Latest Inhibitory postsynaptic potential Stories
Research has implications for medical use of drug and concepts of chronic pain Imagine that you're working on your back porch, hammering in a nail. Suddenly you slip and hit your thumb instead "” hard. The pain is incredibly intense, but it only lasts a moment. After a few seconds (and a few unprintable words) you're ready to start hammering again.How can such severe pain vanish so quickly? And why is it that other kinds of equally terrible pain refuse to go away, and instead torment...
Why do some people who take the sleep aid Ambien sleepwalk and engage in other activities they don't recall in the morning?Researchers from Georgetown University Medical Center are helping explain the phenomenon. In an animal study, they found inhibitory neurons responsible for stopping neural activity are shut down by the drug. But excitatory neurons, which transmit activity, are free to wake up, and because the inhibitory neurons responsible for keeping them in check are effectively asleep...
 Some people who take the fast-acting sleep-aid zolpidem (Ambien) have been observed walking, eating, talking on the phone and even driving while not fully awake. Many often don't remember doing any of these activities the next morning. Similarly, this drug has been shown to awaken the minimally conscious into a conscious state. A new study by Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC) researchers may help explain why these "awakenings" occur.The study, published online in the...
British scientists say studying the way a person's brain sings could improve our understanding of conditions such as epilepsy and schizophrenia. Researchers in Cardiff University's Brain Research Imaging Center say they've discovered a person's brain produces a unique electrical oscillation at a particular frequency when a person looks at a visual pattern. That frequency of oscillation, the scientists said, appears to be determined by the concentration of a neurotransmitter chemical, GABA in...
Researchers use lasers to induce gamma brain waves in miceScientists have studied high-frequency brain waves, known as gamma oscillations, for more than 50 years, believing them crucial to consciousness, attention, learning and memory. Now, for the first time, MIT researchers and colleagues have found a way to induce these waves by shining laser light directly onto the brains of mice.The work takes advantage of a newly developed technology known as optogenetics, which combines genetic...
Findings could explain relationship between PCB exposure, neurodevelopmental disorders in childrenIn three new studies "” including one appearing online today in the Public Library of Science - Biology (PLoS - Biology) "” UC Davis researchers provide compelling evidence of how low levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) alter the way brain cells develop.The findings could explain at last "” some 30 years after the toxic chemicals were banned in the United States "” the associations...
The enchantingly colored seashells that lend beaches their charm could also provide information about how the brain converts memories and sensory information into action, according to research from the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Pittsburgh published online April 7 in the "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences" ("PNAS"). G. Bard Ermentrout, a University Professor of Mathematics at Pitt, worked with the paper's lead author, Berkeley graduate student...
University of California, Berkeley, graduate student Alistair Boettiger has amassed a beautiful collection of seashells, but not by combing the beach. He created them in his computer.He and George Oster, a UC Berkeley biophysicist, along with University of Pittsburgh mathematical neuroscientist Bard Ermentrout, have written a computer program that generates the complex patterns of seashells using simple principles developed to explain how the brain works and how memories are stored.The...
New research reveals a sophisticated brain mechanism that is critical for filtering out irrelevant signals during demanding cognitive tasks. The study, published by Cell Press in the February 26 issue of the journal Neuron, also provides some insight into how disruption of key inhibitory pathways may contribute to schizophrenia."The ability to keep track of information and one's actions from moment to moment is necessary to accomplish even the simple tasks of everyday life,"...
A U.S. study has found morphine blocks the brain's ability to strengthen inhibitory synapse connections -- an important finding for addiction therapy. Brown University Professor Julie Kauer and colleagues found as little as a single dose of morphine could contribute to addiction. The study also supports a theory that addiction is a disease of learning and memory. In the study, the researchers found long-term potentiation, or LTP, is blocked in the brains of rats given as little as a single...
