http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. A team of international researchers led by Northwestern Medicine scientists has identified how a defective protein plays a central role in a rare, lethal childhood disease known as Giant Axonal Neuropathy, or GAN. The finding is reported in the May 2013 Journal of Clinical Investigation. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-rare-lethal-childhood-disease-tracked.html Medical research Mon, 29 Apr 2013 18:43:57 EST news286479831 With their whiskers rats can detect the texture of objects in the same way as humans do using their fingertips. A study, in which some scientists of SISSA have taken part, shows that it is possible to understand what specific object has been touched by a rat by observing the activation of brain neurons. A further step towards understanding how the brain, also in humans, represents the outside world. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-decoding.html Neuroscience Tue, 23 Apr 2013 08:02:40 EST news285922953 Dalhousie neurosurgeon and scientist Dr. Rob Brownstone and postdoctoral fellow Dr. Tuan Bui have identified the spinal cord circuit that controls the hand's ability to grasp. This breakthrough finding opens the door to the possibility of restoring hand function with treatments that target this spinal cord circuit. The world's leading neuroscience journal, Neuron, will publish the researchers' finding online at 12 noon EST on Wednesday, April 10. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-function-spinal-cord-circuit-ability.html Neuroscience Wed, 10 Apr 2013 10:03:41 EST news284807007 When our noses pick up a scent, whether the aroma of a sweet rose or the sweat of a stranger at the gym, two types of sensory neurons are at work in sensing that odor or pheromone. These sensory neurons are particularly interesting because they are the only neurons in our bodies that regenerate throughout adult life—as some of our olfactory neurons die, they are soon replaced by newborns. Just where those neurons come from in the first place has long perplexed developmental biologists. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-biologists-olfactory-nerve-cells.html Neuroscience Mon, 25 Mar 2013 16:38:52 EST news283448324 A recent study conducted by a group of German scientists revealed the presence of a previously unknown cell in the urethra of mice. These chemosensory cholinergic brush cells are in close contact to sensory neurons that express cholinergic receptors. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-uncovers-cells-urethra-hazardous-substances.html Medical research Fri, 15 Mar 2013 03:00:01 EST news282499052 The skin is a human being's largest sensory organ, helping to distinguish between a pleasant contact, like a caress, and a negative sensation, like a pinch or a burn. Previous studies have shown that these sensations are carried to the brain by different types of sensory neurons that have nerve endings in the skin. Only a few of those neuron types have been identified, however, and most of those detect painful stimuli. Now biologists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have identified in mice a specific class of skin sensory neurons that reacts to an apparently pleasurable stimulus. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-sensations-biologists-individual-neurons-skin.html Neuroscience Wed, 30 Jan 2013 15:04:59 EST news278780662 Whether in society or nature, decisions are often the result of complex interactions between many factors. Because of this it is usually difficult to determine how much weight the different factors have in making a final decision. Neuroscientists face a similar problem since decisions made by the brain always involve many neurons. Working in collaboration, the University of Tübingen and the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, supported within the framework of the Bernstein Network, researchers lead by CIN professor Matthias Bethge have now shown how the weight of individual neurons in the decision-making process can be reconstructed despite interdependencies between the neurons. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-neuroscientists-decision-making-neurons.html Neuroscience Tue, 15 Jan 2013 17:31:43 EST news277493495 Researchers at Rush University Medical Center, in collaboration with researchers at Northwestern University, have identified a molecular mechanism central to the development of osteoarthritis (OA) pain, a finding that could have major implications for future treatment of this often-debilitating condition. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-scientists-home-osteoarthritis-pain.html Arthritis & Rheumatism Thu, 27 Dec 2012 16:29:52 EST news275848184 While studying the sense of touch, scientists at Duke Medicine have pinpointed specific neurons that appear to regulate perception. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-sensory-neurons-critical.html Neuroscience Thu, 25 Oct 2012 15:25:38 EST news270397497 (HealthDay)—A new vaccination approach may provide protection against genital herpes as well as other sexually transmitted infections, including HIV, according to a new study involving mice. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-vaccine-strategy-genital-herpes-mouse.html Medical research Wed, 17 Oct 2012 17:16:43 EST news269712996 A study by scientists from the Motor Neuron Center at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) suggests that spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), a genetic neuromuscular disease in infants and children, results primarily from motor circuit dysfunction, not motor neuron or muscle cell dysfunction, as is commonly thought. In a second study, the researchers identified the molecular pathway in SMA that leads to problems with motor function. Findings from the studies, conducted in fruit fly, zebrafish and mouse models of SMA, could lead to therapies for this debilitating and often fatal neuromuscular disease. Both studies were published today in the online edition of the journal Cell. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-mechanisms-underlying-major-childhood-neuromuscular.html Medical research Thu, 11 Oct 2012 12:34:52 EST news269177667 We've known for a while that the vestibular system in the inner ear is responsible for helping us keep our balance. And while researchers have already developed a basic understanding of how the brain constructs our perceptions of ourselves in motion, until now no one has understood the crucial step by which the neurons in the brain select the information needed to do so. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-vertigo.html Neuroscience Fri, 05 Oct 2012 10:01:23 EST news268649602 A new study finds that mice have a distinct neural subsystem that links the nose to the brain and is associated with instinctually important smells such as those emitted by predators. That insight, published online this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, prompts the question whether mice and other mammals have specially hardwired neural circuitry to trigger instinctive behavior in response to certain smells. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-mice-distinct-subsystem.html Neuroscience Mon, 23 Jul 2012 15:00:25 EST news262267312 A study characterizing the multipotency and transplantation value of olfactory stem cells, as well as the ease in obtaining them, has been published in a recent issue of Cell Transplantation (20:11/12), now freely available on-line. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-potential-impact-olfactory-stem-cells.html Medical research Tue, 05 Jun 2012 15:25:23 EST news258128717 Within the nasal cavity, millions of sensory neurons in a postage-stamp-sized patch of tissue called the olfactory epithelium control our sense of smell. Thanks to the exquisitely controlled expression of some 300 different olfactory receptor genes, each neuron can detect a small number of distinct volatile odorants. How these genes are regulated, however, has long been a mystery. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-gene-reveals-architecture-genes-responsible.html Genetics Fri, 18 May 2012 08:44:33 EST news256549451 McGill physiology research team sheds light on how the brain processes what we sense. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-revealing.html Neuroscience Wed, 25 Apr 2012 09:07:06 EST news254563598 Just like a road atlas faithfully maps real-word locations, our brain maps many aspects of our physical world: Sensory inputs from our fingers are mapped next to each other in the somatosensory cortex; the auditory system is organized by sound frequency; and the various tastes are signaled in different parts of the gustatory cortex. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-brain-odor.html Neuroscience Mon, 19 Mar 2012 15:00:01 EST news251375355 A significant obstacle to progress in understanding psychiatric disorders is the difficulty in obtaining living brain tissue for study so that disease processes can be studied directly. Recent advances in basic cellular neuroscience now suggest that, for some purposes, cultured neural stem cells may be studied in order to research psychiatric disease mechanisms. But where can one obtain these cells outside of the brain? http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-schizophrenia-path-brain-nose.html Psychology & Psychiatry Wed, 25 Jan 2012 09:27:31 EST news246706042 Drawing on X-ray crystallography and experimental data, as well as a software suite for predicting and designing protein structures, a UC Davis School of Medicine researcher has developed an algorithm that predicts what has been impossible to generate in the laboratory: the conformational changes in voltage-gated sodium channels when they are at rest or actively transmitting a signal in muscle and nerve cells. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-foster-drug-pain-epilepsy.html Medical research Mon, 12 Dec 2011 16:16:30 EST news242928978 University of California, Berkeley, neuroscientists have discovered a genetic trigger that makes the nose renew its smell sensors, providing hope for new therapies for people who have lost their sense of smell due to trauma or old age. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-neuroscientists-genetic-trigger-stem-cells.html Neuroscience Wed, 07 Dec 2011 12:29:07 EST news242483333 The olfactory sensory neurons in the nasal mucosa perceive the myriad smells in the air with the aid of odorant receptors. Each sensory neuron chooses one and only one receptor gene for expression. The probability that a particular receptor gene is chosen for expression determines how many olfactory sensory neurons in total produce this receptor type. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute of Biophysics in Frankfurt have unveiled an aspect of how the probability of the choice of an odorant receptor gene is regulated in olfactory sensory neurons. Regulatory elements in the genome regulate the probability of the choice of individual odorant receptor genes within a gene cluster. These elements act as on-off-switches for gene choice, but they do not regulate the number of receptor molecules that are produced by a cell once a particular gene is chosen for expression. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-gene-odorant-receptors.html Genetics Fri, 11 Nov 2011 12:52:29 EST news240238340 Scientists studying how the sense of smell changes as people age, found that olfactory sensory neurons in those 60 and over showed an unexpected response to odor that made it more difficult to distinguish specific smells, putting them at greater risk from dangerous chemicals and poor nutrition. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-elderly-ability-distinguish-odors.html Neuroscience Thu, 10 Nov 2011 12:45:00 EST news240151415 Hereditary neuropathies are common nervous system conditions characterized by progressive loss of muscle control and/or sensory function. There are no effective treatments. However, work in mice, by a team of researchers led by Florian Eichler, at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, has revealed a rational candidate oral therapy for one hereditary neuropathy -- hereditary sensory and autonomic neuropathy type 1 (HSAN1). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-therapy-inherited-nerve-dysfunction.html Medical research Tue, 01 Nov 2011 12:46:15 EST news239370369 How the brain controls impulsive behavior may be significantly different than psychologists have thought for the last 40 years. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-insight-impulse.html Neuroscience Tue, 30 Aug 2011 17:44:52 EST news233945073 For patients suffering from epidermolysis bullosa (EB), a hereditary skin disease, even a gentle touch is extremely painful. Now Dr. Li-Yang Chiang, Dr. Kate Poole and Professor Gary R. Lewin of the Max Delbruck Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) in Berlin-Buch have discovered the causes underlying this disease. Due to a genetic defect, individuals with EB cannot form laminin-332, a structural molecule of the skin that in healthy individuals inhibits the transduction of tactile stimuli and neuronal branching. According to the findings of the MDC researchers, this explains why EB patients are more sensitive to touch and experience it as painful. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-patients-epidermolysis-bullosa-extreme-pain.html Neuroscience Fri, 08 Jul 2011 10:20:51 EST news229339234 A single interneuron controls activity adaptively in 50,000 neurons, enabling consistently sparse codes for odors. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-giant-interneuron-sparse-coding.html Neuroscience Fri, 13 May 2011 10:41:40 EST news224502069 There is finally definitive proof in a preclinical study published in Science on April 7 about which sensory neurons control innate (inborn and immediate) immunity in a pathogen’s presence. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-04-neurons-role-innate-immunity-presence.html Medical research Wed, 13 Apr 2011 17:25:15 EST news221934293