Neuroscience

New experiences enhance learning by resetting key brain circuit

A study of spatial learning in mice shows that exposure to new experiences dampens established representations in the brain's hippocampus and prefrontal cortex, allowing the mice to learn new navigation strategies. The study, ...

Psychology & Psychiatry

Scientists find gender-distinct circuit for depression

Depression affects women nearly twice as much as men, but unraveling the brain's blueprint that regulates this behavior, let alone identifying specific molecular differences between sexes, has proven difficult.

Neuroscience

Negative memory storage affects depression symptoms

Physical manifestations of negative memories in the hippocampus could underlie cognitive symptoms of depression, according to research in mice published in JNeurosci. Inhibiting these manifestations could be a future treatment ...

Neuroscience

Sleep readies synapses for learning

Synapses in the hippocampus are larger and stronger after sleep deprivation, according to new research in mice published in JNeurosci. Overall, this study supports the idea that sleep may universally weaken synapses that ...

Genetics

Schizophrenia: Adolescence is the game-changer

Schizophrenia causes hallucinations and memory or cognition problems inter alia. This psychiatric illness affects 0.5 percent of the general population, and it may be related to genetic abnormalities of chromosome 22, known ...

Neuroscience

Blocking protein curbs memory loss in old mice

Impeding VCAM1, a protein that tethers circulating immune cells to blood vessel walls, enabled old mice to perform as well on memory and learning tests as young mice, a Stanford study found.

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