Author: Julie
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Sick Kids Researchers Are Using A Systematic Approach To Understand How Neurons Arise
What convinces a stem cell to determine its fate? It’s one of the most persistent questions in modern biology. Research over the last four decades has revealed there is no easy answer. For example, in the brain, stem cells in the embryo produce all of the different cell types at precise times and amounts. If…
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UBC Researchers May Have Found How “Electrical Volume Control” Develops In The Brain
It’s an experience most of us have encountered at one time or another. We turn on the radio, stereo, television, or YouTube video and the volume is just too loud. Our reactions are almost immediate combining a mixture of frustration, helplessness, and a need to turn down the sound. Thankfully, we quickly can adjust the…
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High-speed connections
Researchers find a mechanism that allows the brain to reconfigure connections between neurons in mere minutes. A team from the Quebec Mental Health Institute – Université Laval has discovered a mechanism that allows the brain to rapidly reconfigure connections between its neurons. According to the researchers, whose findings were published in a recent issue of…
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Researchers find new role for cannabinoids in vision
Chemicals found to improve low-light vision of tadpoles by sensitizing retinal cells A multidisciplinary team including researchers from the Montreal Neurological Institute has improved our understanding of how cannabinoids, the active agent in marijuana, affect vision in vertebrates. Scientists used a variety of methods to test how tadpoles react to visual stimuli when they’ve been…
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New path of discovery in Parkinson’s disease
Neuron cell death may be caused by overactive immune system A team of scientists led by Dr. Michel Desjardins from the University of Montreal and Dr. Heidi McBride from the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital (MNI) at McGill University have discovered that two genes associated with Parkinson’s disease (PD) are key regulators of the immune…
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Middle-age memory decline a matter of changing focus
Research sheds new light on what constitutes healthy aging of the brain The inability to remember details, such as the location of objects, begins in early midlife (the 40s) and may be the result of a change in what information the brain focuses on during memory formation and retrieval, rather than a decline in brain…
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“Big Data” study discovers earliest sign of Alzheimer’s
Research underlines importance of computational power in future neurological breakthrough. Scientists at the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital have used a powerful tool to better understand the progression of late-onset Alzheimer’s disease (LOAD), identifying its first physiological signs. Led by Dr. Alan Evans, a professor of neurology, neurosurgery and biomedical engineering at the Neuro, the…
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Hummingbird vision wired to avoid high-speed collisions
Hummingbirds are among nature’s most agile fliers. They can travel faster than 50 kilometres per hour and stop on a dime to navigate through dense vegetation. Now researchers have discovered that the tiny birds process visual information differently from other animals, perhaps to handle the demands of their extreme aerial acrobatics. “Birds fly faster than…
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Sick Kids Researchers May Have Finally Figured Out Why We Can Remember Multiple Memories at Once
Have you ever noticed when you remember something from your past, you may also recall other moments from that time. It seems to be even more pronounced when remembering a moving event, such as the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the demise of the space shuttle Challenger, and more recently, the tragic events of…
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Understanding how chemical changes in the brain affect Alzheimer’s disease
A new study from Western University is helping to explain why the long-term use of common anticholinergic drugs used to treat conditions like allergies and overactive bladder lead to an increased risk of developing dementia later in life. The findings show that long-term suppression of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine – a target for anticholinergic drugs –…