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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 together .”  N

  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 informat

Originally published by Delthia Ricks , Medical Xpress, on August 30, 2023 Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Losing the activity of a key ion channel in the brain may contribute to the buildup of a devastating and toxic protein responsible for the clumps of plaque that accumulate in Alzheimer's disease , a team of neurobiologists in China has found. Stunningly, this team has also shown—at least in animal-model studies—that this protein, a key hallmark of Alzheimer's, can be diminished in the living brain by manipulating the ion channel . The suspect protein is amyloid-beta , which becomes pervasive in the brain tissue of patients with Alzheimer's disease. Toxic, gooey amyloid-β accumulates in wads between neurons and disrupts the function of these vital brain cells . The ion channel is known simply as TRPM7 , and it may contribute to the buildup of toxic amyloid-β when the channel itself ceases to function properly, according to scientists at State Key Laborator

  Originally published by University of Sydney on August 24, 2023 Nanoscale scan image showing protein condensate interaction. Credit: The University of Sydney Many diseases affecting the brain and nervous system are linked to the formation of protein aggregates , or solid condensates , in cells from their liquid form condensate, but little is known about this process . This liquid-to-solid transition can trigger the formation of what are called amyloid fibrils . These can further form plaques in neurons causing neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's . Biomedical engineers at the University of Sydney , in collaboration with scientists at the University of Cambridge and Harvard University , have now developed sophisticated optical techniques to monitor at close range the process by which these protein aggregates form. By testing a protein associated with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis—ALS disease, which affected astrophysicist Professor Stephen Hawking—

Originally published by Stefanie Seltmann, Berlin Institute of Health in der Charité (BIH) , on June 1, 2023 Credit: BIH/Petra Ritter Do intelligent people think faster? Researchers at the BIH and Charité — Universitätsmedizin Berlin , together with a colleague from Barcelona , made the surprising finding that participants with higher intelligence scores were only quicker when tackling simple tasks, while they took longer to solve difficult problems than subjects with lower IQ scores. In personalized brain simulations of the 650 participants, the researchers could determine that brains with reduced synchrony between brain areas literally " jump to conclusions " when making decisions, rather than waiting until upstream brain regions could complete the processing steps needed to solve the problem . Read more