behavior

Controlling 'badly' behaving neurons may ease Parkinson's disease

Blocking or eliminating a specific potassium channel in a small group of brain cells may improve or prevent the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, a debilitating and progressive neurodegenerative disease that afflicts over 1 million people in the United States. In Parkinson’s disease, neurons that release dopamine die. The loss of dopamine causes an array of debilitating symptoms that include resting tremor, muscle rigidity and slowed movement.

Sport fishing consumption can affect gender behavior of children

Women’s exposure to environmental contaminants that mimic the activity of human sex hormones during prenatal development can affect the masculinity and femininity of their offspring, UB researchers have found. However, the results seem to point to a shared influence of the parents’ own gender-related behavior and exposure to the contaminants, which can act as “endocrine disrupters,” according to David E. Sandberg, Ph.D., UB associate professor of psychiatry and pediatrics and lead author on the research.