Zaps to a specific area in the brain might alleviate anxiety
Precisely placed zaps to the brain swiftly improved the moods of people with signs of depression. The results, achieved with implanted electrodes, bring scientists closer to understanding the nature of depression — and point to ways to treat it. Neurologist Vikram Rao and neuroscientist Kristin Sellers, both of the University of California, San Francisco, and…
Even without concussions, simply one football season might harm gamers’ brains
A season of head hits left its mark on college football players’ brains, even when those hits didn’t cause concussions. Routine head bumps over the course of a season were linked to abnormal brain tissue in part of players’ brain stems, researchers report August 7 in Science Advances. It’s unclear if these brain stem changes…
The uterus might contribute in memory
The uterus is best known for its baby-growing job. But the female organ may also have an unexpected role in memory, a study in rats suggests. The results, published online December 6 in Endocrinology, counter the idea that the nonpregnant uterus is an extraneous organ. That may have implications for the estimated 20 million women…
Study raises stress over how screen time impacts kids’ brains
Nearly two out of three U.S. kids spend more than two hours a day looking at screens, a new analysis of activity levels finds. And those children perform worse on memory, language and thinking tests than kids who spend less time in front of a device, the study of over 4,500 8- to 11-year-olds shows.…
An absence of sleep can cause stress and anxiety
SAN DIEGO — A sleepless night can leave the brain spinning with anxiety the next day. In healthy adults, overnight sleep deprivation triggered anxiety the next morning, along with altered brain activity patterns, scientists reported November 4 at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience. People with anxiety disorders often have trouble sleeping. The…
Rogue immune cells can penetrate old brains
Immune cells can storm into the brains of older mice, where these normally helpful cells seem to be up to no good. The result, described July 3 in Nature, raises the possibility that immune cells may have a role in aging. Anne Brunet of Stanford University School of Medicine and colleagues studied gene activity to…
Controling afferent neuron makes mice ‘see’ something that’s not there
Aiming laser lights into mice’s brains can make them “see” lines that aren’t actually there. The results, described online July 18 in Science, represent the first time scientists have created a specific visual perception with laboratory trickery. The work is “technically amazing,” says neuroscientist and psychiatrist Conor Liston at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York…
A brand-new experiment didn’t discover indications of dreaming in brain waves
In a nighttime experiment called the Dream Catcher, people’s dreams slipped right through the net. Looking at only the brain wave activity of sleeping people, scientists weren’t able to reliably spot a dreaming brain. The details of that leaky net, described May 27 at bioRxiv.org, haven’t yet been reviewed by other scientists. And the results…
Alzheimer’s targets brain cells that assist individuals remain awake
Alzheimer’s disease destroys command centers in the brain that keep people awake. That finding could explain why the disease often brings daytime drowsiness. Sleep problems can precede dementias, including Alzheimer’s, sometimes by decades. But the new result, described online August 12 in Alzheimer’s & Dementia, suggests that disordered sleeping isn’t just an early harbinger of…
Female rats deal with sex predisposition too
When researchers release a new finding about the brain, it’s often mice or rats who have run the mazes and taken the tests for science. People might wonder: Are rodents good substitutes for humans? Maybe for men, but what about women? That’s less likely, because most neuroscience experiments don’t use female rodents — a fact…
