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VIDEO: Inhibiting or exciting D1 or D2 neurons has different impacts on the mouse. The first clip shows a mouse with both D1 and D2 neurons working as normal successfully retrieving. view more
Credit: The video clips were published in the research paper in Cell Reports. Researchers looked at neurons within the basal ganglia, a part of the brain that, when damaged, can severely impact a person s motor ability, making seemingly simple reaching-and-grasping tasks near impossible They focused on a large group of neurons, which has two distinct types - D1 direct striatal output neurons and D2 indirect output neurons
The abnormal immune system response that causes multiple sclerosis (MS) by attacking and damaging the central nervous system can be triggered by the lack of a specific fatty acid in fat tissue, according to a new Yale study. The finding suggests that dietary change might help treat some people with the autoimmune disease.
Researchers receive $460,000 NIH grant for brain imaging study
Michael Alosco, PhD, associate professor of neurology at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM), and Gil Rabinovici, MD, professor of neurology and radiology at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) have been awarded a two-year, $460,000 grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, which is part of the National Institutes of Health. Additional support for the study is provided by the Rainwater Charitable Foundation.
Alosco and Rabinovici will study the effectiveness of a second generation tau PET tracer (MK-6240) in hopes of detecting chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in living people. The study, Focused Imaging for the Neurodegenerative Disease Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (FIND-CTE), will involve 30 former National Football League players and 10 controls between the ages of 45-74. The Concussion Legacy Foundation will handle recruitment of the participants.
Magnetic nanoparticles guide neurite growth in dopaminergic cells
Magnetic nanoparticles raise hopes of treatments for Parkinson’s.
One reason why nerve damage in the brain cannot regenerate easily is that the neurites do not know in which direction they should grow. A team of researchers from Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB), Sorbonne University Paris, and the Technische Universität Braunschweig is now working on showing them the direction using magnetic nanoparticles.
The team led by Professor Rolf Heumann, Senior Researcher for Molecular Neurobiochemistry at RUB, is hoping that this will allow the effects of neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson s to be alleviated over the long term. The results of the work were published on 31 December 2020 in the journal