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Childhood maltreatment may change brain's response to threat

The amygdala and a closely related region called the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) are both activated in response to a threat, but it is unclear how these regions orchestrate defensive responses in humans. Floris Klumpers and colleagues found that anticipation of an uncomfortable but harmless electrical shock was associated with increased activity in BNST , which is strongly connected with other brain regions that may be involved in deciding how to respond to a distant threat. In contrast, the shock itself was associated with increased activity in the amygdala, which maintains stronger connections with lower brain regions that may facilitate immediate and involuntary responses to acute danger, such as increased heart rate. Finally, the authors found that participants in one sample who reported greater childhood maltreatment (primarily emotional abuse and neglect rather than physical and sexual abuse) exhibited increased amygdala activity during shock anticipation. Thi...
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Explaining bursts of activity in brains of preterm babies

In a new study published in  eLife  and funded by the National Institute for Health Research and the Medical Research Council, the researchers found that a specific brain region called the insula plays a major role in the generation of the spontaneous neuronal bursts. The researchers say the spontaneous brain activity is essential to strengthen brain connections which will serve as ' scaffolding ' that will then develop further with life experience. Other studies have found that infants whose brains don't display this activity are more likely to develop cerebral palsy or have poor cognitive skills later in life. "While we don't yet know what causes these neuronal bursts, we know that in healthy babies, they are present preterm and disappear at full term. It's a bad sign if they are absent in preterm or present still after full term," said one of the study's lead authors, Dr Lorenzo Fabrizi (UCL Biosciences). "The brain of a preterm baby is ...
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Reversing the negative effects of adolescent marijuana use

"What is important about this study is that not only have we identified a specific mechanism in the prefrontal cortex for some of the mental health risks associated with adolescent marijuana use, but we have also identified a mechanism to reverse those risks," said Steven Laviolette, professor at Western's Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry. In a study published online today in  Scientific Reports  the researchers demonstrate that adolescent THC exposure modulates the activity of a neurotransmitter called GABA in the prefrontal cortex region of the brain. The team, led by Laviolette and post-doctoral fellow Justine Renard, looked specifically at GABA because of its previously shown clinical association with schizophrenia. "GABA is an inhibitory neurotransmitter and plays a crucial role in regulating the excitatory activity in the frontal cortex, so if you have less GABA, your neuronal systems become hyperactive leading to behavioural changes consistent...
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Brain activity between seizures informs potential treatment for childhood absence epilepsy

https://www.mymedistore.com/ Absence seizures cause a short period of "blanking out" or staring into space, due to brief abnormal electrical activity in the brain. In this new study, even after the seizures in the mice were treated, the abnormality that was previously seen between seizures persisted. This may provide a potential explanation for why some children with absence epilepsy may have continued deficits in cognitive performance, despite successful treatment of their seizures. EEG, a test that measures electrical activity in the brain, has thus far been primarily used to detect seizures, rather than identifying cognitive impairment. This study suggests that looking at EEG activity between seizures could help physicians diagnose and monitor cognitive and other attentional deficits in epilepsy. Jeffrey Noebels and his team at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas used two genetic mouse models of absence epilepsy and compared them to unaffected mice. They an...
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Memory decline after head injury may be prevented by slowing brain cell growth

In the September issue of  Stem Cell Reports , Viji Santhakumar, associate professor in the department of Pharmacology, Physiology and Neuroscience, and her colleagues, challenge the prevailing assumption by scientists in the field that excessive neurogenesis (the birth of new brain cells) after injury is advantageous. "There is an initial increase in birth of new neurons after a brain injury but within weeks, there is a dramatic decrease in the normal rate at which neurons are born, depleting brain cells that under normal circumstances should be there to replace damaged cells and repair the brain's network," said Santhakumar. "The excess new neurons lead to epileptic seizures and could contribute to cognitive decline" In the United States an estimated 1.7milllion people sustain a TBI each year, making the condition a major cause of death and disability. Symptoms can include impaired thinking or memory, personality changes and depression and vision and hea...
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Why bad sleep doesn't always lead to depression

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Larger exercise within the ventral striatum, the mind's reward middle, might buffer some people in opposition to the unfavorable psychological well being results of poor sleep. Credit score: Annchen R. Knodt, Duke College Poor sleep is each a threat issue, and a typical symptom, of despair. However not everybody who tosses and turns at evening turns into depressed. People whose brains are extra attuned to rewards could also be shielded from the unfavorable psychological well being results of poor sleep, says a brand new research by Duke College neuroscientists. The researchers discovered that faculty college students with poor high quality sleep have been much less more likely to have signs of despair if additionally they had increased exercise in a reward-sensitive area of the mind. "This helps us start to grasp why some persons are extra more likely to expertise despair once they have issues with sleep," ment...
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Sex, aggression controlled separately in female animal brains, but overlap in male brains

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Diagram of mouse mind (far left) and the ventrolateral a part of the ventromedial hypothalamus, or VMHvl, which controls for aggression in each male -- and feminine -- mice. Center picture reveals VMHvl cells in feminine mind, with cells lively in mating (in blue) situated round border, whereas these within the male mind (far proper) are dispersed. Cells lively in combating (in crimson) are situated extra within the middle of the feminine VMHvl , however not so in male mice. Credit score: Courtesy of Nature Neuroscience Mind constructions that management sexual and aggressive habits in mice are wired in a different way in females than in males. This the discovering of a research led by scientists at NYU Faculty of Drugs and printed on-line Sept. 18 in  Nature Neuroscience . Particularly, researchers discovered that, whereas management of aggressive habits resides in similar mind area in feminine and male mice, sure teams of ...
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