Month: January 2018
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Researchers suggest a new approach to improve neuron grafts in people suffering from Parkinson’s disease
Treating people affected by Parkinson’s disease by grafting healthy neurons is an attractive idea which has not yet given the anticipated results up until now. Even if grafted neurons survive, they are not able to recreate the dopaminergic neuron circuits that are essential for normal brain function. An international team led by Martin Lévesque, professor…
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Progression of Parkinson’s disease follows brain connectivity
A study by a group of researchers led by Alain Dagher from The Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital of McGill University has tested the theory that brain degeneration in Parkinson’s disease (PD) originates in subcortical regions and spreads along neural networks to the cerebral cortex. By analyzing data on PD patients and healthy controls collected…
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Researcher Hideto Takahashi decrypts signals from neurons
A discovery by Hideto Takahashi and his team paves the way for a better understanding of the mechanisms of neuropsychiatric disorders. Did you know? Your body is made up of a hundred billion nerve cells that, like small computers, receive, process and deliver crucial information to your body. These machines are your neurons. They form…
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A non-invasive method to detect Alzheimer’s disease
Volume in brain region linked to physiological changes characteristic of AD New research has drawn a link between changes in the brain’s anatomy and biomarkers that are known to appear at the earliest stages of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), findings that could one day provide a sensitive but non-invasive test for AD before cognitive symptoms appear.
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How chronic social stress can lead to depression
A recent publication by Caroline Ménard shows that chronic stress, as occurs in cases of bullying, can make the blood-brain barrier more permeable to contaminants and microbes that may be in the blood. As the brains of depressed individuals show signs of inflammation, Caroline Ménard and her colleagues had hypothesized that leakiness of the blood…