New study published in Nature by Claire Gizowski and Charles Bourque is first to establish physiological signals influence circadian rhythms
A new study from McGill University shows that increases in the concentrations of blood sodium can have an influence on the biological clock of mice, opening new research avenues for potentially treating the negative effects associated with long distance travel or shift work. Continue reading
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 2019 Brain Star Awards.
This is a tragic and painful time for the Black community all over the world, including here in Canada. The Canadian Association for Neuroscience condemns racism in all its forms. The tragic death of George Floyd and many others obligate all of us to reflect on important questions about systemic forms of racism present in our society today. Continue reading
It has long been appreciated that sensory experience helps to refine the connectivity of the brain during development. In 1949, Canadian psychologist Donald Hebb proposed that when different brain cells were consistently active at the same time as one another and acted in synchrony, the connections they formed would be strengthened as a result of their cooperation. This so-called “Hebb rule” for circuit remodeling is sometimes restated as “cells that fire together, wire together.”, and helps explain how the wiring of the brain could be fine-tuned in response to sensory input. Fast forward 70 years and many of the artificial neural networks we rely on today to make accurate predictions from large datasets rely on digital implementations of various learning rules, including variants of Hebb’s rule, that underlie their ability to learn associations. Continue reading
UCalgary researchers discover that a group of ancient cells may play a key role in controlling stress
Stress is ubiquitous, and at no time in recent memory has this been more evident than right now — on a global scale. Our survival depends on our ability to continually adjust and respond to ever-evolving challenges in our world.
Interestingly, how we manage stress now has implications for how we will manage stress in the future. It is not necessarily about the actions we take now, but rather whether we feel our actions give us some control over the outcome during a difficult time. Psychologists and neuroscientists have pondered this ‘stress control’ theory for decades, but how the brain intertwines the perception of controllability of one situation into decisions and actions for future situations has not been well understood. Continue reading
We are very proud to announce that Mihaela Iordanova, from Concordia University, has been named CAN’s 2020 Young Investigator Award winner!
Learn more about this exceptional neuroscientist on Mihaela Iordanova’s Young Investigator Award winner profile page.
The Public Health Agency of Canada has sent a second call for items and reagents for the public health laboratories
As with ‘Round 1” please forward any items to:
Rita Finley (rita.finley@canada.ca)
We have been made aware by some of our members that the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) has sent out an urgent request for reagents, specifically RNA extraction reagents for COVID19 testing. If you have such reagents in your laboratory that you could donate (view list below) please consider doing so. If the laboratories have materials that we could use and are not included in the list, feel free to let us know and we will share with the National Microbiology Laboratory and asses their current requirements.
The contact person at the PHAC is Rita Finley (rita.finley@canada.ca). As this is a time-sensitive request please let her know directly what you have available. Continue reading
Read a new article by Université Laval news on a discovery by Martin Lévesque’s team
Cellular cogs of hyperactivity uncovered – Study clarifies the role of dopaminergic neurons in hyperactivity and suggests a mechanism of action for Ritalin
The cellular mechanism uncovered by the researchers could explain the mode of action of Ritalin in humans. The drug is believed to block the reuptake of dopamine by neurons, thereby prolonging the effects of this neurotransmitter.
Although about one in 10 people will suffer from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in their lifetime, the cellular causes of this health problem are still very poorly understood. A study published in Cell Reports by a team from Laval University’s CERVO Research Centre now sheds some light on the subject. The researchers were able to determine which type of neurons are involved in the development of hyperactivity in mice and the cellular mechanisms involved. This breakthrough suggests a plausible mode of action for Ritalin, a drug widely prescribed for ADHD, but whose mechanism of action is unknown. Continue reading
Discovery brings hope for novel pain treatment
Researchers at McGill University have discovered that a protein found in the membrane of our sensory neurons are involved in our capacity to feel mechanical pain, laying the foundation for the development of powerful new analgesic drugs.
The study, published in Cell, is the first to show that TACAN, a highly conserved protein among vertebrates whose function remained unclear, is in fact involved in detecting mechanical pain by converting mechanical pressures into electric signals. Continue reading