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Category: neuroscience – Page 152

How an MIT professor introduced hundreds of thousands of students to neuroscience

From the very beginning, MIT Professor Mark Bear’s philosophy for the textbook “Neuroscience: Exploring the Brain” was to provide an accessible and exciting introduction to the field while still giving undergraduates a rigorous scientific foundation. In the 30 years since its first print printing in 1995, the treasured 975-page tome has gone on to become the leading introductory neuroscience textbook, reaching hundreds of thousands of students at hundreds of universities around the world.

“We strive to present the hard science without making the science hard,” says Bear, the Picower Professor in The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory and the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT. The fifth edition of the textbook is out today from the publisher Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Bear says the book is conceived, written, and illustrated to instill students with the state of knowledge in the field without assuming prior sophistication in science. When he first started writing it in the late 1980s — in an effort soon joined by his co-authors and former Brown University colleagues Barry Connors and Michael Paradiso — there simply were no undergraduate neuroscience textbooks. Up until then, first as a graduate teaching assistant and then as a young professor, Bear taught Brown’s pioneering introductory neuroscience class with a spiral-bound stack of photocopied studies and other scrounged readings.

Researchers develop novel antibody-RNA therapy for resistant cancers

A specially engineered antibody that can accurately deliver RNA treatments into hard-to-reach and hard-to-treat tumors significantly improved survival and reduced tumor sizes in animal models, according to a study reported in Science Translational Medicine.

The study provides evidence that, once injected into the bloodstream, the antibody TMAB3, combined with a type of RNA that stimulates an innate immune reaction, can localize to tumors and penetrate and destroy stubborn diseased cells in pancreatic, brain, and .

“Delivery of RNA-based therapies to tumors has been a challenge. Our finding that TMAB3 can form antibody/RNA complexes capable of delivering RNA payloads to tumors provides a new approach to overcome this challenge,” says Peter Glazer, senior author and Robert E. Hunter Professor of Therapeutic Radiology and Genetics at Yale School of Medicine (YSM).

MRI study reveals structural brain changes in children with restrictive eating disorders

In the last decade, the incidence of restrictive eating disorders in children, like anorexia-nervosa and avoidant/restrictive food intake disorders (ARFID), has doubled. These disorders have severe consequences for growing children, resulting in nutritional deficiencies and problems with bone development, statural growth and puberty. Most studies have focused on the effects of these disorders in older individuals, and little is currently known about how restrictive eating disorders affect the brain in children or what mechanisms in the brain might be responsible for this restrictive eating behavior.

To get a better understanding of how these early-onset eating disorders work in the brain, researcher Clara Moreau and her team conducted MRI brain scans on 290 , of which 124 had been hospitalized for early-onset anorexia-nervosa (EO-AN), 50 had been hospitalized for ARFID, and 116 were children with no eating disorders. All participants were under 13 years old, and those who were hospitalized had very low body mass index (BMI) due to restrictive eating. The results were published in Nature Mental Health.

Although EO-AN and AFRID both result in low BMI and malnutrition due to restrictive eating, they are distinct disorders. EO-AN—as well as later onset anorexia-nervosa—is characterized by restrictive eating arising from a distorted body image, while restrictive eating in AFRID arises from sensory issues, such as a dislike of certain food textures, a lack of interest in food or fear of negative health consequences from food. These differences indicate that the disorders probably arise from different mechanisms in the brain.

How the Brain Increases Blood Flow on Demand

All day long, our brains carry out complicated and energy-intensive tasks such as remembering, solving problems, and making decisions.

To supply the energy these tasks require while conserving this precious fuel, the brain has evolved a system that allows it to quickly and efficiently send blood only to the areas that need it most in any given moment. This system is essential to brain function and overall health, yet how it works has remained somewhat of a mystery.

Now, a team led by researchers at Harvard Medical School has uncovered new details of how the brain moves blood to active areas in real time. Their findings are published July 16 in Cell.

In experiments in mice, the team discovered that the brain uses specialized channels in the lining of its blood vessels to communicate where blood is needed.

“This work helps us understand how you can get that super-important blood supply to the correct areas of the brain on a time scale that is useful,” said co-lead author Luke Kaplan, a research fellow in neurobiology in the Blavatnik Institute at HMS.

If confirmed in additional studies in animals and humans, the findings could be used to better understand findings on brain imaging tests such as functional MRI (fMRI). The insights may also advance understanding of neurodegenerative diseases, in which this communication system often breaks down, leading to cognitive problems.

Continue reading “How the Brain Increases Blood Flow on Demand” | >

Krembil Brain Institute researchers identify new model of Alzheimer’s as an autoimmune disease

(Toronto, Sept. 27, 2022) – Scientists at the Krembil Brain Institute, part of the University Health Network, have proposed a new mechanistic model (AD2) for Alzheimer’s, looking at it not as a brain disease, but as a chronic autoimmune condition that attacks the brain.

This novel research is published today, in Alzheimer’s & Dementia.

“We don’t think of Alzheimer’s as fundamentally a disease of the brain. We think of it as a disease of the immune system within the brain,” says Dr. Donald Weaver, co-Director of the Krembil Brain Institute and author of the paper.

Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia, impacts more than 50 million people around the world, with a new person being diagnosed every three seconds. Yet, despite more than 200 clinical trials in the past 30 years, there are no disease modifying therapeutics to prevent, halt or treat Alzheimer’s.

(Circa 2022 the immune function and immune molecules have been focused on recently making immunotherapy targets interesting consdering they can help remove plaques)

Elon Musk’s Neuralink microchip implanted into patient’s brain at University of Miami

Dr. Jagid and his team executed the implant on RJ just months ago.

“This device is completely invisible, you know, to anybody else that interacts with somebody who has it implanted. The other thing that makes it very unique is how it’s been miniaturized. It’s a very small device,” Dr. Jagid said.

During Neuralink’s summer update on the trial, they showed the moment one participant was able to move a cursor with his thoughts.

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