Latest Entorhinal cortex Stories

April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Two new studies, published this week in Science, examine the mechanisms of animal navigation using bat models. RATS AND BATS The first study is the result of collaboration between University of Maryland (UMD), College Park and Boston University (BU). The findings, based on brain rhythms in bats and rats, challenges a widely-used model – based solely on rodents – of how animals navigate their environment. The study authors...

Questions raised about using a single animal model in neuroscience research COLLEGE PARK, Md., April 18, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- To get a clear picture of how humans and other mammals form memories and find their way through their surroundings, neuroscientists must pay more attention to a broad range of animals rather than focus on a single model species, say two University of Maryland (UMD) researchers, Katrina MacLeod and Cynthia Moss. Their new comparative study of bats and...

Jedidiah Becker for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online In 2005, Norwegian researchers discovered a previously unknown type of neuron by placing electrodes deep within the cerebral cortex of rats. Dubbed “grid cells,” these specialized neurons were so named because they fire in distinct clusters, each of which constitutes the vertex of a grid-like pattern of equilateral triangles. This recurring triangular, lattice-like firing pattern is what distinguishes grid cells from other...

Brett Smith for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Researchers at Emory University have shown that some primates visually deconstruct the world through triangular grids. According to their report in the journal Nature, the scientists have identified grid cells in the brains of rhesus monkeys that fire in triangular patterns as their eyes scan a scene. Uncovering this brain activity in primates could have larger ramifications as the grid cells are connected to how we view and recall...

UCLA researchers have for the first time measured the activity of a brain region known to be involved in learning, memory and Alzheimer's disease during sleep. They discovered that this part of the brain behaves as if it's remembering something, even under anesthesia, a finding that counters conventional theories about memory consolidation during sleep. The research team simultaneously measured the activity of single neurons from multiple parts of the brain involved in memory formation....

In a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease, memory problems stem from an overactive enzyme that shuts off genes related to neuron communication, a new study says. When researchers genetically blocked the enzyme, called HDAC2, they 'reawakened' some of the neurons and restored the animals' cognitive function. The results suggest that drugs that inhibit this particular enzyme would make good treatments for some of the most devastating effects of the incurable neurodegenerative disease. "It's...

Neuroscientists at UCLA have found a way to help improve a human's memory by stimulating a part of the brain. The research, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, could lead to a new method for boosting memory in Alzheimer's patients. The team focused on a brain site known as the entorhinal cortex during their study, which is an area considered to be the doorway to an area that helps form and store memories. "The entorhinal cortex is the golden gate to the brain's memory...

Findings open new opportunities for studying Alzheimer’s and testing potential therapies For decades, researchers have debated whether Alzheimer's disease starts independently in vulnerable brain regions at different times, or if it begins in one region and then spreads to neuroanatomically connected areas. A new study by Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) researchers strongly supports the latter, demonstrating that abnormal tau protein, a key feature of the neurofibrillary...

Animal study suggests deep brain stimulation improves memory Stimulating a specific region of the brain leads to the production of new brain cells that enhance memory, according to an animal study in the September 21 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience. The findings show how deep brain stimulation (DBS) — a clinical intervention that delivers electrical pulses to targeted areas of the brain — may work to improve cognition. "DBS has been quite effective for the treatment of movement...

Rhythmic activity of neurons to code position in space Prof. Dr. Motoharu Yoshida and colleagues from Boston University investigated how the rhythmic activity of nerve cells supports spatial navigation. The research scientists showed that cells in the entorhinal cortex, which is important for spatial navigation, oscillate with individual frequencies. These frequencies depend on the position of the cells within the entorhinal cortex. "Up to now people believed that the frequency is...