Skip to content

Search for:

Featured Blogs
Topics
Our Substack
Follow Us!
- Bluesky
- Threads
- FaceBook
- Google News
- Twitter/X
Contribute/Contact

neuroscience

human brain illustration

Scientists ‘Write’ New Learning Patterns Directly into the Human Brain

Categories Brain & Behavior

Scientists discover a new pathway to long-term memory formation in the brain that can bypass the formation of short-term memory.

Scientists Reveal Direct Path to Long-Term Memory Formation, Bypassing Short-Term Memory

Categories Brain & Behavior

Brain music illustration

Brain’s Musical Rhythm and Language Skills Share Deep Genetic Roots

Categories Brain & Behavior

infographic

AI Outpaces Brain Experts at Predicting Study Results

Categories Brain & Behavior, Technology

MIT scientists find that motor neuron growth increased significantly over 5 days in response to biochemical (left) and mechanical (right) signals related to exercise. The green ball represents cluster of neurons that grow outward in long tails, or axons.

Neurons Grow Faster When Muscles Exercise, MIT Study Reveals

Categories Brain & Behavior, Health

Suspicious protein molecules and fibrils aggregate on nerve cells in dementia. Illustration: Empa

Scientists Identify ‘Superspreader’ Proteins That May Drive Alzheimer’s Progression

Categories Brain & Behavior

visual clutter illustration (Illustration by Michael S. Helfenbein)

Visual Clutter Disrupts Brain’s Information Processing, Yale Study Reveals

Categories Brain & Behavior

Neha Sapkal does research to understand the neural code of stopping in the fly.

HALT! Scientists decode brain mechanisms of stopping

Categories Brain & Behavior, Life & Non-humans

Drawing of a camera and photos

New Study Reveals How Emotion Can Boost Memory for Contextual Details, Challenging Long-Held Beliefs

Categories Brain & Behavior

myhero zero main character

How the brain processes the number zero

Categories Brain & Behavior, Physics & Mathematics

Researchers at WashU Medicine have developed a method in mice to reduce damage from spinal cord injuries by using engineered immune cells. Mice that received this treatment showed improved recovery from their injuries, indicating potential for developing this therapy for human use.

New Discovery Could Help Fine-Tune Scarring in Spinal Cord Injuries

Categories Health

Neurons. Alzheimer’s disease varies widely in its age of onset, presentation, and severity. Recently, the SORL1 gene has received increased attention since variations in this gene have been associated with both early- and late-onset Alzheimer’s. However, little is known about how damage to SORL1 leads to disease. Using stem cells from patients with Alzheimer’s, investigators from Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital found that loss of normal SORL1 function leads to a reduction in two key proteins known to be involved in Alzheimer’s and which play an essential role in the neurons of healthy individuals. Their results, published in Cell Reports, suggest a potential strategy for Alzheimer’s disease treatment, especially for patients not responsive to existing therapies. In this new study, the researchers utilized a stem-cell based approach that examined natural genetic variability in Alzheimer’s patients to gain insight into an alternative pathway driving disease. The researchers used CRISPR technologies to remove the SORL1 gene from progenitor stem cells, derived from participants in two Alzheimer’s research cohorts, the Religious Order Studies and Rush Memory and Aging Project. They then programmed the stem cells to differentiate into four different kinds of brain cells to examine the impact of removing SORL1 on each cell type. The most dramatic impact was seen in neurons and a “support” cell in the brain (astrocytes). Neurons lacking SORL1 demonstrated especially prominent reduction in the levels of two key Alzheimer’s disease proteins: APOE and CLU. Without APOE and CLU, neurons cannot properly regulate lipids, which accumulate in droplets that may impair neurons’ abilities to communicate with each other. The researchers verified their lab-based results by examining natural genetic variation in SORL1 expression in the brain tissue of 50 members of the cohorts, finding again that lower SORL1 activity in neurons was correlated with reduced APOE and CLU in these people. Historically, researchers have studied three potent genetic drivers of Alzheimer’s disease (APP, PSEN1 and PSEN2), which are commonly mutated in hereditary, early-onset Alzheimer’s (AD diagnosis before age 65). Preclinical models and cell-based systems largely rely on mutations in these genes to model Alzheimer’s disease, even though in many people with late-onset (“sporadic”) Alzheimer’s, a more complex interaction between genes, lifestyle, and environment determines the presentation of the disease. Key neurological features of Alzheimer’s disease, including the abundance of amyloid-beta plaques in the brain, also vary across individuals. “Our study is one of the first with human cells from a large collection of individuals to try to understand the ‘molecular road’ that starts with SORL1, which we now see converges with APOE,” said corresponding author Tracy Young-Pearse of the Ann Romney Center for Neurological Diseases. “Our research points to the importance of developing interventions that target these and other molecular roads to Alzheimer’s disease. The more we can understand subtype-specific differences in AD, the better we will be able to design rational therapeutic interventions to try to fix the problem that is primarily driving disease in each patient.” The researchers are continuing to study other pathways that may lead to Alzheimer’s disease, such as those involving microglia (brain cells that perform immune functions). By using study models and techniques reflective of Alzheimer’s disease presentation in the general population, the researchers hope to identify additional biological pathways important in Alzheimer’s disease. In addition, Brigham researchers have played a leadership role in understanding the molecular and genetic basis for Alzheimer’s disease, including making key discoveries related to the amyloid protein. Two novel anti-amyloid therapies, aducanumab and lecanemab, have received U.S. Food and Drug Administration accelerated and traditional approval, respectively, but not all patients respond to these drugs, warranting other treatment options. This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (F31AG063399, U01AG072572, U01AG061356, RF1NS117446 and R01AG055909).

Study Unveils Shared Cellular Mechanisms in Major Dementias

Categories Brain & Behavior, Health

New research from the University of Washington’s Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences, or I-LABS, found the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns resulted in unusually accelerated brain maturation in adolescents. This maturation was more pronounced in females, as seen on the left.

COVID-19 Lockdowns Sped Up Brain Aging in Teens, Especially Girls

Categories Brain & Behavior, Health

Older posts

Newer posts

← Previous Page1 Page2 Page3 … Page23 Next →

Comments

Orcadian on Grigoriy Perelman – a serious lesson for all of us
Anthony Daniel Rogan on Ocean Heat Bands Reshape Global Climate Patterns
ScienceBlog.com on Ocean Heat Bands Reshape Global Climate Patterns
Dominik Lenné on Ocean Heat Bands Reshape Global Climate Patterns
Sarah T on Is It Schizophrenia, Bipolar Disorder, Neurosis — Or Maybe Just Hypoglycemia?

© 2025 ScienceBlog.com | Follow our RSS / XML feed