Our brains contain billions of neurons connected by trillions of synapses. Untangling that wiring may seem impossible, yet a research team from Baylor College of Medicine has taken a major step toward this goal by systematically mapping the local circuitry of the mouse neocortex, the brain’s outer layer associated with perception and higher cognitive functions. … Read more

Summary: Fetal placental macrophages reflect the state of fetal brain microglia, the resident immune cells critical for brain development. Maternal immune activation—driven by infections, obesity, metabolic inflammation, environmental exposures, or stress—can alter microglial programming in utero and increase the risk of neurodevelopmental disorders in offspring. New research from Massachusetts General Hospital used mouse models to … Read more

Summary: Researchers using a novel immuno-infrared sensor have identified blood-based biomarkers that indicate Alzheimer’s disease up to 17 years before clinical symptoms appear. The sensor detects misfolding of the amyloid-beta protein, an early event that later leads to plaque formation in the brain. Source: RUB Alzheimer’s disease has a long preclinical phase that can span … Read more

Summary: A study published in Neurology found an association between longer cumulative breastfeeding and a lower risk of developing multiple sclerosis (MS). Women who breastfed for a total of 15 months or more across one or more pregnancies had a lower likelihood of an MS diagnosis than women who breastfed for four months or less, … Read more

Summary: Dietary cocoa flavanols—naturally occurring compounds in cocoa beans—may modestly improve certain aspects of memory in older adults, according to a recent randomized clinical trial. Source: Alzheimer’s Research UK Clinical trial overview A controlled clinical trial led by researchers at Columbia University and New York University investigated whether a 12-week dietary supplement containing cocoa flavanols … Read more

Summary: Researchers report that an autism-associated mutation in the extracellular matrix protein Hevin disrupts its folding and secretion, increasing splicing errors and triggering endoplasmic reticulum stress via activation of the unfolded protein response. Source: University of Tsukuba A common disruption in everyday life—getting stuck in a traffic jam—serves as an illustrative analogy for a newly … Read more

Summary: New research using artificial neural networks shows that number sense can emerge spontaneously from the visual system, without any prior counting experience. Source: University of Tübingen Humans and many animals possess an innate “number sense” — the ability to estimate how many objects are present in a scene. Neuroscientists attribute this ability to so-called … Read more

Additional tool accelerates personalized medicine research. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University have developed a faster way to convert a patient’s skin cells into neural crest–like cells that reproduce many of the biological features of familial dysautonomia, a rare genetic disorder. By combining specific growth conditions, chemical compounds and controlled activation of a single gene, the … Read more

Summary: New study uncovers a signaling pathway that controls local protein synthesis to shape synapse formation between excitatory pyramidal neurons and parvalbumin-expressing inhibitory interneurons. Source: King’s College London Researchers at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King’s College London report that precise control of protein synthesis at individual synapse types is essential … Read more

Summary: A newly developed technique called parallel near-infrared interferometric spectroscopy (πNIRS) markedly improves real‑time, noninvasive monitoring of cerebral blood flow across the brain. Source: Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences Monitoring adequate blood supply to the brain is essential both for preventing neurological disease and for guiding treatment. The parallel near‑infrared … Read more