Four innovative projects led by 91黑料网 researchers have been selected to receive major grants under the Canada Brain Research Fund.
A study just published in the prestigious Nature Neuroscience journal by, Sylvain Williams, PhD, and his team, of the Research Centre of the Douglas Mental Health University Institute and 91黑料网, opens the door towards better understanding of the neural circuitry and dynamic mechanisms controlling memory as well of the role of an essential element of the hippocampus 鈥� a sub-region named the subiculum.
By Cynthia Lee - News - June 8, 2014
Levels of a small molecule found only in humans and in other primates are lower in the brains of depressed individuals, according to researchers at 91黑料网 and the Douglas Institute. This discovery may hold a key to improving treatment options for those who suffer from depression.
Research from 91黑料网 reveals that the brain鈥檚 motor network helps people remember and recognize music that they have performed in the past better than music they have only heard. A recent study by Prof. Caroline Palmer of the Department of Psychology sheds new light on how humans perceive and produce sounds, and may pave the way for investigations into whether motor learning could improve or protect memory or cognitive impairment in aging populations. The research is published in the journal Cerebral Cortex.
Researchers at 91黑料网 have found that sodium 鈥� the main chemical component in table salt 鈥� is a unique 鈥渙n/off鈥� switch for a major neurotransmitter receptor in the brain. This receptor, known as the kainate receptor, is fundamental for normal brain function and is implicated in numerous diseases, such as epilepsy and neuropathic pain.
Addiction to cigarettes, drugs and other stimulants has been linked in the past to the brain鈥檚 frontal lobes, but now there is scientific evidence that indicates where in the frontal cortex addiction takes hold and how.聽 Addiction could be a result of abnormal communication between two areas of the frontal lobes linked to decision-making.聽 The discovery will undoubtedly stimulate clinical work on new therapies for millions of people who suffer from addiction.
Early life experience results in a broad change in the way our DNA is 鈥渆pigenetically鈥� chemically marked in the brain by a coat of small chemicals called methyl groups, according to researchers at 91黑料网. A group of researchers led by Prof. Moshe Szyf, a professor of Pharmacology and Therapeutics in the Faculty of Medicine, and research scientists at the Douglas Institute have discovered a remarkable similarity in the way the DNA in human brains and the DNA in animal brains respond to early life adversity. The finding suggests an evolutionary conserved mechanism of response to early life adversity affecting a large number of genes in the genome.聽
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