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The psychedelic psilocin suppresses activity of central amygdala corticotropin releasing factor receptor 1 neurons and decreases ethanol drinking in female mice

Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is a highly prevalent disorder with limited therapeutic options. The central amygdala (CeA) is a critical brain region as dysregulation within the CeA and the corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) system are associated with AUD pathology. CeA CRF1 receptors regulate alcohol drinking and have served as a therapeutic target in alcohol treatment. One emerging potential therapeutic for AUD is psilocybin. Psilocybin has been shown to decrease drinking in some clinical studies however the effects are variable and mechanisms underlying these effects are poorly understood. Psilocybin can engage many brain regions, including the CeA, and may produce therapeutic effects on drinking through interactions with CeA CRF1 neurons. The current study explores the effects of psilocin, the active metabolite of psilocybin, on voluntary ethanol drinking and CeA CRF1 activity to understand the potential mechanisms underlying the therapeutic effects of psilocin. Psilocin acutely decreased ethanol consumption in mice exposed to two different models of chronic ethanol exposure without producing changes in locomotor behavior. Psilocin increased CeA activation and decreased relative CRF1 activation in CeA sub-regions from ethanol-naïve female CRF1:GFP mice. These results were also observed in chronic ethanol-exposed mice at 24hr and 72hr withdrawal timepoints. Psilocin increased corticosterone at 24hr withdrawal but not at 72hr withdrawal. Collectively, these results demonstrate that psilocin engages CeA circuitry and decreases relative CRF1 activation, in parallel with acute reductions in drinking. These results contribute to our understanding of the mechanisms underlying the actions of psilocin and inform the interpretation of therapeutic effects in clinical studies.

Significance Statement Alcohol is one of the most commonly-used substances that dysregulates brain regions involved in emotional processing and stress. An important regulator of the stress response is the neuropeptide known as corticotropin releasing factor (CRF). Alcohol can dysregulate brain regions through the engagement of corticotropin releasing factor receptor 1 (CRF1)-containing neurons and thus promote continued alcohol use. Although alcohol use disorder (AUD) is a highly prevalent condition, few treatment options are available. Psilocybin, a psychedelic prodrug that is broken down into the active metabolite, psilocin, has emerged as a potential treatment for AUD in recent studies. The current study explores the effects of psilocin on alcohol drinking and central amygdala CRF1-containing neurons in female mice to better understand potential therapeutic mechanisms.

Family history key to predicting antidepressant response

A new study from Queen Mary University of London shows that a family’s experience with certain medicines could help doctors predict how future generations will respond to the same drugs.

The researchers found that people were almost five times more likely to have a affecting how they process antidepressants if both they and a parent had stopped taking the same medication early.

Published in Communications Medicine, the study looked at 600 British, Bangladeshi and Pakistani families from the Genes and Health Project—one of the world’s largest community genetics studies.

Genetically engineered virus acts as ‘smart sponge’ to extract rare earth elements from water

Today’s high-tech electronics and green energy technologies would not function without rare earth elements (REEs). These 17 metals possess unique properties essential to creating items like the phosphors that illuminate our mobile phone displays and the powerful magnets used in electric vehicles and wind turbines. But extracting these substances from raw materials is a dirty process that relies on toxic chemicals and leaves behind polluted waste.

Now, a team of UC Berkeley-led researchers may have solved this problem—thanks to a tiny virus.

As reported in Nano Letters, the researchers genetically engineered a to act like a “smart sponge” that grabs from water, and, with a gentle change in temperature and acidity (pH), releases them for collection. Their unusual, groundbreaking approach could lead to a “clean” biological alternative to traditional extraction methods for REEs and other critical elements.

Black hole mergers could give rise to observable gravitational-wave tails

Black holes, regions of spacetime in which gravity is so strong that nothing can escape, are intriguing and extensively studied cosmological phenomena. Einstein’s general theory of relativity predicts that when two black holes merge, they emit ripples in spacetime known as gravitational waves.

Once the gravitational waves originating from black hole mergers fade, subtle hints of these waves could remain, known as late-time gravitational-wave tails. While the existence of these tails has been widely theorized about in the past, it was not yet conclusively confirmed.

Researchers at Niels Bohr Institute, University of Lisbon and other institutes worldwide recently performed black hole merger simulations based on Einstein’s equations, to further probe the existence of late-time gravitational-wave tails. Their simulations, outlined in a paper in Physical Review Letters, suggest that these tails not only exist, but could also have a larger amplitude than originally predicted and could thus be observed in future experiments.

Our solar system is moving faster than expected

How fast and in which direction is our solar system moving through the universe? This seemingly simple question is one of the key tests of our cosmological understanding. A research team led by astrophysicist Lukas Böhme at Bielefeld University has now found new answers, ones that challenge the established standard model of cosmology.

The study’s findings have just been published in the journal Physical Review Letters.

“Our analysis shows that the solar system is moving more than three times faster than current models predict,” says lead author Böhme. “This result clearly contradicts expectations based on standard cosmology and forces us to reconsider our previous assumptions.”

Robots trained with spatial dataset show improved object handling and awareness

When it comes to navigating their surroundings, machines have a natural disadvantage compared to humans. To help hone the visual perception abilities they need to understand the world, researchers have developed a novel training dataset for improving spatial awareness in robots.

In new research, experiments showed that robots trained with this dataset, called RoboSpatial, outperformed those trained with baseline models at the same robotic task, demonstrating a complex understanding of both spatial relationships and physical object manipulation.

For humans, shapes how we interact with the environment, from recognizing different people to maintaining an awareness of our body’s movements and position. Despite previous attempts to imbue robots with these skills, efforts have fallen short as most are trained on data that lacks sophisticated spatial understanding.

Novel 3D nanofabrication techniques enable miniaturized robots

In the 1980s when micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) were first created, computer engineers were excited by the idea that these new devices that combine electrical and mechanical components at the microscale could be used to build miniature robots.

The idea of shrinking robotic mechanisms to such tiny sizes was particularly exciting given the potential to achieve exceptional performance in metrics such as speed and precision by leveraging a robot’s smaller size and mass. But making robots at smaller scales is easier said than done due to limitations in microscale 3D manufacturing.

Nearly 50 years later, Ph.D. students Steven Man and Sukjun Kim, working with Mechanical Engineering Professor Sarah Bergbreiter, have developed a 3D to build tiny Delta robots called microDeltas. Delta robots at larger scales (typically two to four feet in height) are used for picking, placing, and sorting tasks in manufacturing, packaging, and electronics assembly. The much smaller microDeltas have the potential for real-world applications in micromanipulation, micro assembly, minimally invasive surgeries, and wearable haptic devices.

Brain’s mechanical properties influence synapse formation and electrical signal development, study finds

In the brain, highly specific connections called synapses link nerve cells and transmit electrical signals in a targeted manner. Despite decades of research, how synapses form during brain development is still not fully understood.

Now, an international research team from the Max-Planck-Zentrum für Physik und Medizin, the University of Cambridge, and the University of Warwick has discovered that the mechanical properties of the brain play a significant role in this developmental process. In a study recently published in Nature Communications, the scientists showed how the ability of neurons to detect stiffness is related to molecular mechanisms that regulate neuronal development.

Vagus nerve’s right branch plays a key role in digestive signaling

After years of work, cognition and neuroscience doctoral student Hailey Welch is—for the first time—the lead author of a study published in an academic journal, a paper appearing in Cell Reports, which examined the role of the vagus nerve’s branches in digestive signaling.

The goal of Welch’s research is to learn more about the ’s role in the forming of dietary habits. The vagus nerve includes left and right branches. Earlier research in the Motor and Habit Learning Lab of Dr. Catherine Thorn, associate professor of neuroscience in the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences and the corresponding author of the Cell Reports study, indicates that those two sides have different functions.

“We know that the vagus nerve transmits information about the nutritional and reward aspects of food from the gut to the brain,” Welch said. “What we are discovering is that such reward signaling is lateralized—mainly right-sided.”

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