More If one area isn't working, another part can step in. Plasticity is one of the brain's most beautiful attributes. Recent research has documented the organ's ability to compensate in the face of damage, and now a new study identifies a key region for compensation when the damage occurs in the hippocampus. The region is the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). It's an integral part of the hippocampal-prefrontal-amygdala...
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