Neuroscience

Overwhelmed? Your astrocytes can help with that

A brimming inbox on Monday morning sets your head spinning. You take a moment to breathe and your mind clears enough to survey the emails one by one. This calming effect occurs thanks to a newly discovered brain circuit involving ...

Neuroscience

Astrocyte cells critical for learning skilled movements

From steering a car to swinging a tennis racket, we learn to execute all kinds of skilled movements during our lives. You might think this learning is only implemented by neurons, but a new study by researchers at The Picower ...

Medical research

Acid glia in REM sleep: Stronger acid response in epileptic mice

Researchers at Tohoku University have shown that astrocytes—star-shaped glial cells that control the local ionic and metabotropic environment of the brain—exhibit an acid response with REM sleep in mice. They theorize ...

Medical research

Calming the destructive cells of ALS by two independent approaches

Northwestern Medicine scientists have discovered two ways to preserve diseased upper motor neurons that would normally be destroyed in ALS, based on a study in mice. Upper motor neurons initiate movement, and they degenerate ...

Psychology & Psychiatry

Stem cells may help identify new schizophrenia drugs

Inflammation and overactivation of the immune system in the brain can cause loss of synapses and the death of neurons, leading to neurodegenerative and psychiatric diseases.

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