In a recent study published in the journal Cell, researchers utilized a genetically encoded mirror-TRAP strategy to investigate the functional importance of aggression-mirroring neurons.
The study conducted by researchers at the University of British Columbia and the University of Victoria reveals that exposure to common levels of traffic pollution can impair brain function within hours.
The peer-reviewed study published in Environmental Health found that only two hours of exposure to diesel exhaust leads to a decrease in brain functional connectivity, which is a measure of how different areas of the brain interact and communicate with each other. This study is the first controlled experiment to provide evidence of air pollution altering brain connectivity in humans.
“For many decades, scientists thought the brain may be protected from the harmful effects of air pollution,” said senior study author Dr. Chris Carlsten, professor and head of respiratory medicine and the Canada Research Chair in occupational and environmental lung disease at UBC. “This study, which is the first of its kind in the world, provides fresh evidence supporting a connection between air pollution and cognition.”
😗 year 2017.
Psychiatrists and other behavioral health professionals need to better understand the relationship between cannabis and mental disorders so that they can respond to increasing medical and recreational marijuana use among their patients. More than half of states now allow for medical use, and 8 states and the District of Columbia have legalized adult personal or recreational use.
Knowledge about herbal cannabis, the endocannabinoid system, and cannabinoid pharmacology is rapidly expanding. However, compared with the literature on non-medical cannabis use, the scientific literature on therapeutic use of cannabis is underdeveloped, as noted in a recent systematic review of medical cannabis and mental health.1 Although herbal cannabis has a long history of medicinal use, its federal prohibition under the Controlled Substances Act of 1970 with Drug Enforcement Administration Schedule I status has focused the federally supported cannabis research agenda for half a century on the potential harms rather than on the historically acknowledged therapeutic benefits of this complex plant.
Continue reading “Medical Marijuana and Mental Health: Cannabis Use in Psychiatric Practice” »
Summary: REM sleep is 30 minutes longer in Winter than in Summer for most people, a new study reveals.
Source: Frontiers.
Whether we’re night owls or morning larks, our body clocks are set by the sun.
In this Special Feature, we explain how a simple eye test could help doctors detect systemic conditions, including diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and dementia.
Summary: Researchers have identified the in-vivo dynamics of synapses that underlie fear memory formation and extinction in the living brain.
Source: Seoul National University.
Ensembles of synaptic networks are known to underlie cognitive functions, and the connections between engram neurons are enhanced during memory formation.
Researchers from The University of Queensland have discovered the active compound from an edible mushroom that boosts nerve growth and enhances memory.
Professor Frederic Meunier from the Queensland Brain Institute said the team had identified new active compounds from the mushroom, Hericium erinaceus.
Researchers have discovered lion’s mane mushrooms improve brain cell growth and memory in pre-clinical trials. Image UQ.
U. of I. professor Aron Barbey, pictured, and co-author Evan Anderson found that taking into account the features of the whole brain–rather than focusing on individual regions or networks–allows the most accurate predictions of intelligence.
Patients who received the treatment had less severe brain symptoms and better daily functioning 90 days after the stroke, as compared with those who received clot treatment and a placebo medication.
Butylphthalide is approved and available for use in China, where the study was done. But the medication hasn’t been approved for use by the FDA.
“This is the first trial to show the benefit of using a medication that protects the brain from damage caused by a lack of oxygen to brain tissue. The medication was given to patients with acute ischemic stroke who were also receiving treatment to restore blood flow to the brain,” says co-author Baixue Jia, MD, a doctor of interventional neuroradiology at the Beijing Tiantan Hospital and the China National Clinical Research Center for Neurological Diseases in Beijing.
Summary: Blocking the activity of the reactor called the aryl hydrocarbon receptor in T cells resulted in both a decrease in inflammation and recovery in mouse models of multiple sclerosis.
Source: University of Virginia.
University of Virginia Health neuroscientists have discovered a potential way to disrupt the chronic inflammation responsible for multiple sclerosis.
