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46 mio. kr. for seven young researchers
Seven young DTU researchers receive Villum Young Investigator grants for a total of DKK 46 million.
Villum Fondens Villum Young Investigator programme allows talented Danish and international researchers to pursue their ideas and establish their own research groups at Danish universities.
“The only thing we know today about the new knowledge that will shape our lives in 20 years’ time is that it is largely being created in the minds of talented young researchers. It is therefore important to give young researchers a solid starting point for establishing their own research profiles,” says Thomas Bjørnholm, Executive Chief Scientific Officer of VILLUM FONDEN in connection with the awarding of grants.
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Loneliness in adults aged 50 and over during the COVID-19 lockdown was linked to worsening depressive and other mental health symptoms, according to a large-scale online study.
Loneliness emerged as a key factor linked to worsening symptoms of depression and anxiety in a study of more than 3,000 people aged 50 or over led by the University of Exeter and King s College London, and funded by The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) .
Researchers had access to data going back to 2015 for participants of the PROTECT online study. They also found that a decrease in physical activity since the start of the pandemic was associated with worsening symptoms of depression and anxiety during the pandemic. Other factors included being female and being retired.
"The brain is one of the regions where virus likes to hide," researcher Mukesh Kumar said. "Once it infects the brain it can affect anything because the brain is controlling your lungs, the heart,
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Size of Connections between Nerve Cells Determines their Signaling Strength
Nerve cells communicate with one another via synapses. Neuroscientists at the University of Zurich and ETH Zurich 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 a better understanding of how the brain functions and how neurological disorders arise.
The size of synapses directly determines the strength of their signal transmission – illustrated as three nerve cell connections of different size and brightness. (Image: Kristian Herrera and authors)
The neocortex is the part of the brain that humans use to process sensory impressions, store memories, give instructions to the muscles, and plan for the future. These computational processes are possible because each nerve cell is a highly complex miniature computer that communicates with around 10,000 other neurons. T