http://www.physorg.com/ en-us Physorg.com internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. To a growing axon, the protein RGMa is a "Wrong Way" sign, alerting it to head in another direction. As Hata et al. demonstrate in the March 9, 2009 issue of the Journal of Cell Biology, translating that signal into cellular action requires teamwork from two receptors. http://www.physorg.com/news155809698.html Biology Mon, 09 Mar 2009 09:28:55 EST news155809698 Chronic stress takes a physical and emotional toll on our bodies and scientists are working on piecing together a medical puzzle to understand how we respond to stress at the cellular level in the brain. Being able to quickly and successfully respond to stress is essential for survival. http://www.physorg.com/news155227502.html Medicine & Health Mon, 02 Mar 2009 14:45:28 EST news155227502 A collaborative research project involving Professor Christopher Shaw of the Institute of Psychiatry, King`s College London (KCL), Dr Tom Kwiatkowski at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Professor Robert H Brown at University of Massachusetts, has revealed that mutations in a gene called FUS (fused in sarcoma) cause familial Motor Neuron Disease (also known as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis). This is the second gene to be discovered for ALS in just one year and is an important step towards understanding disease mechanisms. The research was published on line in two back-to-back papers in the journal Science today. http://www.physorg.com/news154880306.html Medicine & Health Thu, 26 Feb 2009 14:19:08 EST news154880306 (PhysOrg.com) -- Colonies of social insects such as ants and bees could collectively make decisions using mechanisms similar to those used in primate brains, according to new research from the University of Bristol. http://www.physorg.com/news154795756.html Biology Wed, 25 Feb 2009 14:50:36 EST news154795756 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. http://www.physorg.com/news154787315.html Medicine & Health Wed, 25 Feb 2009 12:29:21 EST news154787315 In the real world, odors don't happen one puff at a time. Animals move through, and subsequently distort, plumes of odor molecules that constantly drift, changing direction as the wind disperses them. Now, by exploring how animals smell odors under naturalistic conditions, Rockefeller University scientist Maria Neimark Geffen and her colleagues reveal that the brain encodes these swirling, and complex patterns of molecules using surprisingly little neural machinery. The findings suggest a new theory of how animals smell. http://www.physorg.com/news154787258.html Medicine & Health Wed, 25 Feb 2009 12:28:06 EST news154787258 In a new study, researchers were able to generate functionally mature motor neurons from induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, which are engineered from adult somatic cells and can differentiate into most other cell types. A potential new source of motor neurons that does not require human eggs or embryos could be an enormous boon to research into conditions such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and spinal cord injury and could open the door to eventual treatments. The study is published in Stem Cells. http://www.physorg.com/news154698681.html Biology Tue, 24 Feb 2009 11:51:47 EST news154698681 A paper published online today in Nature Neuroscience reveals the presence of methyl CpG binding protein 2 (MeCP2) in glia. MeCP2 is a protein associated with a variety of neurological disorders, including Rett Syndrome, the most physically disabling of the autism spectrum disorders. The researchers show that MeCP2-deficient astrocytes (a subset of glia) stunt the growth of neighboring neurons. Remarkably, these neurons can recover when exposed to normal glia in culture. http://www.physorg.com/news154610775.html Medicine & Health Mon, 23 Feb 2009 11:48:25 EST news154610775 (PhysOrg.com) -- To measure anxiety in a mouse and suggest it`s similar to anxiety in a person may seem like a stretch, but the metrics sound uncannily familiar. Paralyzed by fear, afraid to leave the house or socialize with others, scared of new places, preferring the dark to the light of day. http://www.physorg.com/news154281616.html Medicine & Health Thu, 19 Feb 2009 16:01:04 EST news154281616 (PhysOrg.com) -- A brain scan of a person experiencing an epileptic seizure looks like the Great Plains during an early evening in midsummer. Fierce electrical storms pop up seemingly at random, proliferate over large areas and subside almost as quickly as they arose. http://www.physorg.com/news154020751.html Medicine & Health Mon, 16 Feb 2009 15:33:06 EST news154020751 Our eyes are in constant motion. Even when we attempt to stare straight at a stationary target, our eyes jump and jiggle imperceptibly. Although these unconscious flicks, also known as microsaccades, had long been considered mere "motor noise," researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies found that they are instead actively controlled by the same brain region that instructs our eyes to scan the lines in a newspaper or follow a moving object. http://www.physorg.com/news153670434.html Medicine & Health Thu, 12 Feb 2009 14:14:50 EST news153670434 (PhysOrg.com) -- By shifting a normal protective mechanism into overdrive, a University of Wisconsin-Madison scientist has completely shielded mice from a toxic chemical that would otherwise cause Parkinson's disease. http://www.physorg.com/news152818242.html Medicine & Health Mon, 02 Feb 2009 17:31:02 EST news152818242 People with Parkinson's disease commonly suffer a slowing or freezing of movement caused by the death of neurons that make dopamine, a key chemical that allows brain cells to send and receive messages essential to voluntary movements. Patients regain the ability to move, seemingly miraculously, by taking L-DOPA or related drugs that mimic the missing dopamine. After a few years on L-DOPA, however, most patients again lose motor control - but in an opposite way. Instead of too little, there is too much movement, like involuntary nodding and rocking - side effects known as L-DOPA-induced dyskinesias. http://www.physorg.com/news152463203.html Medicine & Health Thu, 29 Jan 2009 14:53:50 EST news152463203 How are neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's initiated, and why is age the major risk factor? A recent study of a protein called MOCA (Modifier of Cell Adhesion), carried out at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, provides new clues to the answers of these fundamental questions. http://www.physorg.com/news152461986.html Medicine & Health Thu, 29 Jan 2009 14:33:29 EST news152461986 Lack of sleep is a common complaint but for many, falling asleep involuntarily during the day poses a very real and dangerous problem. A new study from the Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI) at McGill University demonstrates interestingly, that sleep-wake states are regulated by two different types of nerve cells (neurons), melanin-concentrating hormone (MCH) neurons and orexin (Orx) neurons, which occupy the same region of the brain but perform opposite functions. http://www.physorg.com/news152383053.html Medicine & Health Wed, 28 Jan 2009 16:38:01 EST news152383053 A new study has found that transplantation of stem cells from the lining of the spinal cord, called ependymal stem cells, reverses paralysis associated with spinal cord injuries in laboratory tests. The findings show that the population of these cells after spinal cord injury was many times greater than comparable cells from healthy animal subjects. The results open a new window on spinal cord regenerative strategies. The study is published in the journal Stem Cells. http://www.physorg.com/news152382970.html Medicine & Health Wed, 28 Jan 2009 16:36:32 EST news152382970 Researchers have identified a biochemical switch required for nerve cells to respond to DNA damage. The finding, scheduled for advance online publication in Nature Cell Biology, illuminates a connection between proteins involved in neurodegenerative disease and in cells' response to DNA damage. http://www.physorg.com/news151509128.html Biology Sun, 18 Jan 2009 13:52:08 EST news151509128 When it comes to keeping brains alive, it seems nature has deemed that females are more valuable then males. As reported in this weeks' JBC, researchers found that nutrient deprivation of neurons produced sex-dependent effects. Male neurons more readily withered up and died, while female neurons did their best to conserve energy and stay alive. http://www.physorg.com/news151343540.html Medicine & Health Fri, 16 Jan 2009 15:52:20 EST news151343540 Will scientists one day be able to slow the aging of the brain and prevent diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's? Absolutely - once the genetic coding associated with neuronal degeneration has been unraveled. http://www.physorg.com/news151330142.html Medicine & Health Fri, 16 Jan 2009 12:09:02 EST news151330142 New research provides valuable insight into the molecular mechanisms that allow experience to influence behavior. The study, published by Cell Press in the January 15th issue of the journal Neuron, shows that a normally repressive protein can promote plasticity in sensory neurons by linking odor stimulation with the synthesis of a key adaptation protein. http://www.physorg.com/news151160503.html Medicine & Health Wed, 14 Jan 2009 13:01:43 EST news151160503 A new area of the cerebral cortex has evolved to enable man and higher primates to pick up small objects and deftly use tools, according to neuroscientists at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Pittsburgh's Veterans Affairs Medical Center. http://www.physorg.com/news151002730.html Medicine & Health Mon, 12 Jan 2009 17:12:10 EST news151002730 Shredded extracellular matrix (ECM) is toxic to neurons. Chen et al. reveal a new mechanism for how ECM demolition causes brain damage. The study will appear in the December 29, 2008 issue of The Journal of Cell Biology. http://www.physorg.com/news149769426.html Biology Mon, 29 Dec 2008 10:37:06 EST news149769426 (PhysOrg.com) -- When neurons started dying in Clive Svendsen's lab dishes, he couldn't have been more pleased.The dying cells - the same type lost in patients with the devastating neurological disease spinal muscular atrophy - confirmed that the University of Wisconsin-Madison stem cell biologist had recreated the hallmarks of a genetic disorder in the lab, using stem cells derived from a patient. By allowing scientists the unparalleled opportunity to watch the course of a disease unfold in a lab dish, the work marks an enormous step forward in being able to study and develop new therapies for genetic diseases. http://www.physorg.com/news149090319.html Medicine & Health Sun, 21 Dec 2008 13:58:39 EST news149090319 Cancer cells and nervous system neurons may not look or act alike, but both use strikingly similar ways to survive, according to new research from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine. http://www.physorg.com/news148565559.html Biology Mon, 15 Dec 2008 12:12:39 EST news148565559 Nitric oxide gets neurons together. And it seems to do it backward. Work by Nikonenko et al. suggests that a protein called PSD-95 prompts nitric oxide release from postsynaptic dendritic spines, prompting nearby presynaptic axons to lock on, and develop new synapses. The study will appear in the December 15, 2008 issue of The Journal of Cell Biology (JCB). http://www.physorg.com/news148563012.html Biology Mon, 15 Dec 2008 11:30:12 EST news148563012 There are many ways to die, but amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease must be one of the worst. By the time a patient notices muscle weakness, the neurons that control the muscles have already begun dying, in an untreatable process that brings death within two to five years. http://www.physorg.com/news148067707.html Medicine & Health Tue, 09 Dec 2008 17:55:07 EST news148067707 More than a century after Ivan Pavlov's dog was conditioned to salivate when it heard the sound of a tone prior to receiving food, scientists have found neurons that are critical to how people and animals learn from experience. http://www.physorg.com/news147980670.html Medicine & Health Mon, 08 Dec 2008 17:44:30 EST news147980670 Long thought of as mere bystanders, astrocytes are crucial for the survival and well-being of motor neurons, which control voluntary muscle movements. In fact, defective astrocytes can lay waste to motor neurons and are the main suspects in the muscle-wasting disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). http://www.physorg.com/news147532458.html Medicine & Health Wed, 03 Dec 2008 13:14:18 EST news147532458 Genetic mouse models have provided surprising insight into mechanisms linking serotoninergic compounds with the regulation of feeding behavior and body weight. The research, published by Cell Press in the November 26th issue of the journal Neuron, pinpoints a specific group of brain cells that mediate energy balance and may lead to the development of antiobesity drugs with fewer side effects. http://www.physorg.com/news146922799.html Medicine & Health Wed, 26 Nov 2008 11:53:19 EST news146922799 A study conducted on hundreds of rats could help us understand how the brain identifies specific sounds in a noisy environment. The investigation, soon to be published in the journal Brain, was conducted by Alex Martin of the Université de Montréal Department of Psychology. http://www.physorg.com/news146231125.html Medicine & Health Tue, 18 Nov 2008 11:45:25 EST news146231125