Brain

Researchers from the Biomedical Engineering Department of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey recently demonstrated the use of their "Brain-on-a-Chip" microsystem to assess specific effects of traumatic axonal injury. While their model uses the three dimensional cell structure and networks found in intact animals, it is capable of visualizing individual axons and their responses to mechanical injury. This is done by utilizing organotypic slices taken from specific areas in the brain that are susceptible to injury during a traumatic brain injury event.

Aberrant Wnt signaling is possibly related to the pathological changes in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Axin and β-catenin protein is closely related to Wnt signaling. Zhou Hua and his team, Hubei University of Chinese Medicine, China confirmed that moxibustion or electroacupuncture, or both, at Baihui (GV20) and Shenshu (BL23) acupoints decreased axin protein expression, increased β-catenin protein expression, and alleviated neuronal cytoplasmic edema.

Chemokine receptor 4 is a chemokine receptor that participates in tumor occurrence, growth and metastasis in vitro and its expression is upregulated during neuroblastoma metastasis. Dr. Xin Chen, the Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University, China successfully constructed chemokine receptor 4 sequence-specific small interfering RNA (siRNA) plasmids, transfected into SH-SY5Y cells and found that down-regulation of chemokine receptor 4 can inhibit in vitro invasion of neuroblastoma. This paper was published in Neural Regeneration Research (Vol. 9, No.

Accumulating evidence has demonstrated that the sodium-potassium-chloride co-transporter 1 (NKCC1) and potassium-chloride co-transporter 2 (KCC2) have a role in the modulation of pain transmission at the spinal level through chloride regulation in the pain pathway and by effecting neuronal excitability and pain sensitization. Dr. Yanbing He Zhujiang Hospital, Southern Medical University, China and his team found that intrathecal bumetanide could increase NKCC1 expression and decrease KCC2 expression in spinal cord neurons of rats with incisional pain.

Accumulating evidence suggests that the nucleus accumbens, which is involved in mechanisms of reward and addiction, plays a role in the pathogenesis of depression and in the action of antidepressants. Dandan Liu and her team, Bio-X Institute, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China for the first time using electrophysiological method studied the signaling transduction pathway mediated by dopamine D2-like receptor in the medium spiny neurons in the core of the nucleus accumbens in the juvenile Wistar Kyoto rat model of depression.

Birdsongs automatically decoded by computer scientists

Scientists from Queen Mary University of London have found a successful way of identifying bird sounds from large audio collections, which could be useful for expert and amateur bird-watchers alike.

The analysis used recordings of individual birds and of dawn choruses to identify characteristics of bird sounds. It took advantage of large datasets of sound recordings provided by the British Library Sound Archive, and online sources such as the Dutch archive called Xeno Canto.

MINNEAPOLIS – Even mild traumatic brain injury may cause brain damage and thinking and memory problems, according to a study published in the July 16, 2014, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

From a cognitive perspective, aging is typically associated with decline. As we age, it may get harder to remember names and dates, and it may take us longer to come up with the right answer to a question.

But the news isn't all bad when it comes to cognitive aging, according to a set of three articles in the July 2014 issue of Perspectives in Psychological Science.

An international team of paleontologists has identified the exquisitely preserved brain in the fossil of one of the world's first known predators that lived in the Lower Cambrian, about 520 million years ago. The discovery revealed a brain that is surprisingly simple and less complex than those known from fossils of some of the animal's prey.

Obese women were better able to identify cues that predict monetary rewards than those that predict food rewards, according to a study by Yale School of Medicine researchers and their colleagues in the journal Current Biology. The findings could result in specific behavioral interventions to treat obesity.

EUGENE, Ore. – (July 16, 2014) – A new study by researchers at the University of Oregon published today in the journal Neuron describes a brainstem circuit in mice that may help explain how active movement impacts the way the brain processes sensory information.

Does practice really make perfect? It's an age-old question, and a new study from Rice University, Princeton University and Michigan State University finds that while practice won't make you perfect, it will usually make you better at what you're practicing.

The repetitive facilitation exercise (RFE) is one of the most common rehabilitation tactics for stroke patients attempting to regain wrist movement. Stroke hemiparesis individuals are not able to move that part of their body because they cannot create a strong enough neural signal that travels from the brain to the wrist.

BEER-SHEVA, ISRAEL July 16, 2014... While the Mediterranean diet may have broad health benefits, its impact on cognitive decline differs among race-specific populations, according to a new study published in the Journal of Gerontology.

Stem cells can substitute the lost cells after central nervous system injury, decrease nervous tissue damage and promote neurofunctional recovery. Many brain injury models, including middle cerebral artery occlusion and traumatic brain injury models, have confirmed that neural stem cells (NSCs) can migrate from subventricular zone to injured cerebral cortex. But the mechanism underlying activation of endogenous NSCs in the ischemic brain remains unclear. Dr.