Research from the IRCM contributes to our understanding of how our brain locates painful stimuli
When you experience a painful sensation such as touching a hot stove with your hand, the pain is restricted to your hand, allowing you to remove it quickly from the source of heat. How does the brain know that the pain is indeed coming from your hand and not from anywhere else on your body? Work recently published by Montreal Clinical Research Institute (IRCM) researchers help clarifying this question. Continue reading →
University of Calgary research study benefits people with severe essential tremor
Elias Pharaon is 85 years old and can sign his name for the first time in five years thanks to a new way to do brain surgery. Performed by a team of University of Calgary physicians and researchers with the Hotchkiss Brain Institute, magnetic resonance guided focused ultrasound (MRgFUS) is a new technology that allows surgeons to access the brain without cutting the skin or drilling into the skull. Continue reading →
Pimozide, known for treating certain psychiatric conditions, may stabilize progression of the disease. The University of Calgary’s Lawrence Korngut is leading a clinical trial with nine hospital centres across Canada to recruit patients for further study. If you took part in the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, you may have wondered where the money raised by the millions of people who poured buckets of ice water over their heads went. Some of those funds are being invested in a University of Calgary research study investigating a potential drug treatment for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients. Continue reading →
UCalgary researchers discover stress isn’t just contagious; it alters the brain on a cellular level
In a new study in Nature Neuroscience, Jaideep Bains, PhD, and his team at the Cumming School of Medicine’s Hotchkiss Brain Institute (HBI), at the University of Calgary have discovered that stress transmitted from others can change the brain in the same way as a real stress does. The study, in mice, also shows that the effects of stress on the brain are reversed in female mice following a social interaction. This was not true for male mice. Continue reading →
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 at Université Laval and researcher at the CERVO Brain Research Centre, might have figured out why. In a recent edition of Nature Communications, the researchers propose a “recipe” to produce neurons that could reconstitute the neuron circuits that are destroyed by Parkinson’s disease. Continue reading →
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 over one year, the researchers found that brain regions closely connected to subcortical regions showed the most degeneration over the one-year period in PD patients, and that this happens earlier than previously thought. Continue reading →
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 the very foundation of your nervous system. It is through them that your brain converts the data transmitted by your retina into images and that your mood adapts to the situations you are living. Continue reading →
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. Continue reading →
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 brain barrier could allow molecules and microbes to reach the brain, causing inflammation. Continue reading →
Use the Fundamental Science Review (the Naylor Report) as a framework for long-term support of science and research. In particular, the government should invest in investigator-led research, the Canadian Foundation for Innovation, applied sciences research institutions, as well as in agricultural research. The government should also expand access to the Canadian Graduate Scholarship program.
Call to action: Budget 2018
Read our latest Call to action to encourage increases tri-council investments in Budget 2018:
The Minister of Finance, Bill Morneau, has launched a new consultation for the 2018 budget, which is currently being drafted. We encourage you strongly to participate in this initiative, to convince the government that science funding can’t wait.
Visit the SupportTheReport.ca website to find resources and calls to action to support the implementation of the Naylor Report.
CAN participates in Canada’s Standing Committee on Finance pre-budget consultations
CAN representatives and members participated in the pre-budget consultations of Canada’s Standing Committee on Finance (FINA) in Montreal and Toronto on October 18th and 20th 2017. CAN advocacy officer Jason Tetro, CAN member Melanie Woodin, and CAN Chief Operating Officer Julie Poupart all made statements to the committee, which can be viewed here: CAN participates in Canada’s Standing Committee on Finance pre-budget consultations
Canada’s Fundamental Science Review
Have you read the Naylor report yet? It is available on the sciencereview.ca website. We will work, with partners, to ensure it is implemented in policy.
#SummerOfScienceCAN
A step-by-step guide for researchers connecting with Members of Parliament, by the Association of Canadian Early Career Health Researchers
Plan a visit to your MP to talk to them about the importance of implementing the Naylor report.
Canada-wide Brain Research Strategy Development
Canada needs a national brain research strategy, which could be implemented with additional government funding, in order to drive transformative outcomes in neurological and mental health for Canadians.
A presentation of the Canadian Brain Research Strategy (CBRS) was made at CAN2017 by Lynn Raymond and Yves DeKoninck, partnered with presentations from the Neurological Health Charities Canada (NHCC), the Canadian College of Neuropyschopharmacology (CCNP), and Brain Canada.
The Canadian Association for Neuroscience is proud to endorse the March for Science, which is a call to support and safeguard the scientific community, and to reaffirm that science is a non-partisan, fact based endeavour that benefits the whole of humanity. (read our full statement here: March for Science, April 22 2017 )
CAN Presenting Canadian Neuroscience to MPs in Ottawa in February 2017!
CAN participated in a Neuroscience luncheon, organised with Research Canada for the Health research caucus on Parliament Hill on February 13th 2017. During this event, Beverley Orser and Charles Bourque delivered lectures to showcase great examples of how investment in basic research can and does lead to improved treatment strategies.
The federal budget for 2017 is being finalized right now. We encourage you to send an email to Prime Minister Trudeau and Finance Minister Bill Morneau to urge them to increase the CIHR budget. As you know, Project Grants are expected to have a 7-8% success rate unless the CIHR budget is significantly increased by the current government. It is very important to let the government know about the dire situation our labs are facing. These emails do matter! Please, send your letter and encourage your colleagues to do the same.
Please also consider signing the petition launched by the Canadian Society of Molecular Biosciences:
The double-double: Investment in scientific excellence and job creation
After the important investments into infrastructure and equipment we now encourage the federal government to take the third and most important next step: enable our researchers to use their equipment and facilities by providing them with the necessary operating funds. On behalf of Canadian scientists, we request a doubling of the budgets for open operating grants of CIHR and NSERC by the end of the first mandate of the Liberal government.
View the petition on the CSMB website, and add your name:
