Summary: A new study in mice reveals that maternal immune activation during a precise gestational window triggers autism-like developmental disruptions exclusively in male fetuses. Researchers traced this vulnerability to damaged…
Category: Neuroscience
Nighttime Light Exposure Linked to Sleep Loss in Schizophrenia
Summary: A new study reveals that nighttime light exposure is strongly associated with objective sleep disruption in outpatients with schizophrenia, resulting in nearly an hour less total sleep per night.…
Eye-Blink Rate Predicts Cognitive Flexibility in Preschoolers
Summary: Researchers have discovered that spontaneous eye-blink rate serves as a simple, noninvasive marker for tracking the development of executive function in early childhood. The study revealed that children aged…
Disruption of Striatal D2 Receptor Neurons Drives ADHD and Impulsivity
Summary: Researchers have demonstrated that deleting the membrane-fusion protein NSF specifically from dopamine D2 receptor (D2R)-expressing neurons leads to striatal shrinkage, severe dopamine depletion, and classic ADHD-like hyperactivity and impulsivity…
Central Genetic Switch Controls Long-Distance Axon Navigation
Summary: Challenging the dogma that growing axons navigate exclusively via local cues processed at their tips, neuroscientists have discovered that a centralized genetic switch inside the neuron’s cell body directs…
Brain Activity Predicts Risky Choices Half a Second Before They Are Made
Summary: By recording directly from electrodes implanted in the human orbitofrontal cortex, neuroscientists discovered two neighboring circuits locked in a millisecond-by-millisecond “tug-of-war” between taking a risk and playing it safe.…
How Severe Illness During Pregnancy Alters Fetal Brain Development
Summary: Researchers have discovered that maternal immune activation during pregnancy alters the epigenome of fetal brain cells, disrupting deep-layer neurons and increasing the risk of neurodevelopmental disorders like autism. Key…
Aging Brains Maintain Robust Language Networks Despite Cognitive Decline
Summary: While executive functions like memory and problem-solving naturally decline as we age, new brain imaging research reveals that the neural network responsible for language remains preserved and fully functional.…
Motor neurons don’t just move muscles. They may direct that motion too
Motor neurons, the nerve cells that control muscles, have a reputation as passive messengers. But growing evidence suggests they do more than simply relay the brain’s commands. Work in fruit…
Youth Protein TIMP2 Restores Immune Function in the Aging Brain
Summary: Researchers have discovered that the youth-associated protein TIMP2 plays a critical role in maintaining the healthy function of microglia, the brain’s primary immune cells. Supplementing this protein in aged…
