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'Smart' mice teach scientists about learning process, brain disorders

05-29-2007 · UT Southwestern Medical Center

Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center are seeking patients to participate in medical studies for Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease and low-back pain.

Keywords: smart, mice, teach, scientists, learning, process, brain, disorders, scientist, disorder

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'Smart' mice teach scientists about learning process, brain disorders
05-27-2007 · EurekAlert!
Mice genetically engineered to lack a single enzyme in their brains are more adept at learning than their normal cousins, and are quicker to figure out that their environment has changed, a team led by researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center has found.
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Draining away brain's toxic protein to stop Alzheimer's
08-12-2007 · EurekAlert!
Scientists have shown how the body's natural way of ridding the body of the toxic protein amyloid-beta is flawed in people with the disease. Then the team demonstrated an experimental method in mice to fix the process, dramatically reducing the levels of the toxic protein in the brain and halting symptoms.
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Morphine makes lasting -- and surprising -- change in the brain
04-25-2007 · EurekAlert!
Morphine stops the synapse-strengthening process in the brain known as long-term potentiation at inhibitory synapses, according to new research conducted by Brown University brain scientist Julie Kauer. In Nature, Kauer explains this startlingly persistent effect, which could contribute to addiction and may provide a target for treatments of opioid addiction. The research also supports a provocative theory of addiction as a disease of learning and memory.
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Schizophrenia-linked gene keeps new adult brain cells under control
09-06-2007 · EurekAlert!
A gene with reported links to schizophrenia and other mood disorders plays a broader role in the brain than scientists had previously suspected. The study reveals that the gene, known as Disrupted-In-Schizophrenia 1, directs the incorporation of new neurons into the adult brain and keeps the process under control. The gene's newly discovered roles might help to explain why schizophrenia's symptoms generally arise in adolescence or early adulthood, the researchers suggested.
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Scientists uncover potential key to brain blood-flow disorders
01-03-2007 · EurekAlert!
A University of Vermont study suggests that the astrocytic BK channel is an important participant in the cellular process responsible for signaling regional blood flow changes in the brain, providing a new key to understanding such disorders as stroke, migraine and Alzheimer's disease.
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Rutgers scientist's research reveals critical knowledge about the nervous system
11-06-2007 · EurekAlert!
Uncover the neural communication links involved in myelination, the process of protecting a nerve's axon, and it may become possible to reverse the breakdown of the nervous system's electrical transmissions in such disorders as multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injuries and diabetes. With $697,065 in grants from the NJ Commissions on Spinal Cord Injury and Brain Injury Research, Haesun Kim, biology professor at Rutgers, is working on gaining a better understanding of those links.
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Abnormal glutamine repeats interfere with key transcription factor, leading to neurodegeneration
11-13-2007 · EurekAlert!
Although repeating sequences of three nucleotides encoding some of the bodies' 20 amino acids are a normal part of protein composition, abnormal expansion of trinucleotide repeats is the known cause of multiple inherited neurodegenerative disorders, including Huntington disease. In research with mice, scientists now have discovered more specific information about how this inherited expansion of a normal repeated DNA sequence alters gene expression.
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Protein pulling -- Learning how proteins fold by pulling them apart
07-19-2007 · EurekAlert!
Rice University physicists have unveiled an innovative way to learn how proteins get their shape based on how they unfold when pulled apart. The experimental method could be of widespread use in the field of protein folding science. The research is slated to appear in an upcoming issue of Physical Review Letters. It includes a new method scientists can use to map out exactly how much free energy is required throughout the folding process.
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Extreme irritability -- is it childhood bipolar disorder?
02-01-2007 · EurekAlert!
Measurements of brainwaves in kids with extreme irritability suggest that different brain mechanisms are at play, depending on the disorders the kids have. This finding brings us a step closer to the day when clinicians can use biological measurements -- rather than depending only on behavioral symptoms or self-reports -- to diagnose psychiatric disorders.
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Mice with a migraine show signs of brain damage
04-30-2007 · EurekAlert!
Migraines may be doing more than causing people skull-splitting pain. Scientists have found evidence that the headaches may also be acting like tiny transient strokes, leaving parts of the brain starved for oxygen and altering the brain in significant ways.
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