Behavioral Neuroscience – News and Features

Study demonstrates that the immune system can produce cells with stem cell properties that can create different types of cells such as neurons in the adult animal Researchers have strived for years to determine how neurons are produced and integrated into the brain throughout adult life.

Results may be key in identifying and treating earliest signs of neurodevelopmental disorders A recent study conducted by researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and the University of Hawaii demonstrates a new approach to measuring early brain development of infants, resulting in more accurate whole brain growth charts and providing the first estimates for growth trajectories of subcortical areas during the first three months after birth.

In an extensive study of sleep monitoring and sleeping pill use in astronauts, researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders, Harvard Medical School, and the University of Colorado found that astronauts suffer considerable sleep deficiency in the weeks leading up to and during space flight.

People who suffer from a rare illness, the Mal de Debarquement Syndrome (MdDS), now have a chance for full recovery thanks to treatment developed by researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

UCSF researchers use microfluidic technology to probe human brain development.

Larger set of human tissues to be analyzed to contribute to a database and tissue bank that researchers can use to study how genomic variants influence gene activity.

Eating baked or broiled fish once a week is good for the brain, regardless of how much omega-3 fatty acid it contains, according to researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. The findings, published online recently in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, add to growing evidence that lifestyle factors contribute to brain health later in life.

A Japanese research group led by Prof Norihiro Sadato, a professor of the National Institute for Physiological Sciences (NIPS), National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS), has found that people with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have decreased activity in an area in the brain critical for understanding if his/her movement was imitated by others.

The advance opens a new window to study protein interactions in cell membranes in exquisite detail.

By studying the injuries and aptitudes of Vietnam War veterans who suffered penetrating head wounds during the war, scientists are tackling- and beginning to answer- longstanding questions about how the brain works.