Lifeboat Foundation

Neurons communicate through chemical signals known as neurotransmitters. Researchers at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, leveraging their expertise in structural biology, have successfully elucidated the structures of the vesicular monoamine transporter 2 (VMAT2), a key component of neuronal communication.

By visualizing VMAT2 in different states, scientists now better understand how it functions and how the different shapes the protein takes influence drug binding — critical information for drug development to treat hyperkinetic (excess movement) disorders such as Tourette syndrome. The work was recently published in the journal Nature.

Precise observation using ultra-high magnetic field 7T MRI.

For the first time, a research team in Korea has discovered there is a significant relationship between depression and the taurine concentration in the hippocampus, an area of the brain responsible for memory and learning functions. This discovery provides the opportunity to publicize the role and importance of taurine in future prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of depression.

Advanced imaging techniques reveal key insights.

Designed by researchers at Northwestern University, Boston College and MIT.

Taking inspiration from the human brain, researchers from MIT have developed a new synaptic transistor capable of higher-level thinking.

“I believe we have found one of the brain’s prototypes for building sequences” says Professor Edvard Moser.

Scientists at NTNU’s Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience in Norway have discovered a pattern of activity in the brain that serves as a template for building sequential experiences.

Continue reading “Scientists discover a framework in the brain for organizing the order of things” »

A supercomputer scheduled to go online in April 2024 will rival the estimated rate of operations in the human brain, according to researchers in Australia. The machine, called DeepSouth, is capable of performing 228 trillion operations per second.

It’s the world’s first supercomputer capable of simulating networks of neurons and synapses (key biological structures that make up our nervous system) at the scale of the human brain.

DeepSouth belongs to an approach known as neuromorphic computing, which aims to mimic the biological processes of the human brain. It will be run from the International Center for Neuromorphic Systems at Western Sydney University.

A study uses MEA analysis, computation, and simulations to demonstrate how BDNF treatment after excitotoxic injury remodels hippocampal networks by promoting inhibitory neuron survival while indirectly strengthening weak excitatory synapses.

Researchers at The Park Center for Mental Health, Australia, have added to the growing body of evidence that cat ownership is a major risk factor for schizophrenia and quantified the risk at more than double. In a paper, “Cat Ownership and Schizophrenia-Related Disorders and Psychotic-Like Experiences: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis,” published in Schizophrenia Bulletin, the team details the connections between youth cat ownership and later-in-life schizophrenia-related diagnosis.

The researchers conducted an extensive study search across various databases and gray literature from January 1, 1980, to May 30, 2023, without geographical or language limitations. They included studies reporting original data on cat ownership and schizophrenia-related outcomes. Out of 1,915 identified studies, 17 were used from 11 different countries.

Cat ownership was associated with an increased risk of schizophrenia-related disorders. The unadjusted pooled odds ratio (OR) was 2.35, and the adjusted estimate was 2.24, indicating an over twofold increase in the odds of developing schizophrenia-related disorders among all individuals exposed to cats.

The interconnectedness of brain and body has tantalizing implications for our ability to both understand and treat illness.

A host of disorders once thought to be nothing to do with the brain are, in fact, tightly coupled to nervous-system activity.

Why are we mentally sharper at certain times of day? A study led by Jonathan Lipton MD, Ph.D., at Boston Children’s Hospital spells out the relationship between circadian rhythms—the body’s natural day/night cycles—and the brain connections known as synapses.

The work is the first to provide a cellular and molecular explanation for natural fluctuations over the day in alertness, cognition, and the ability to learn and remember.

“We have known for more than a century that the time of day influences cognition and memory, but until now the mechanisms have been elusive,” says Lipton, a sleep physician in the Department of Neurology and researcher in the F.M. Kirby Neurobiology Center.