Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog

Category: neuroscience

Activation of Dopamine D1 Receptors at the Axon Initial Segment-Like Process of Retinal AII Amacrine Cells Modulates Action Potential Firing

JNeurosci: Results from Veruki et al. show that activation of D1 receptors in rats reduces the excitability of AII amacrines by increasing the threshold of action potential initiation, suggesting a new role for DA in the retina.

🔗

Dopamine is an important neuromodulator found throughout the central nervous system that can influence neural circuits involved in sensory, motor, and cognitive functions. In the retina, dopamine is released by specific amacrine cells and plays a role in reconfiguring circuits for photopic vision. This adaptation takes place both in photoreceptors and at postreceptoral sites. The AII amacrine cell, which plays a crucial role for transmission of both scotopic and photopic visual signals, has been considered an important target of dopaminergic modulation, expressed as a change in the strength of electrical coupling mediated by gap junctions between the AIIs. It has been difficult, however, to find clear evidence for expression of dopamine receptors by AII amacrines.

Stem cell-mediated recovery in stroke: partnering with the immune system

In this Review, Saef Izzy and colleagues examine the therapeutic potential of stem cells in stroke, with a focus on neural and mesenchymal stem cells. They explore how these stem cells interact with brain immune cells to modulate the inflammatory microenvironment, restore blood–brain barrier integrity and promote tissue repair following a stroke.

Online psychoeducation underperforms existing digital cognitive behavioral therapy in trial

Big Health Inc, along with paid academic investigators, reports higher remission rates and lower anxiety symptom scores with their smartphone-delivered digital cognitive behavioral therapy, DaylightRx, compared with an online psychoeducation, also created by Big Health Inc.

Generalized anxiety disorder involves excessive, persistent, and uncontrollable anxiety with lifetime prevalence reported as 6%, alongside reduced quality of life, impaired social and occupational functioning, and increased health care utilization.

Cognitive behavioral therapy and pharmacotherapy are considered first-line treatments. Despite strong tolerability, efficacy, and cost-effectiveness, access remains limited due to a shortage of trained therapists, time burdens, and stigma.

Why some brains switch gears more efficiently than others

The human brain is constantly processing information that unfolds at different speeds—from split-second reactions to sudden environmental changes to slower, more reflective processes such as understanding context or meaning.

A new study from Rutgers Health, published in Nature Communications, sheds light on how the brain integrates these fast and slow signals across its complex web of white matter connectivity pathways to support cognition and behavior.

Different regions of the brain are specialized for processing information over specific time windows, a property known as intrinsic neural timescales, or INTs for short.

CRISPR Screens Revolutionize Human Neural Organoids Research

Studying the intricate molecular mechanisms that govern the assembly of the human nervous system has long been one of the most significant challenges in developmental biology and neuroscience. Researchers are continuously seeking a deeper understanding of how the human brain is built and what leads to various neurological disorders. Recent advancements in stem cell technology, particularly the ability to generate neural cells from pluripotent stem cells, coupled with the power of genome-editing tools like CRISPR-Cas9, are setting the stage for groundbreaking insights into human neurodevelopment and associated diseases. These technological innovations open new avenues for research that were previously thought to be unattainable.

The emergence of organoids and assembloids—miniature, simplified versions of brain tissue—has revolutionized the way scientists can model human development in vitro. Organoids replicate some of the complexity of human brain structures, allowing researchers to visualize developmental processes such as the specification, migration, and integration of neurons. This is particularly important for cortical interneurons, which migrate from the ventral forebrain to the dorsal forebrain during early brain development. These in vitro models provide an opportunity to study these intricate processes more closely and could lead to transformative discoveries in our understanding of brain diseases.

In a significant advancement outlined in recent research, scientists have developed a detailed protocol that marries pooled CRISPR-Cas9 screening with neural organoid and assembloid models. This innovative approach enables researchers to map hundreds of disease-related genes onto specific cellular pathways and critical aspects of human neural development. Such a strategy can significantly enhance our understanding of how various genes contribute to essential neuronal functions and the onset of neurological diseases, thereby paving the way for the development of novel therapeutic interventions.

Exclusive: Connectome Pioneer Sebastian Seung Is Building A Digital Brain

On a Sunday evening earlier this month, a Stanford professor held a salon at her home near the university’s campus. The main topic for the event was “synthesizing consciousness through neuroscience,” and the home filled with dozens of people, including artificial intelligence researchers, doctors, neuroscientists, philosophers and a former monk, eager to discuss the current collision between new AI and biological tools and how we might identify the arrival of a digital consciousness.

The opening speaker for the salon was Sebastian Seung, and this made a lot of sense. Seung, a neuroscience and computer science professor at Princeton University, has spent much of the last year enjoying the afterglow of his (and others’) breakthrough research describing the inner workings of the fly brain. Seung, you see, helped create the first complete wiring diagram of a fly brain and its 140,000 neurons and 55 million synapses. (Nature put out a special issue last October to document the achievement and its implications.) This diagram, known as a connectome, took more than a decade to finish and stands as the most detailed look at the most complex whole brain ever produced.

Meet Memazing.

Efficacy of a Brief Cognitive Behavioral Treatment Across Body Image Distress Domains: Secondary Outcomes of the BRIGHT Randomized Clinical Trial

The BRIGHT program, a brief cognitive behavioral treatment, effectively reduced body image distress across multiple domains in head and neck cancer survivors.

This secondary analysis of a randomized clinical trial evaluates whether a brief, tailored cognitive behavioral treatment program is effective across multiple domains of head and neck cancer–related body image distress.

Five ways microplastics may harm your brain

Microplastics could be fueling neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, with a new study highlighting five ways microplastics can trigger inflammation and damage in the brain.

More than 57 million people live with dementia, and cases of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s are projected to rise sharply. The possibility that microplastics could aggravate or accelerate these brain diseases is a major public health concern.

Pharmaceutical scientist Associate Professor Kamal Dua, from the University of Technology Sydney, said it is estimated that adults are consuming 250 grams of microplastics every year—enough to cover a dinner plate.

/* */