Nervous System News

May 8, 2024

Top Headlines

Why Getting in Touch With Our 'Gerbil Brain' Could Help Machines Listen Better

May 7, 2024 — Researchers have debunked a 75-year-old theory about how humans determine where sounds are coming from, and it could unlock the secret to creating a next generation of more adaptable and efficient ...

'Wraparound' Implants Represent New Approach to Treating Spinal Cord Injuries

May 8, 2024 — A tiny, flexible electronic device that wraps around the spinal cord could represent a new approach to the treatment of spinal injuries, which can cause profound disability and paralysis. A team of ...

'Mathematical Microscope' Reveals Novel, Energy-Efficient Mechanism of Working Memory That Works Even During Sleep

May 8, 2024 — Researchers have discovered a mechanism that creates memories while reducing metabolic cost, even during sleep. This efficient memory occurs in a part of the brain that is crucial for learning and ...

Promising New Treatment Strategy for Deadly Flu-Related Brain Disorders

May 2, 2024 — Researchers have found that a brain disorder associated with flu (influenza-associated encephalopathy, or IAE) can be caused by the influenza virus entering the brain from the blood via endothelial cells. In these cells, the researchers observed ...

Latest Headlines

updated 5:47pm EDT

Breakthrough Paves the Way for Next Generation of Vision Implants

May 7, 2024 — A group of researchers have created an exceptionally small implant, with electrodes the size of a single neuron that can also remain intact in the body over time -- a unique combination that holds ...

New Study Reveals Age-Related Brain Changes Influence Recovery After Stroke

May 6, 2024 — A new study has revealed that areas of age-related damage in the brain relate to motor outcomes after a stroke -- a phenomenon that may be under-recognized in stroke research. The new observational ...

Small Molecule Shows Early-Stage Promise for Repairing Myelin Sheath Damage

May 2, 2024 — A breakthrough study appears to overcome difficulties that have long frustrated previous attempts to reverse a form of nerve damage that robs people with MS of motor control and gradually blunts ...

Research Breakthrough on Birth Defect Affecting Brain Size

May 1, 2024 — A team has identified a molecular cellular mechanism that is linked to microencephaly, a condition in which a baby's head is much smaller than ...

Wake Up and Die: Human Brain Neurons Re-Entering the Cell Cycle Age Quickly Shift to Senescence

Apr. 23, 2024 — Post-mitotic neurons in the brain that re-enter the cell cycle quickly succumb to senescence, and this re-entry is more common in Alzheimer's ...

Neurons Spoil Your Appetite

Apr. 24, 2024 — A brain circuit inhibits food intake during ...

Brainless Memory Makes the Spinal Cord Smarter Than Previously Thought

Apr. 11, 2024 — Researchers have discovered the neural circuitry in the spinal cord that allows brain-independent motor learning. The study found two critical groups of spinal cord neurons, one necessary for new ...

Food in Sight? The Liver Is Ready!

Apr. 25, 2024 — What happens in the body when we are hungry and see and smell food? A team of researchers has now been able to show in mice that adaptations in the liver mitochondria take place after only a few ...

After Spinal Cord Injury, Neurons Wreak Havoc on Metabolism

Apr. 24, 2024 — Conditions such as diabetes, heart attack and vascular diseases commonly diagnosed in people with spinal cord injuries can be traced to abnormal post-injury neuronal activity that causes abdominal ...

In the Brain, Bursts of Beta Rhythms Implement Cognitive Control

Apr. 23, 2024 — Bursts of brain rhythms with 'beta' frequencies control where and when neurons in the cortex process sensory information and plan responses. Studying these bursts would improve understanding of ...

Perfect Balance: How the Brain Fine-Tunes Its Sensitivity

Apr. 18, 2024 — A sensitive perception of the environment is crucial for guiding our behavior. However, an overly sensitive response of the brain's neural circuits to stimuli can lead to neurodevelopmental ...

Paper: To Understand Cognition--and Its Dysfunction--Neuroscientists Must Learn Its Rhythms

Apr. 17, 2024 — Thought emerges and is controlled in the brain via the rhythmically and spatially coordinated activity of millions of neurons, scientists argue in a new article. Understanding cognition and its ...

Protecting Brain Cells With Cannabinol

Apr. 17, 2024 — Scientists created four cannabis-derived CBN analogs (chemical look-a-likes) with enhanced neuroprotective properties and potential for therapeutic application in neurological disorders like ...

Workings of Working Memory Detailed

Apr. 17, 2024 — Investigators have discovered how brain cells responsible for working memory -- the type required to remember a phone number long enough to dial it -- coordinate intentional focus and short-term ...

Physical Activity Reduces Stress-Related Brain Activity to Lower Cardiovascular Disease Risk

Apr. 15, 2024 — Over a ten-year period, biobank participants who met recommended levels of physical activity had a 23% lower risk of cardiovascular disease, and the protective effects were even more pronounced in ...

Team Demonstrates Miniature Brain Stimulator in Humans

Apr. 12, 2024 — Engineers have developed the smallest implantable brain stimulator demonstrated in a human patient that could revolutionize treatment for drug-resistant depression and other psychiatric or ...

Parkinson's Disease: New Theory on the Disease's Origins and Spread

Apr. 11, 2024 — New hypothesis paper builds on a growing scientific consensus that Parkinson's disease route to the brain starts in either the nose or the gut and proposes that environmental toxicants are the ...

Researchers Discover How We Perceive Bitter Taste

Apr. 10, 2024 — A new study reveals the detailed protein structure of the TAS2R14, a bitter taste receptor that allows us to perceive bitter taste. In addition to solving the structure of this taste receptor, the ...

Tiny Brain Bubbles Carry Complete Codes

Apr. 8, 2024 — Scientists discovered that the biological instructions within these vesicles differed significantly in postmortem brain samples donated from patients suffering from Alzheimer's ...

RNA That Doesn't Age

Apr. 5, 2024 — Certain RNA molecules in the nerve cells in the brain last a life time without being renewed. Neuroscientists have now demonstrated that this. RNAs are generally short-lived molecules that are ...

Nerve Cells Not Entirely 'Young at Heart'

Apr. 4, 2024 — Most human nerve cells last a lifetime without renewal. A trait echoed within the cells' components, some enduring as long as the organism ...

Organoids Reveal How to Protect the Brain Against Dementia and ALS Following Traumatic Injury, According to Study

Apr. 4, 2024 — A traumatic brain injury (TBI) can quadruple your risk for developing dementia and increase your chances of developing neurodegenerative diseases such as ALS. In a new study scientists use lab-grown ...

Researchers Map How the Brain Regulates Emotions

Apr. 3, 2024 — A new study is among the first of its kind to separate activity relating to emotion generation from emotion regulation in the human brain. The findings provide new insights that could help inform ...

How the Brain Senses Body Position and Movement

Apr. 2, 2024 — Researchers use neural networks to study proprioception, the sense the brain uses to 'know' the body's movement and ...

Reverse Effects of Trauma? Older Brain Cells Linger Unexpectedly Before Their Death

Mar. 28, 2024 — Researchers report that mature oligodendrocytes -- the central nervous system cells critical for brain function -- cling to life following a fatal trauma for much, much longer than scientists knew. ...

Could AI Play a Role in Locating Damage to the Brain After Stroke?

Mar. 27, 2024 — Artificial intelligence (AI) may serve as a future tool for neurologists to help locate where in the brain a stroke occurred. In a new study, AI processed text from health histories and neurologic ...

Study Finds High Prevalence of Hidden Brain Changes in People With Heart Disease

Mar. 26, 2024 — A new analysis involving over 13,000 people has found changes to blood vessels in the brain that can increase the risk of stroke and dementia are common in people with a range of heart conditions, ...

Developmental Crossroads in the Brain

Mar. 26, 2024 — Study reveals how proteins direct nerve cell precursors to turn into specialized ...

Insulin Affects the Recycling of Cellular Power Plants

Mar. 25, 2024 — In nerve cells, the hormone regulates whether mitochondria are shut down or kept ...

Movement Disorder ALS and Cognitive Disorder FTLD Show Strong Molecular Overlaps, New Study Shows

Mar. 22, 2024 — Single-cell gene expression patterns in the brain motor and frontal cortex, and evidence from follow-up experiments, reveal many shared cellular and molecular similarities that could be targeted for ...