Category: News

Mimicking brain plasticity in children to control post-traumatic stress

Posted on | by Julie
Marisol Lavertu-Jolin, étudiante de doctorat au moment des travaux et première auteure de l’étude, et Graziella Di Cristo, spécialiste en neurosciences au CHU Sainte-Justine CRÉDIT : CHARLINE PROVOST
Marisol Lavertu-Jolin, et Graziella Di Cristo

The CHU Sainte-Justine team, led by Graziella Di Cristo, has made an important breakthrough in the treatment of people suffering from symptoms associated with post-traumatic stress.

Could we temporarily increase brain plasticity in adults to decrease fear and anxiety responses in people who have experienced trauma? CHU Sainte-Justine Neuroscientist Graziella Di Cristo and her team were determined to find out. In a new study on mice, she was able to control fear responses by inducing desensitization to fear memories simultaneously with a temporary increase in brain malleability through control of gene activation. This is an exciting breakthrough for the treatment of people with symptoms related to post-traumatic stress. Continue reading →

Congratulations to the winners of the 2022 CAN- CIHR-INMHA Brain Star Awards!

Posted on | by Julie

The Canadian Association for Neuroscience (CAN) and the Canadian Institutes of Health’s Institute of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction (CIHR-INMHA) are proud to announce the winners of the 2022 Brain Star Awards.

The CIHR-INMHA Brain Star awards, administered by the Canadian Association for Neuroscience, are awarded to students and trainees who have published high impact discoveries in all fields and disciplines covered by CIHR’s Institute of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction in the 2022 calendar year.

The top 3 Brain Star Award winners of the year have been invited to make a presentation at the CAN meeting in May.

Learn more about the Brain Star Award winners of 2022

Spring 2023 election results

Posted on | by Julie

We are happy to announce the results of the Spring 2023 elections!

We want to thank all candidates who showed interest in serving the community and all those who took the time to vote.

The following members were elected and will take office on June 1, 2023 Continue reading →

Drs. Arkady Khoutorsky and Bratislav Misic win 2023 CAN New Investigator Awards

Posted on | by Julie

The Canadian Association for Neuroscience is very proud to present Dr. Arkady Khoutorsky, Associate Professor in the Department of Anesthesia and Faculty of Dental Medicine and Oral Health Sciences at McGill University, and Dr. Bratislav Misic, leader of the Network Neuroscience Lab at the Montreal Neurological Institute 2023 CAN New Investigator awards.

Dr. Arkady Khoutorsky is making disruptive contributions in two key areas of neuroscience: translational control in neurological disorders and chronic pain, and his work in both areas is bringing forward new concepts for developing novel types of therapeutic interventions. Read his full profile here: Arkady Khoutorsky wins a 2023 CAN New Investigator award for pioneering research on chronic pain and neurological disorders.

Dr. Bratislav Misic studies how cognition and behaviour emerge from the links and interactions among brain areas. His innovative work, integrating in vivo neuroimaging, statistical learning and network science, is profoundly transforming the field’s understanding of multi-scale structure-function relationships in the brain. Read his full profile here: Bratislav Misic wins a CAN 2023 New Investigator Award for ground-breaking work on brain networks

The CHU Sainte-Justine makes a giant step forward in understanding autism

Posted on | by Julie
Roberto Araya, Soledad Miranda Rottmann, Diana Mitchell (photo Charline Provost)

source: chusj.org

Source : CHU Sainte-Justine Research Centre

MONTREAL, February 16, 2023– Results of a new study led by Roberto Araya, a neuroscientist, biophysicist and researcher at the CHU Sainte-Justine Research Centre, show that in Fragile X syndrome (FXS), the most common cause of autism, sensory signals from the outside world are integrated differently, causing them to be underrepresented by cortical pyramidal neurons in the brain. Continue reading →

RI-MUHC and McGill researchers make a breakthrough in understanding brain nanoarchitecture, using computer vision

Posted on | by Julie
image credit RI-MUHC

A new study published in Current Biology reveals the nanostructure of brain cells at an unprecedented level of resolution

SOURCE: RI-MUHC.

Brain cells are among the most anatomically complex cells in the human body. They create an intricate web of connections that enables the brain to detect, process, encode and respond to diverse information. Importantly, communication breakdown between brain cells leads to disorders and diseases such as dementia and Alzheimer’s disease that affects an estimated 50 million people worldwide. Continue reading →

CAN holds its first in-person Hill Day in Ottawa November 3, 2022

Posted on | by Julie

The Canadian Association for Neuroscience held its first in-person Parliament Hill Day on November 3, 2022 in Ottawa. It was an opportunity for our team of neuroadvocates to meet face to face or virtually with members of Parliament, Senators, Parliamentary staff members and important senior civil servants to advocate for a increased support for CIHR, NSERC and SSHRC, graduate scholarships and postdoctoral fellowships, and to make research on Brain and Mental Health a national priority. Continue reading →

Saving more stroke patients

Posted on | by Julie
Man with heavy headache or brain stroke - conceptual artwork - 3d illustration - Gray scale Image

Man with heavy headache or brain stroke – conceptual artwork – 3d illustration – Gray scale Image

Approximately 20,000 Quebecers suffer a cerebrovascular accident every year. Nearly 90% are caused by a blood clot that blocks the brain’s blood vessels and, by the same token, its supply of oxygen and nutrients. Deprived of oxygen, some 1.9 million nerve cells die every minute following a stroke.

While no treatment can restore brain function, there is a therapeutic approach that helps limit the damage. It involves injecting a thrombolytic agent that dissolves the clot and restores blood flow. It must be administered within 4.5 hours of the stroke, after which the risk of bleeding increases. But according to the Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux du Québec, 66% of stroke victims don’t arrive at the hospital in time to benefit from the medication. The result: close to 3,000 deaths annually and 130,000 people living with physical and psychological effects. Continue reading →