Microglia are primary immune cells that safeguard the mammalian brain, partly by devouring or 'phagocytosing' pathogens and toxic debris. Recent genetic studies have consistently highlighted the role of microglia in the development of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and...
Mood disorders are mental health conditions characterized by persistently dysregulated moods, such as recurring feelings of depression or euphoria. According to statistics by the National Institutes of Health, approximately 1 in 5 people in the United States will...
New technologies can greatly advance research in various fields, including medicine and neuroscience. In recent years, for instance, engineers have created increasingly sophisticated devices to record brain activity and other biological signals with high precision.
Proteins, long polymers comprised of smaller constituents known as amino acids, play a crucial role in the functioning of the human body. Over the course of a human's life, these "strings" of proteins fold into unique 3D structures or conformations, and this folding...
Anxiety disorders are becoming increasingly common, with estimates suggesting that almost one in three people in the U.S. will experience high levels of anxiety at some point in their life. Anxiety is essentially a feeling of unease, worry or psychological discomfort,...
The outer layer of the brain, known as the cortex, is made of different types of neurons. Neuroscience studies suggest that these different neuron types have distinct functions, yet for a long time this was difficult to ascertain, due to the inability to examine and...
Psychology research conducted over the past few years suggests that males and females can preferentially engage in different decision-making strategies. The precise neural underpinnings of these reported gender differences in decision-making, however, remain unclear.
Cinnamon, the well-known aromatic spice that many of us use to bake cakes and cook savory dishes, is derived from the inner bark of Cinnamomum trees. These are evergreen trees found in the Himalayas and other mountain areas, as well as in rainforests and other forests...
The protein TREM2, which in humans is encoded by the TREM2 gene, is known to play a crucial role in the growth and development of different types of immune cells, including microglia. Microglia are specialized immune cells in the central nervous system that help to...
Recent studies have found that brain regions previously thought to only process a specific type of sensory stimuli, such as the visual cortex, can also be affected by other sensory stimuli. This might suggest that these brain regions are in fact multi-sensory, meaning...