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Category: neuroscience – Page 19

Drug temporarily reverses autism-like brain changes in adult mice within hours

A new mouse study led by UCLA Health suggests that inflammation during pregnancy can trigger autism-like changes in offspring, but those brain and behavioral effects may be rapidly, though temporarily, reversible in adulthood with a single dose of the immunosuppressive drug rapamycin.

Even mild inflammation during midpregnancy has been shown to result in autism-like symptoms in offspring, abnormal brain growth, seizures and heightened sensitivity to everyday sensory input that persist into adulthood.

In the study published in the journal Nature Communications, UCLA researchers found that a single dose of rapamycin significantly improved brain signaling and behavioral symptoms in these offspring within about two hours, too short a time to correct underlying physical brain changes caused by maternal inflammation.

Fossil study finds vision—not the ‘thinking’ frontal lobe—drove varied brain development in primates

A new study led by a Duke University scientist overturns a long-held idea about how primates, including humans, came to have such large and sophisticated brains. The research finds that the dramatic expansion of the primate neocortex was driven largely by vision, not by the disproportionate growth of the frontal lobe often associated with higher reasoning.

The research, published this week in the journal Science, was led by Richard F. Kay, a professor emeritus of Evolutionary Anthropology at Duke University Trinity College of Arts & Sciences and the Nicholas School of the Environment.

The neocortex—the outer, folded layer of the brain responsible for sensory perception, cognition and other complex functions—is greatly enlarged in primates compared with other mammals. Exactly how and why it grew so large over the past 56 million years has been difficult to pin down because brains do not fossilize.

A precise neuronal mechanism allows the brain to plan future routes to remembered goals

When humans and other animals move through familiar or unfamiliar environments, their brains rely on numerous intricate neural processes to decide which path to take next. Past studies have identified a specific population of cells in the hippocampus, a structure deep within the brain, that appears to play a key role in spatial navigation.

These cells, called place cells, become active when an animal either visits or thinks about a specific location. Place cells often fire in rapid sequences during so-called theta oscillations (i.e., rhythmic brain activity patterns that cycle approximately 4–12 times per second). These rapid bursts of sequential place cell activity, also known as theta sweeps, were previously associated with the mental evaluation of possible future routes.

Two distinct research teams based at Cornell University and University College London recently shed new light on the contribution of theta sweeps to spatial navigation.

Single-shot phase imaging technique can reconstruct transparent objects

A KAIST research team led by professor Mooseok Jang from the Department of Bio and Brain Engineering has developed a single-shot phase imaging technique that reconstructs a phase object—a transparent object such as glass, plastic film or a living cell, which produces almost no visible contrast under an ordinary camera but induces a subtle shift in light called a phase change—from a single measurement, even when the object is fully enclosed between two dynamic scattering layers.

The findings are published in the journal Optica.

Phase objects are difficult to see with conventional cameras because they show little brightness contrast with their surroundings. However, analyzing the minute phase shift can reveal an object’s morphology and optical thickness and can be used to determine its physical thickness or refractive index variation when the other quantity is known. For this reason, phase imaging is widely used to observe living cells without staining and to inspect transparent components in semiconductors and displays.

Brain Waves Once Dismissed As Noise May Help Build Our Reality

Your brain may rely on sweeping waves of electrical activity to turn what your eyes see into a clear picture of the world.

Known as neural traveling waves, these electrical patterns move through brain tissue rather than remaining fixed in one location. By changing how responsive different groups of neurons are at a given moment, they may influence your attention, perception, and behavior.

In a review published in Neuron, Salk Institute neuroscientists argue that these waves are not merely background activity. Instead, they may function as a computational engine that helps the visual cortex create an internal model of the surrounding world. Similar processes could also operate in other parts of the brain.

Trauma analysis finds brain injuries more common among e-scooter riders than motorcyclists

E-scooter riders in England and Wales may face a higher risk of brain and internal organ injuries than motorcyclists and cyclists, according to a study published in Scientific Reports. The authors recommend increasing e-scooter safety through measures including mandatory helmet legislation, stricter speed limits and e-scooter design improvements such as deformable handlebar grips and enhanced braking.

E-scooters are used in urban areas throughout the world, but reliable data on injuries and risks have been limited. David Bodansky and colleagues analyzed data from the National Major Trauma Registry for 15,247 patients—including 580 e-scooter riders, 7,027 motorcyclists and 7,640 pedal cyclists—with moderate-to-severe traumatic injuries from 18 cities in England and Wales between 2020 and 2022. Of e-scooter riders, 87.9% were adults.

They found that adult e-scooter riders had a 3.5 times higher risk of traumatic brain injury, a 1.5 times higher risk of internal organ injury and a 3.2 times higher risk of artery or vein injury than motorcyclists. These risks were also 1.7, 1.4 and 1.7 times higher, respectively, compared with pedal cyclists. However, the fracture risk for adult e-scooter riders was 20.0% lower than for motorcyclists and 10.0% lower than for pedal cyclists.

Novel insights into the ROCKJAKSTAT signaling pathway in upper respiratory tract infections and neurodegenerative diseases

This comprehensive review of the relationship between uncontrolled inflammation in upper respiratory tract viral infections and the development of neurodegenerative diseases reveals the importance and possibility of the JAK-STAT-ROCK2 signaling pathway in the treatment of both.

Iron or Multiple Micronutrient Powder Supplements With Malaria Chemoprevention in Rural Malawian Children: Research Summary

This study evaluated whether universal iron supplementation, provided with malaria chemoprevention (MC), improves child cognitive outcomes and is safe regarding infection risk in rural Malawi.

Discovery reveals aging human brains receive immune cell reinforcements from blood

The brain’s immune system has long been thought to exist independently from the rest of the body, complete with its own specialized immune cells and a blood-brain barrier that limits what can travel into the brain.

Now, Stanford researchers have found that aging brings with it a large influx of immune cells into the brain, a discovery that not only upends current thinking but could also open new avenues for treating neurological disease. The researchers describe their results in the journal Nature.

“We usually think of the brain as a closed system,” said Julia Belk, a postdoctoral scholar in pathology at Stanford Medicine and first author on the new study. “What we found is that actually a lot of immune cells enter the human brain during aging.”

Engineered human neurons rebuild damaged spinal cord circuits

Spinal cord injuries affect an estimated 15 to 20 million people worldwide, often causing lasting impairments in movement, sensation and independence. Such injuries can be especially devastating when they occur at the level of the neck, where damaged spinal circuits disrupt signals that control the diaphragm, the main muscle used for breathing.

Despite advances in emergency care and rehabilitation, no approved therapies exist to rebuild the neurons and connections lost after a spinal cord injury. But new research from scientists at Gladstone Institutes offers hope for a regenerative treatment in the future.

The study, published in Science Translational Medicine, shows that human stem cell-derived spinal interneurons—cells that are critical for breathing and movement— can survive after being transplanted in injured rats, connect with the animals’ own neural circuits and improve breathing-related motor function.

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