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An interconnection between the nervous and immune system

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Stylized illustration of a newly-discovered signaling pathway, which sees the central nervous system use adrenal hormone manufacturing to probably disrupt the immune system in a manner which will result in extreme infections. Credit score: Harald Prüss A newly-discovered reflex arc mediates a course of which results in a disruption within the hormones secreted by the adrenal glands which, in flip, ends in an elevated susceptibility to bacterial infections. This analysis breaks new floor within the improvement of therapies to cut back the incidence of infections, and its outcomes have been printed within the present difficulty of  Nature Neuroscience . Accidents to the mind or spinal twine, resembling these attributable to stroke or trauma, lead to a substantial weakening of the immune system. This typically results in extreme infections, resembling pneumonia or urinary tract infections, which hamper nervous tissue regeneration i...
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Cell model of brain provides new knowledge of developmental disease

Lissencephaly is a rare congenital developmental disease that can be caused by, amongst other anomalies, a mutation of the DCX gene. Affected individuals are born with serious developmental disabilities and a brain that is smooth instead of folded. The discovery that it is possible to reprogramme specialised cells such as skin cells in order to reverse their development back to stem cells was rewarded with the 2012 Nobel Prize. The resulting so-called iPS-cells (induced pluripotent stem cells) can then be turned into other specialised cell types. Anna Falk, docent at Karolinska Institutet's Department of Neuroscience, uses this technique to build cell models of the human brain. In the present study, her team took skin cells from patients with lissencephaly and turned them into iPS cells, which they then cultivated under special conditions into neuronal stem cells and neurons that are copies of those in the patients' brains. By examining the cell cultivation dishes, the ...
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New tool to assess individual's level of wisdom

he findings are published in the September 2017 issue of the  Journal of Psychiatric Research . "There is evidence to suggest that the level of wisdom is dictated to a large degree by neurobiology, and that distinct regions and systems in the brain govern the identified components of wisdom," said Dilip Jeste, MD, Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry and Neurosciences and director of the UC San Diego Center for Healthy Aging. "There are measures now that assess a person's level of wisdom, but they do not incorporate these emerging neurobiological models of the trait. SD-WISE reflects the latest thinking. We believe it may be a useful tool in clinical practice, in addition to its value in bio-psycho-social research, especially investigations into the neurobiology of wisdom and possible interventions to enhance it." Jeste, with colleagues at UC San Diego and Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System, randomly recruited 524 residents of San Diego Count...
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Mathematical simulations shed new light on epilepsy surgery

About 100,000 people in the Netherlands suffer from epilepsy, a disorder characterized by recurrent seizures. In two thirds of patients, the disorder responds well to medicinal treatment. In some cases, surgical removal of a small brain region is the best option. However, the region in question varies from one patient to another. This poses neurologists with a dilemma -- exactly which region needs to be removed? In many cases, they select regions of brain tissue that -- in an MRI image, for example -- appear to have an abnormal structure. Mathematicians from the University of Twente, together with researchers from the University Medical Center Utrecht, have used computer simulations to show that it may sometimes be better to remove regions with a normal appearance rather than 'abnormal' brain tissue. Jurgen Hebbink , one of the researchers involved, points out that "Our model yields insight into the key role that the network structure can play. In our simulations it...
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You can 'pick up' a good or bad mood from your friends, study suggests

A team led by the University of Warwick has examined whether friends' moods can affect an individual therefore implying that moods may spread across friendship networks. The team analysed data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health which incorporates the moods and friendship networks of US adolescents in schools. Their paper Spreading of components of mood in adolescent social networks has been published in the journal  Royal Society Open Science . The team's findings imply that mood does spread over friendship networks, as do various different symptoms of depression such as helplessness and loss of interest. However they also found that they also found that the effect from lower or worse mood friends was not strong enough to push the other friends into depression. Using mathematical modelling they found that having more friends who suffer worse moods is associated with a higher probability of an individual experiencing low moods and a decrease...
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Newly ID'd role of major Alzheimer's gene suggests possible therapeutic target

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Elements of the mind vital for reminiscence have atrophied in a mouse carrying the high-risk Alzheimer's gene ApoE4, leaving a big fluid-filled gap within the mind (white space in photograph at left), in contrast with a a lot smaller one in a mouse with out the gene (proper). A brand new examine led by researchers at Washington College Faculty of Medication in St. Louis exhibits that the presence of ApoE4 exacerbates mind harm associated to the Alzheimer's protein tau. Credit score: Yang Shi Practically 1 / 4 century in the past, a genetic variant generally known as ApoE4 was recognized as a serious threat issue for Alzheimer's illness -- one which will increase an individual's probabilities of growing the neurodegenerative illness by as much as 12 instances. Nevertheless, it was by no means clear why the ApoE4 variant was so hazardous. When the ApoE4 protein is current, clumps of the protein amyloid beta accumulate wi...
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Oxytocin turns up the volume of your social environment

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A brand new examine from UC Davis working with a mouse mannequin of social nervousness reveals that the "love hormone" oxytocin can improve unfavorable in addition to constructive experiences. After social stress, feminine California mice have extra energetic oxytocin cells within the mind and keep away from novel social conditions. Inhibiting the motion of oxytocin within the mind can restore regular social conduct in feminine mice that skilled social stress. Credit score: Natalia Duque-Wilckens, UC Davis Earlier than you store for the "cuddle" hormone oxytocin to alleviate stress and improve your social life, learn this: a brand new examine from the College of California, Davis, means that generally, blocking the motion of oxytocin within the mind could also be a greater possibility. The outcomes are printed on-line within the journal  Organic Psychiatry . Typically popularly referred to as the "love hormon...
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