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Immune changes occur in the gut of an Alzheimer’s disease mouse model. A high fiber diet can alleviate these and other disease-related symptoms. Originally published by Laura Tran, PhD, in The Nutshell (The Scientist), on Aug 29, 2025 5 Immune cells can send signals between the gut-brain axis, but researchers found that these cells also migrate into the brain in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease.  Image credit:©iStock, YURY PRONIN The gut is home to a richly diverse community of microbes and nearly 80 percent of the body’s immune cells . This menagerie of gut-derived cel ls send signals along a bidirectional cellular highway, known as the vagus nerve , influencing not only the immune system but also brain function and behavior . Due to this relationship, the gut-brain axis is emerging as a target in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) . However, the immunological features of this axis in AD are not fully understood . This motivated researchers at the Buck Institute for Research on ...

Originally published in MedicalXpress by Carnegie Mellon University on August 18, 2025 edited by Sadie Harley , reviewed by Robert Egan                                                Cédito: Violinist.com     Using a corkscrew, writing a letter with a pen or unlocking a door by turning a key are actions that seem simple but actually require a complex orchestration of precise movements. So, how does the brain do it ? According to a new study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , by researchers from Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Coimbra , the human brain has a specialized system that builds these actions in a surprisingly systematic way . Analogous to how all of the words in a language can be created by recombining the letters of its alphabet, the full repertoire of human hand action...

Neural progenitor cells keep dividing in the adult brain, offering new hope for memory, learning, and repair. Originally published by Neetika Walter , Updated: Jul 03, 2025 06:46 PM EST Representational image of brain neurons. iStock Photos For decades, scientists believed the human brain stopped producing new neurons after childhood . This long-held view painted the adult brain as a fixed organ, incapable of generating fresh cells in the very region responsible for memory and learning. But a landmark new study turns that dogma on its head, offering the clearest evidence yet that adult humans continue to form new neurons well into the old age . Read more   

Originally published at Science Daily by the University of California, San Diego, on May 7, 2025 Brain researchers have identified a bridge between the thalamus and the cortex as the key area that is modified during motor learning functions . They found that such learning does much more than adjust activity levels, it sculpts the circuit's wiring, refining the conversation between brain regions.     AI-generated image by Asaf Ramot using ChatGPT   A landmark study published by scientists at the University of California San Diego is redefining science's understanding of the way learning takes place . The findings, published in the journal Nature and supported by the National Institutes of Health and U.S. National Science Foundation , provide novel insights on how brain wiring changes during learning periods , offering a path to new therapies and technologies that aid neurological disorders . For many years, neuroscientists have isolated the brain's primary ...

A device that delivers a small electrical current to the brain has beneficial effects in cases of depression that doesn't respond to drugs or therapy. Originally published by Miryam Naddaf on 21 October 2024 A healthy brain (fMRI image). Researchers are investigating the effects of stimulating regions of the brain linked to depression. Credit: Mark & Mary Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute/Science Photo Library A remote clinical trial involving more than 150 people has shown that an experimental treatment for depression — which uses a swimming-cap-like device to gently stimulate the brain — can be effective when carried out at home . The non-invasive therapy , known as t ranscranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) , is designed to stimulate areas of the brain linked to mood regulation , and delivers a painless, weak electrical current through electrodes placed on the scalp . It could be a game-changer for the more than one-third of people with depressi...

OHSU study uses imaging in neurosurgery patients to show how brain’s glymphatic system clears waste; lifestyle measures can keep system sharp Originally published by Erik Robinson on October 07, 2024 Portland, Oregon Erin Yamamoto, M.D., and Juan Piantino, M.D., are among the co-authors of a new study from Oregon Health & Science University that used imaging of neurosurgery patients to definitively reveal the existence of waste-clearance pathways in the human brain known as the glymphatic system . (OHSU/Christine Torres Hicks). Scientists have long theorized about a network of pathways in the brain that are believed to clear metabolic proteins that would otherwise build up and potentially lead to Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia . But they had never definitively revealed this network in people — until now. A new study involving five patients undergoing brain surgery at Oregon Health & Science University provides imaging of this network of perivascular spac...

Originally published by Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience - KNAW   on September 10, 2024    Credit: Current Biology (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.07.091 A new study from the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience shows how flickering light can cause hallucinations in our brain : it produces " standing waves " of brain activity. The work is published in the journal Current Biology. You're sitting on the bus or train and close your eyes. Sunlight flickering through the trees suddenly fills your mind with kaleidoscopic hallucinatory patterns . This is what Brion Gysin experienced during his trip to Marseille in the late 1960s. The fact that flashing lights can cause hallucinations was not surprising to scientists . Stroboscopic light, familiar to many from dance floors, has been used in neuroscience research for 200 years. In 1819, neuroscientist Jan Purkinje discovered that bright full-field light flashes can make our brain spontaneously perceive geometr...

Originally published by Hannah Thomasy, PhD, for the Scientist on June 14, 2024 Scientists turned a deadly virus into a crucial tool for understanding the wiring of the brain.   Rabies labeling helps scientists identify neurons in the primary visual cortex that connect to two different higher visual brain regions. Marina Garrett  In 1906 , pathologist Camillo Golgi and neuroscientist Santiago Ramón y Cajal won the Nobel Prize for their work on the structure of the nervous system . More than a century later, the puzzle of nervous system organization —the intricately tangled mess that results from each neuron’s connections to thousands of others— remains incomplete . Yet, fully developing scientific understanding of these connections is crucial , said Edward Callaway , a systems neurobiologist at the Salk Institute . “If you don’t have some knowledge about how the different parts are interacting , there’s no way to generate a hypothesis about how they’re working toget...

  Originally published by Rice University on September 27, 2023 Credit: CC0 Public Domain Rice University researchers tested the safety and feasibility of gene delivery to multiple brain regions using a noninvasive, ultrasound-based technique in rodents, and their findings suggest that the efficiency of gene delivery improves within each targeted site when more sites are opened. Shirin Nouraein, a doctoral student working in the lab of Rice bioengineer Jerzy Szablowski, is the lead author on the study recently published in the journal Gene Therapy. The paper, "Acoustically Targeted Noninvasive Gene Therapy in Large Brain Volumes," continues the Szablowski lab's work using f ocused ultrasound energy to safely make the blood-brain barrier permeable . The technique is known as focused ultrasound blood-brain barrier opening (FUS-BBBO). Read more

Originally published by University of Lausanne on September 6, 2023   Credit: Public Domain A research team from University of Lausanne (UNIL) and the Wyss Center, has discovered a new type of cell essential for brain function . Hybrid in composition and function, in between the two types of brain cells known so far—the neurons and the glial cells—these cells of a new order are present in several brain regions in mice and humans . The study published in the journal Nature shows that these cells promote the ability to memorize , the brain control of movements , and contrast the insurgence of epileptic seizures . Neuroscience is in great upheava l. The two major families of cells that make up the brain, neurons and glial cells, secretly hid a hybrid cell, halfway between these two categories. For as long as neuroscience has existed, it has been recognized that the brain works primarily thanks to the neurons and their ability to rapidly elaborate and transmit info...