Brain

Millions of adults over age 50 struggle each year with vision loss caused by damage to the retina or common macular degeneration.

Physics researchers at The University of Texas at Arlington have developed a new platform that uses ultrafast near-infrared lasers to deliver gene therapy to damaged areas of the retina to enable vision restoration in patients with photo-degenerative diseases.

The drugs of tomorrow may be discovered by computers. A proof-of-concept study published December 23 in Cell Systems demonstrates that with the right input of data about infectious yeast, a machine algorithm can learn to identify combinations of existing and previously unknown compounds that can work together as antifungal agents. While the method needs to be perfected, it's a new approach to combat infectious disease with the potential to rapidly identify combinations of agents that might help overcome drug resistance.

Researchers at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine have created the first complete model to describe the role that serotonin plays in brain development and structure. Serotonin, also called 5-hydroxytryptamine [5-HT], is an important neuromodulator of brain development and the structure and function of neuronal (nerve cell) circuits. The results were published in the current issue of The Journal of Neurophysiology online.

In new research published in the prestigious journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a team of scientists from the Hebrew University Hadassah Medical School, in the Faculty of Medicine, unraveled a longstanding mystery of a fundamental property of the brain.

An occasional late-night raid on turkey leftovers might be harmless but new research with mice suggests that making a habit of it could alter brain physiology.

Eating at times normally reserved for sleep causes a deficiency in the type of learning and memory controlled by the hippocampal area of the brain, according to findings in the journal eLife.

A woman who was thought to have treatment-resistant depression was later found to have a tumour in her brain, according to an article published in BMJ Case Reports.

The 54-year-old woman had been depressed for 6 months, but treatment with the antidepressant fluoxetine and the anti-anxiety medication bromazepam was discontinued after 5 months because these were not found to be effective.

Her symptoms included apathy, difficulties with making decisions and initiating action, a lack of energy, sleep disorders, and concentration and attention problems.

Chronic stress can lead to changes in neural circuitry that leave the brain trapped in states of anxiety and depression. But even under repeated stress, brief opportunities for recovery can open up, according to new research at The Rockefeller University.

From before birth through childhood, connections form between neurons in the brain, ultimately making us who we are. So far, scientists have gained a relatively good understanding of how neural circuits become established, but they know less about the genetic control at play during this crucial developmental process.

How should a concerned mother discuss issues of diet and weight with her daughter? Very carefully, according to Erin Hillard, a developmental psychology doctoral student at the University of Notre Dame.

AUGUSTA, Ga. - Inside the brain, a protein called YAP, best known for its ability to help right-size our developing hearts and livers, appears to have the different but equally important task of helping control inflammation.

Scientists at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University have shown that it's not size that seems to matter to YAP, or yes-associated protein, in the brain. Rather, YAP keeps our astrocytes, a type of brain cell that typically protects and nourishes neurons, from becoming too reactive and essentially turning on our neurons.

A new study at Massachusetts Eye and Ear showed that in some cases of vestibular schwannoma, a sometimes-lethal tumor often associated with neurofibromatosis 2 (NF2), secretions from the tumor contain toxic molecules that damage the inner ear. The findings, published online in Scientific Reports, explain why some vestibular schwannomas cause hearing loss even though they are not large enough to compress nearby structures that control hearing.

Kyoto, Japan -- Researchers can now reconstruct what we see in our minds when we navigate -- and explain how we get directions wrong.

The brain helps us navigate by continually generating, rationalizing, and analyzing great amounts of in-formation. For example, this innate GPS-like function helps us find our way in cities, follow directions to a specific destination, or go to a particular restaurant to satisfy a craving.

Artificial Neural Network (ANN) is a type of information processing system based on mimicking the principles of biological brains, and has been broadly applied in application domains such as pattern recognition, automatic control, signal processing, decision support system and artificial intelligence. Spiking Neural Network (SNN) is a type of biologically-inspired ANN that perform information processing based on discrete-time spikes. It is more biologically realistic than classic ANNs, and can potentially achieve much better performance-power ratio.

After a brain injury (caused by stroke or hemorrhage, for example), patients may have difficulty imitating gestures and movements of others (ideomotor apraxia). In the history of neuropsychology, these studies are among the best known (the first date back to the early 1900's) as these deficits hinder therapy aimed at recovering motor skills, since the patient cannot perform gestures by imitating the doctor. In the last twenty years, these studies have found new significance thanks to the discovery of mirror neurons, and yet little is known about these processes.

Are humans the only ones who are able to remember events that they had experienced and mentally time travel not only into the past but also the future? Or do animals have the same capacity? To a certain extend, according to three researchers who are contributing a new theoretical model to this long-standing discussion. They published their results in the journal Neuroscience and Behavioral Reviews.

Episodic memory is a component of mental time travel