The human brain is the center of the human nervous system and is a highly complex organ. Enclosed in the cranium, it has the same general structure as the brains of other mammals, but is over three times as large as the brain of a typical mammal with an equivalent body size.
Uppsala University researchers have devised a novel approach for detecting mutations in pediatric brain cancers.
Mothers who eat apples and herbs in early pregnancy could be protecting the brain health of their children and grandchildren, a Monash University study using genetic models has found.
Peptide YY (PYY), a hormone produced by gut endocrine cells that was already known to control appetite, also plays an important role in maintaining the balance of fungi in the digestive system of mammals, according to new research from the University of Chicago.
Right from impacting how the human body stores fat to how the brain regulates appetite, hundreds of genes, together with environmental factors, jointly identify weight and body size.
As we age, our bodies undergo various changes that can impact our overall health and make us more susceptible to diseases.
Researchers from New York University have created a method that discovers and labels neurons throughout development, which has allowed them to identify novel cell types in the visual system of flies.
Neurons are the cells that constitute brain circuits and employ chemicals and electricity to receive and transmit information that allows the body to perform anything from thinking to sensing to movement.
A metabolic by-product that is more prominent during fasting can improve immune cells’ ability to fight off infection and disease, according to a preliminary study conducted by researchers at the Van Andel Institute and its partners.
Researchers from the Giulio Superti-Furga Lab at CeMM, the Austrian Academy of Sciences’ Research Center for Molecular Medicine, have developed a new technique for identifying specific inhibitors of a lactate transporter linked to cancer and other diseases.
Researchers have developed methods to study and manipulate areas of the brain, though many of those methods are restricted by the limited depth that light can reach within the brain. A multidisciplinary team at Washington University in St. Louis plans to overcome that limitation by integrating ultrasound with genetics to precisely modify neurons in the brain.
A University of California, Irvine-led team of researchers working at the Center for Neural Circuit Mapping find links between brain disorders and dysfunction of newly identified inhibitory brain cell types.
Scientists at Tohoku University have discovered the critical role that lactate plays in helping neural stem cells develop into specialized neurons, a process dubbed neuronal differentiation.
Neurobiologists from Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University found out differences of educability level and processes of formation of spatial memory of adult male and female rats, that live together in large cages and played with toys.
The human brain uses spatial mapping and memory to steer from point A to point B during daily navigation. Making a navigational error that necessitates a course correction is also common.
How do brain cells, or neurons, distinguish their own processes and those of other neurons when they send out processes to connect with other neurons? A molecule known as clustered protocadherin (Pcdh) plays an important role in this puzzle.
At the Tokyo Metropolitan University, researchers have shown that 5-aminolevulinic acid (5-ALA) aids bypass deficiencies in Complex I (CI), the first in a series of protein complexes that transport electrons and assist in powering the mitochondria.
Researchers at University of Michigan developed a method to produce artificially grown miniature brains -; called human brain organoids -; free of animal cells that could greatly improve the way neurodegenerative conditions are studied and, eventually, treated.
From Aristotle's musings on the nature of time to Einstein's theory of relativity, humanity has long pondered: how do we perceive and understand time? The theory of relativity posits that time can stretch and contract, a phenomenon known as time dilation. Just as the cosmos warps time, our neural circuits can stretch and compress our subjective experience of time. As Einstein famously quipped, "Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute".
Boosting the activity of inhibitory interneurons in Fragile X mice reduced their hypersensitivity to sensory stimuli, according to a new Neuron study led by UCLA Health researchers.
Mast cells, which are part of the immune system, are still a puzzle. Mast cells function as a sensor that signifies the animals to avert antigens, including harmful allergens, and thus safeguard themselves from health-threatening inflammatory reactions, according to researchers at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ). The research was published in the journal Nature.