Neurons message each other with the help of excitatory or inhibitory neurotransmitters. But to actually deliver those messages, the neurotransmitters must dock with protein receptors embedded in the cell membranes of adjacent neurons. Of particular interest in the human brain … Continue reading
Journal Club
Highlighting recently published papers selected by Academy members
Category Archives: Neuroscience
Journal Club: Newly solved structure of a GABA receptor could offer drug design insights
Categories: Journal Club | Neuroscience | Pharmacology
Tagged cryo-EM, depression, epilepsy, GABA receptor, ligand, neurotransmitter, X-ray crystallography
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Journal Club: Key protein family helps govern sense of touch in both plants and animals
Compared to their knowledge of other senses, scientists know relatively little about how cells sense touch. A newly confirmed family of mechanosensors, comprising more than a dozen members and present in both plants and animals, is an important step toward … Continue reading
Categories: Cell Biology | Journal Club | Neuroscience
Tagged cell membrane, cell wall, ion channel, mechanosensor, OSCA protein, sense of touch, TMEM63 protein
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Journal Club: Researchers catch the mouse brain in the act of learning something new
Neurobiologists have captured, for the first time, the moment in a mouse’s brain when it first learns something new: in this case, that a beep signals a delicious droplet of sugar water. The results, recently reported in Nature Neuroscience, support a famous … Continue reading
Categories: Animal Behavior | Cell Biology | Journal Club | Neuroscience
Tagged dopamine, Hebbian model of learning, learning, midbrain, neuron
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Journal Club: Simple model reproduces patterns of toxic protein buildup across multiple neurodegenerative diseases
Fatal neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) begin as tiny pockets of misfolded proteins that evade the body’s normal detritus-removal systems. They spread throughout the brain and clog neural pathways. But exactly how these proteins propagate … Continue reading
Journal Club: Tracing light’s effect on mood and learning in mice from the eye to deep within the brain
To the mammalian eye, light offers more than just sight. “Light is so important for many innate functions,” says neuroscientist Samer Hattar of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). “We really don’t appreciate the importance of light in our … Continue reading
Journal Club: Attention may be at the root of confirmation bias
Confirmation bias is a pervasive phenomenon. Whether it’s a news article or an additional piece of scientific data, people tend to interpret new information as evidence confirming their prior beliefs—even if it actually doesn’t. “People have been aware of this … Continue reading
Categories: Journal Club | Neuroscience | Psychological and Cognitive Sciences
Tagged attention, confirmation bias, social media, visual perception
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Journal Club: Sticky proteins play crucial role in tailoring synapses
The proteins that join neurons together at the synapse do more than just act like glue. Synaptic adhesion proteins are known to affect the activity of neurotransmitters, weaken or strengthen synaptic connections, or direct where synapses form. Faulty adhesion proteins … Continue reading
Categories: Biochemistry | Journal Club | Neuroscience
Tagged autism, CA1 neuron, leucine-rich repeat protein, neuron, neurotransmitter, schizophrenia, synapse, synaptic adhesion proteins
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Journal Club: Giving the brain something to do highlights the circuitry of smarts
Scientists conducting neuroimaging studies hope that their MRI scans will offer up patterns that predict traits related to intelligence, personality, disease, or even offer insights into a patient’s clinical symptoms or their chances of responding to a drug. But according … Continue reading
Categories: Applied Physical Sciences | Journal Club | Neuroscience
Tagged Human Connectome Project, intelligence, MRI, neuroimaging, Raven's matrices, rest-state
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Journal Club: Microglial protein trafficking could play a role in neurodegenerative disorders
Neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD) or Parkinson’s are associated with a build-up of insoluble, toxic forms of proteins such as amyloid or tau in the brain. Normally, intracellular protein complexes known as retromers help with recycling and trafficking … Continue reading
Journal Club: Mouse microbiome findings offer insights into why a high-fat, low-carb diet helps epileptic children
For nearly a century, doctors have found that a strict high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet can limit seizures in children with epilepsy when medications fail. But exactly how this ketogenic diet works has remained largely a mystery. Now, researchers at the University … Continue reading
Categories: Applied Biological Sciences | Journal Club | Microbiology | Neuroscience
Tagged epilepsy, ketogenic diet, microbiome
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Journal Club: Proprioceptive neurons offer new insights into a “sixth sense”
Proprioception allows people to know the position of parts of the body without seeing them, enabling us to touch type, walk in the dark without falling over, or drive a car while looking at the road. Defects in this sensory … Continue reading
Categories: Animal Behavior | Biochemistry | Journal Club | Neuroscience
Tagged Caenorhabditis elegans, ion channel, proprioception, sensorimotor neuron, TRP1, TRP2
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