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Category: neuroscience – Page 794

‘Chatty’ cells help build the brain

The cerebral cortex, which controls higher processes such as perception, thought and cognition, is the most complex structure in the mammalian central nervous system. Although much is known about the intricate structure of this brain region, the processes governing its formation remain uncertain. Research led by Carina Hanashima from the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology has now uncovered how feedback between cells, as well as molecular factors, helps shape cortical development during mouse embryogenesis.

The cortex is made up of layers of interconnecting cells that are produced in a particular order from . The relatively cell-sparse outer layer is formed first, then the dense deep layer, and finally the tightly packed upper layer. Hanashima and her colleagues were interested to discover exactly how the various layers form, so they created a mouse model that enabled them to control the expression of a particular protein, Foxg1, known to be involved in .

The Foxg1 gene, if switched on toward the end of embryogenesis after the outer layer of neurons has formed, triggers the production of deep-layer neurons, followed by upper-layer neurons (Fig. 1). The researchers found that it does this by repressing the activity of another gene, called Tbr1, in the outer-layer neurons.

Simple animal model reveals how environment and state are integrated to control behavior

Say you live across from a bakery. Sometimes you are hungry and therefore tempted when odors waft through your window, but other times satiety makes you indifferent. Sometimes popping over for a popover seems trouble-free but sometimes your spiteful ex is there. Your brain balances many influences in determining what you’ll do. A new MIT study details an example of this working in a much simpler animal, highlighting a potentially fundamental principle of how nervous systems integrate multiple factors to guide food-seeking behavior.

All animals share the challenge of weighing diverse sensory cues and internal states when formulating behaviors, but scientists know little about how this actually occurs. To gain deep insight, the research team based at The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory turned to the C. elegans worm, whose well-defined behavioral states and 302-cell nervous system make the complex problem at least tractable. They emerged with a of how in a crucial olfactory neuron called AWA, many sources of state and converge to independently throttle the expression of a key smell receptor. The integration of their influence on that receptor’s abundance then determines how AWA guides roaming around for food.

“In this study, we dissected the mechanisms that control the levels of a single olfactory receptor in a single olfactory neuron, based on the ongoing state and stimuli the animal experiences,” said senior author Steven Flavell, Lister Brothers Associate Professor in MIT’s Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences. “Understanding how the integration happens in one cell will point the way for how it may happen in general, in other worm neurons and in other animals.”

Jumping Gene Found to Be Strongly Linked to Depression, Fear, and Anxiety

Summary: The TOB gene plays a significant role in reducing depression, anxiety, and fear in mouse models. The findings could have positive implications for developing new treatments for disorders associated with psychiatric stress.

Source: OIST

First characterized in Prof. Tadashi Yamamoto’s former lab in Japan in 1996, the gene Tob is well known for the role it plays in cancer. Previous research has also indicated that it has a hand in regulating the cell cycle and the body’s immune response.

A Single Protein Could Unlock Age-Related Vision Loss

Summary: Determining the structure of vitronectin, a protein implicated in age-related macular degeneration and some neurodegenerative disorders, and using pressure to alter the protein shape may help in the development of new treatments for AMD.

Source: Sanford Burnham Prebys.

Research led by Sanford Burnham Prebys professor Francesca Marassi, Ph.D., is helping to reveal the molecular secrets of macular degeneration, which causes almost 90% of all age-related vision loss.

Brain organoids provide insights into the evolution of the human brain

Animal studies on great apes have long been banned in Europe for ethical reasons. For the question pursued here, organoids (three-dimensional cell structures a few millimeters in size that are grown in the laboratory) are an alternative to animal experiments. These organoids can be produced from pluripotent stem cells, which then differentiate into specific cell types, such as nerve cells. In this way, the research team was able to produce both chimpanzee brain organoids and human brain organoids. “These brain organoids allowed us to investigate a central question concerning ARHGAP11B,” says Wieland Huttner of the MPI-CBG, one of the three lead authors of the study published in EMBO Reports.

“In a previous study we were able to show that ARHGAP11B can enlarge a primate brain. However, it was previously unclear whether ARHGAP11B had a major or minor role in the evolutionary enlargement of the human neocortex,” says Wieland Huttner. To clarify this, the ARGHAP11B gene was first inserted into brain ventricle-like structures of chimpanzee organoids. Would the ARGHAP11B gene lead to the proliferation of those brain stem cells in the chimpanzee brain that are necessary for the enlargement of the neocortex?

“Our study shows that the gene in chimpanzee organoids causes an increase in relevant brain stem cells and an increase in those neurons that play a crucial role in the extraordinary mental abilities of humans,” said Michael Heide, the study’s lead author, who is head of the Junior Research Group Brain Development and Evolution at the DPZ and employee at the MPI-CBG.

Synchronous Brain Waves, Correlate of Consciousness

One of the major current theories of consciousness is that brain oscillations, also called brain waves, correlate with specific mental states. It is the synchronous waves from different regions, that is, those that are beating at the same rate, that are believed to be important for the connection of different brain regions. Brain waves have been observed for more than a hundred years, but it is still not clear exactly what they are and what they have to do with the function of the brain and the mind.

Oscillations in the brain occur because of an interplay between two forces, such as stimulation and inhibition. This dynamic can either come from two different cortical layers or a cortical and subcortical layer. Feedback properties affect the oscillations by either continuing the give and take of the two forces or changing them in various ways. Even with no outside input, the brain creates spontaneous oscillations; a well-known example is the one, connected to the thalamus and cortex, that occurs during sleep. Currently, it is believed that these oscillations help to synthesize and filter the previous day’s memories. While these oscillations are associated with sleep, most other brain oscillations are not clearly correlated with mental states.

Can we reverse engineer the brain like a computer?

Circa 2019 face_with_colon_three

By Tyler Benster.

Neuroscientists have a dizzying array of methods to listen in on hundreds or even thousands of neurons in the brain and have even developed tools to manipulate the activity of individual cells. Will this unprecedented access to the brain allow us to finally crack the mystery of how it works? In 2017, Jonas and Kording published a controversial research article, “Could a Neuroscientist Understand a Microprocessor?” that argues maybe not. To make their point, the authors turn to their “model organism” of choice: a MOS 6502 processor as popularized by the Apple I, Commodore 64, and Atari Video Game System. Jonas and Kording argue that for an electrical engineer, a satisfying description of the processor would break it into modules, like an adder or subtractor, and submodules, like the transistor, to form a hierarchy of information processing. They suggest that, while popular methods from neuroscience might reveal interesting structure in the activity of the brain, researchers often use techniques that would fail to reveal a hierarchy of information processing if applied to the (presumably much simpler) computer processor.

For example, neuroscientists have long used lesions, or turning off or destroying a part of the brain, to try to find links between that brain region and particular behaviors. In one particularly striking experiment, the authors mimicked this classic technique by simulating the processor as it performed one of four “behaviors”: Donkey Kong, Space Invaders, Pitfall, and Asteroids. They then systematically removed one transistor, and reported which (if any) of the behaviors could still be performed (i.e. did the game boot?) The elimination of 1,565 transistors have no impact, while 1,560 inhibit all behaviors, and indeed a subset of transistors make only one game impossible. Perhaps these are the Donkey Kong transistors, the authors coyly suggest, before concluding that the “causal relationship” is highly superficial.

Groundbreaking Alzheimer’s Case: Gene APOE3

An alzheimer’s-proof brain: a groundbreaking case.

In a groundbreaking case researchers from the Massachusetts General Hospital have discovered a gene variant that seems to have disrupted the pathology of Tau Protein. The case of Aliria Rosa Piedrahita de Villegas.

Abstract: Distinct tau neuropathology and cellular profiles of an APOE3 Christchurch homozygote protected against autosomal dominant Alzheimer’s dementia.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00401-022-02467-8

Nature’s Lab Teaches Alzheimer’s Prevention:

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