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IMAGE: The spatial organisation of the C. elegans brain is modular. The image shows the different brain regions that process information to direct behaviours such as navigation, avoidance and feeding. The. view more
Credit: University of Leeds
Researchers have mapped the physical organization of the brain of a microscopic soil-living nematode worm called
Caenorhabditis elegans, creating a new model for the architecture of the animal s brain and how it processes information.
In a surprise twist, they found a large degree of variation in the structure of some neural circuits or pathways in individual worms which complemented a core set of neural circuits common to different animals.
Credit: KOREA BRAIN RESEARCH INSTITUTE
Korea Brain Research Institute (KBRI, Pann-Ghill Suh (President)) announced that Dr. Kea Joo Lee and Dr. You-Na Jang of the Neural Circuits Research Group have identified the mechanism causing synaptic loss in Alzheimer s disease as the aberrant expression of RAPGEF2, a synaptic protein.
- The results were published on January 2021, in the online Early View of
Neuropathology and Applied Neurobiology. (Title) RAPGEF2 mediates oligomeric Aβ-induced synaptic loss and cognitive dysfunction in the 3xTg-AD mouse model of Alzheimer s disease
Alzheimer s disease (AD) accounts for about 75% of dementia cases and is the most common type of degenerative brain disease. AD is a devastating because disease progression can cause memory loss, mood disorder, slurred speech, confusion, and impaired movement.
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VIDEO: Volumetric reconstruction of the L4 C. elegans neuropil (from EM serial sections) with neurons from the four strata highlighted (S1-Red, S2-Purple, S3-Blue, S4-Green). view more
Credit: Mark Moyle et al., Nature, 2021.
WOODS HOLE, Mass. Understanding how the brain works is a paramount goal of medical science. But with its billions of tightly packed, intermingled neurons, the human brain is dauntingly difficult to visualize and map, which can provide the route to therapies for long-intractable disorders.
In a major advance published next week in Nature, scientists for the first time report the structure of a fundamental type of tissue organization in brains, called neuropil, as well as the developmental pathways that lead to neuropil assembly in the roundworm
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IMAGE: Yale researchers and collaborators have devised a strategy that allows them to see this previously impenetrable process unfold in a living animal the worm Caenorhabditis elegans, they report February. view more
Credit: The work is the result of a decade long collaboration between the labs of Colón-Ramos and Smita Krishnaswamy of Yale; Hari Shroff of the National Institutes of Health; Zhirong Bao.
The formation of a brain is one of nature s most staggeringly complex accomplishments. The intricate intermingling of neurons and a labyrinth of connections also make it a particularly difficult feat for scientists to study.
As people get older, their neural stem cells lose the ability to proliferate and produce new neurons, leading to a decline in memory function. Researchers at the University of Zurich have now discovered a mechanism linked to stem cell aging - and how the production of neurons can be reactivated.