neurons

Researchers have successfully completed a full-genome RNAi screen in neurons, showing what types of genes are necessary for brain development.

Transplanted cells to help Parkinson's patients can survive in the brain for over one and half decades. However, some of the transplanted cells developed Parkinson-like features which is very surprising.

These are the main findings of a study on grafting of new neurons to the brain in patients with Parkinson's disease.

'Previous studies have shown that transplanted dopamine cells can clearly improve speed of movement, reduce rigidity and the need for medication for at least a decade', says a Neurobiology professor involved with the research.

"Mother cells" which produce the neurons affected by Parkinson's disease have been identified by scientists. The new discovery could pave the way for future treatments for the disease, including the possibility of growing new neurons, and the cells which support them, in the lab.

Scientists hope these could then be transplanted into patients to counteract the damage caused by Parkinson's.

Neurons grafted into the brain of a patient with Parkinson's disease fourteen years ago have developed Lewy body pathology, the defining pathology for the disease, according to new research in Nature Medicine.

Do humans hear better than animals? It is known that various species of land and water-based living creatures are capable of hearing some lower and higher frequencies than humans are capable of detecting.

However, scientists have now for the first time demonstrated how the reactions of single neurons give humans the capability of detecting fine differences in frequencies better than animals.

An increased number of neuron "hubs" in the epileptic brain may be the root cause for the seizures that characterize the disorder, according to a new study.

Scientists have identified that these hubs -- a small number of highly connected neurons -- are formed in the hippocampus during the transition from a healthy brain to an epileptic one.

A new discovery suggests a safer way to treat medulloblastoma, a rare but often fatal childhood brain tumor.

Researchers discovered that proteins BMP2, BMP4 and BMP7 inhibit the growth of medulloblastoma tumors, while inducing malignant cells to develop into normal neurons, a finding that may lead to better treatments for the cancer.