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Abnormal hyperactivation in the brain may be an early sign of Alzheimer’s

A psychology and neuroscience professor has just targeted an early biomarker of the disease.

Balancing brain cell activity

Electrical trigger sites in neurons surprisingly change with experience; they are either becoming smaller with increasing number of experiences and, vice versa, they grow larger when less input arrives in the brain.

Age provides a buffer to pandemic’s mental health impact, researchers say

Older adults are managing the stress of the coronavirus pandemic better than younger adults, reporting less depression and anxiety despite also experiencing greater general concern about COVID-19, according to a recent study.

Tiny high-tech probes reveal how information flows across the brain

A new study collected and analyzed the largest single dataset of neurons’ electrical activity to glean principles of how we perceive the visual world around us. The study captures the hundreds of split-second electrical signals that fire when an animal…

Treating moms with postpartum depression helps their babies’ brains

For the study 40 infants of women diagnosed with postpartum depression were matched with 40 infants of non-depressed mothers on infant age, gender and socioeconomic status. The mothers with postpartum depression received nine weeks of group CBT. The in…

How the brain learns that earmuffs are not valuable at the beach

Fast-spiking neurons in the basal ganglia allow monkeys to associate different values with the same objects based on the surrounding environment. Blocking input from these cells inhibited learning of new scene-based values, but did not erase already le…

Size of connections between nerve cells determines their signaling strength

Nerve cells communicate with one another via synapses. Neuroscientists have now found that these connections seem to be much more powerful than previously thought. The larger the synapse, the stronger the signal it transmits. These findings will enable…

Brain cell network supplies neurons with energy

Until recently, oligodendrocytes were primarily thought to be a kind of cellular insulating tape that accelerates the transmission of electrical signals in the brain. A study now shows that they are also important for the energy supply of neurons in so…

Where do our minds wander? Brain waves can point the way

Anyone who has tried and failed to meditate knows that our minds are rarely still. But where do they roam? New research has come up with a way to track the flow of our internal thought processes and signal whether our minds are focused, fixated or wand…

Study finds COVID-19 attack on brain, not lungs, triggers severe disease in mice

Researchers have found that infecting the nasal passages of mice with the virus that causes COVID-19 led to a rapid, escalating attack on the brain that triggered severe illness, even after the lungs were successfully clearing themselves of the virus.