Nervous System News

February 11, 2025

Top Headlines

How Does the Brain Differentiate New Stimuli from Old Ones?

Feb. 10, 2025 — A study sheds light on how networks in the brain detect new information, offering insight into disorders like ...

From Muscle to Memory: New Research Uses Clues from the Body to Understand Signaling in the Brain

Feb. 7, 2025 — New research shows that a network of subcellular structures similar to those responsible for propagating molecular signals that make muscles contract are also responsible for transmitting signals in ...

Largest Study Ever Done on Cannabis and Brain Function Finds Impact on Working Memory

Jan. 28, 2025 — A new study explores the effects of both recent and lifetime cannabis use on brain function during cognitive tasks. The study, the largest of its kind ever to be completed, examined the effects of ...

Scientists Discover Brain Mechanism That Helps Us Overcome Fear

Feb. 6, 2025 — Researchers have unveiled the precise brain mechanisms that enable animals to overcome instinctive fears. The study in mice could have implications for developing therapeutics for fear-related disorders such as phobias, anxiety and post-traumatic ...

Latest Headlines

updated 8:54pm EST

Spinal Cord Stimulation Restores Neural Function, Targets Key Feature of Progressive Neurodegenerative Disease

Feb. 5, 2025 — Boosting communication between the spinal nerves and the muscles using the spinal cord stimulation reverses spinal muscle atrophy (SMA) progression ...

Researchers Discover the Brain Cells That Tell You to Stop Eating

Feb. 5, 2025 — Newly discovered brain cells count each bite before sending the order to cease eating a ...

Meditation Induces Changes in Deep Brain Areas Associated With Memory and Emotional Regulation

Feb. 4, 2025 — Findings provide insight about its potential as a noninvasive ...

Positive Emotions Plus Deep Sleep Equals Longer-Lasting Perceptual Memories

Feb. 3, 2025 — Researchers have uncovered how perceptual memories linked to positive emotions, such as joy or happiness, are strengthened during sleep. The study could help scientists understand the neurological ...

A Hearing Aid for ... Your Nose?

Jan. 30, 2025 — Scientists have discovered a feedback loop in the brain's odor center that seems to put smells and sounds into context. The feedback loop may help animals adjust their behaviors in response to new ...

Researchers Uncover Key Insights Into How the Body Protects Against Neuron Damage

Jan. 29, 2025 — New research on nematodes reveals how glial cells maintain and monitor neuronal ...

Scientists 'Mimic Real Biological Processes' Using Synthetic Neurons

Jan. 29, 2025 — A new collaboration has unlocked new potential for the field by creating a novel high-performance organic electrochemical neuron that responds within the frequency range of human ...

Advanced Brain Circuit-Mapping Technique Reveals New Anxiety Drug Target

Jan. 28, 2025 — Investigators have identified in a preclinical model a specific brain circuit whose inhibition appears to reduce anxiety without side effects. Their work suggests a new target for treating anxiety ...

Nerve Stimulation: The Brain Is Not Always Listening

Jan. 27, 2025 — Various diseases can be treated by stimulating the vagus nerve in the ear with electrical signals. However, this technique does not always work. A study has now shown: The electrical signals must be ...

New Drug Shows Promise in Restoring Vision for People With Nerve Damage

Jan. 24, 2025 — Researchers have found a promising drug candidate that could help restore vision in individuals with multiple sclerosis (MS) and other neurological conditions that damage ...

Researchers Map the Brain's Self-Healing Abilities After Stroke

Jan. 24, 2025 — A new study sheds light on one of the most severe consequences of stroke: damage to the brain's 'cables'-- the so-called nerve fibers -- which leads to permanent ...

Hot or Cold? How the Brain Deciphers Thermal Sensations

Jan. 22, 2025 — Thermal sensations are consciously differentiated as hot or cold by the brain; however, the neural mechanism that enables this differentiation is not well understood. To address this, researchers ...

New Study Uncovers Key Mechanism Behind Learning and Memory

Jan. 21, 2025 — A breakthrough study sheds new light on how brain cells relay critical information from their extremities to their nucleus, leading to the activation of genes essential for learning and ...

Biotin May Shield Brain from Manganese-Induced Damage, Study Finds

Jan. 21, 2025 — The B vitamin mitigates manganese neurotoxicity, which produces symptoms that resemble Parkinson's disease. The vitamin improves dopamine production in the brain and offers potential therapeutic ...

'Unprecedented' Level of Control Allows Person Without Use of Limbs to Operate Virtual Quadcopter

Jan. 21, 2025 — A brain-computer interface, surgically placed in a research participant with tetraplegia, paralysis in all four limbs, provided an unprecedented level of control over a virtual quadcopter -- just by ...

'Ding-Dong:' A Study Finds Specific Neurons With an Immune Doorbell

Jan. 17, 2025 — Neuroscientists have identified that the receptor IL-1R1 plays a critical role in enabling neurons to directly communicate with the immune system. The new study provides the most detailed mapping of ...

Brain Changes in Huntington's Disease Decades Before Diagnosis Will Guide Future Prevention Trials

Jan. 17, 2025 — Subtle changes in the brain, detectable through advanced imaging, blood and spinal fluid analysis, happen approximately twenty years before a clinical motor diagnosis in people with Huntington's ...

Fatal Neurodegenerative Disease in Kids Also Affects the Bowel

Jan. 15, 2025 — Researchers have described the neurodegeneration that occurs in the nervous system of the bowel in Batten disease, a rare and fatal genetic condition. In their latest study, a team showed that gene ...

How One Brain Circuit Encodes Memories of Both Places and Events

Jan. 15, 2025 — A computational model explains how place cells in the hippocampus can be recruited to form any kind of episodic memory, even when there's no spatial ...

Signaling Circuit Interplay Pushes Newborn Neurons out of the Neuronal Nest

Jan. 8, 2025 — Scientists have uncovered the intricate circuit cues behind neuronal cell maturation and migration, which is required for proper cognitive ...

Overcoming Spasticity to Help Paraplegics Walk Again

Jan. 8, 2025 — Thanks to new high-frequency electrical stimulation that blocks spasticity, two paralyzed patients suffering from muscle stiffness after spinal cord injury benefit from rehabilitation protocols for ...

Study Shows Head Trauma May Activate Latent Viruses, Leading to Neurodegeneration

Jan. 7, 2025 — Researchers have uncovered mechanisms that may link head injuries and concussions to the emergence of neurodegenerative disease, pointing to latent viruses lurking in most of our brains that may be ...

Brain Study Challenges Long-Held Views About Parkinson's Movement Disorders

Jan. 3, 2025 — Researchers uncovered new findings about involuntary muscle movements that come with long-term administration of Parkinson's drug ...

'Smooth Brain' Disorders May Share a Common Cause -- and Potential Treatment

Jan. 2, 2025 — Lissencephaly is a spectrum of rare, genetic disorders in which the brain fails to develop its hallmark folds. The disorders are often associated with seizures and intellectual disability and ...

Study Reveals That Sleep Prevents Unwanted Memories from Intruding

Jan. 2, 2025 — The link between poor sleep and mental health problems could be related to deficits in brain regions that keep unwanted thoughts out of ...

Gene Expression in the Human Brain: Cell Types Become More Specialized, Not Just More Numerous

Jan. 2, 2025 — Our brain is arguably the organ that most distinguishes humans from other primates. Its exceptional size, complexity and capabilities far exceed those of any other species on Earth. Yet humans share ...

Newborn Brain Circuit Stabilizes Gaze

Jan. 2, 2025 — An ancient brain circuit, which enables the eyes to reflexively rotate up as the body tilts down, tunes itself early in life as an animal develops, a new study ...

Key Players in Brain Aging: New Research Identifies Age-Related Damage on a Cellular Level

Jan. 1, 2025 — Scientists have identified the molecular changes that occur in the brains of aging mice and located a hot spot where much of that damage is centralized. The cells in the area are also connected with ...

'Dancing the Blues Away' Seen in Brain Imaging in People With Parkinson's Disease, New Study Finds

Dec. 24, 2024 — Dancing lowers the depression associated with Parkinson's disease, and the benefits can be seen in multiple ways, a new study ...

New Research Identifies Key Cellular Mechanism Driving Alzheimer's Disease

Dec. 23, 2024 — Researchers have unveiled a critical mechanism that links cellular stress in the brain to the progression of Alzheimer's disease (AD). The study highlights microglia, the brain's primary ...