Tag Archives: Brains

Pieces of bacteria migrating from the gut to the brain may play a key role in sleep, scientists have discovered, suggesting that the oldest and most basic microorganisms in our bodies are crucial in telling us when to nod off. These fragments are made of a chemical called peptidoglycan, which comes from bacterial cell walls in the digestive system. Previous …

Obsessive, intrusive thoughts about eating – known as food noise – can be quieted through semaglutide drugs such as Ozempic, new research has revealed, further boosting the effectiveness of these treatments for weight loss. These drugs are known as receptor agonists, triggering cell responses to mimic the body’s natural glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) hormone, and reduce appetite and slow digestion. We …

New research from the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN) has revealed that neurons in the brain use fats for energy, challenging decades of scientific thinking and opening the door to new treatments for neurological disease. For years, scientists believed that healthy neurons, the brain’s communication cells, relied solely on glucose and its metabolites to power their activity. But …

The world’s most popular sport is reckoning with serious health concerns. The largest study of its kind has now found that repetitively heading a soccer ball can negatively impact the brain, even in amateur players who don’t report concussions. Among 352 amateur adult soccer players, those who took more than a thousand headers a year showed microscopic changes to the …

Victoria GillScience correspondent, BBC News Getty Images Scientists have for the first time located the “mileage clock” inside a brain – by recording the brain activity of running rats. Letting them loose inside a small, rat-sized arena, the researchers recorded from a part of their brains that is known to be important in navigation and memory. They found that cells …

Scientists have discovered that junk food can alter brain memory circuits within days. The research hints that early lifestyle interventions might help safeguard memory and prevent long-term cognitive decline. Credit: Stock A high-fat diet quickly disrupts neurons tied to memory, but restoring glucose or dietary changes can repair the damage. These findings may guide strategies to reduce dementia risk. Diet …

Our brains seem to respond to specific colours in a similar way. Credit: Hispanolistic/Getty Is the colour you see the same as what I see? It’s a question that has puzzled both philosophers and neuroscientists for decades, but has proved notoriously difficult to answer. Now, a study that recorded patterns of brain activity in 15 participants suggests that colours are …

The watery part of the world dominated our science news coverage this week, beginning with the alarming prediction that a key Atlantic current, the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), which includes the Gulf Stream, could begin its irreversible collapse in decades. That’s according to a new landmark study, which combined the predictions of 25 climate models to arrive at an …

Summary: A new study reveals how a mutation in the Shank3 gene, associated with autism, alters social behavior by disrupting vasopressin release in the brain. In mice, this mutation reduced sociability and defensive aggression by limiting vasopressin reaching the lateral septum. Researchers showed that vasopressin acts through two distinct receptors: AVPR1a for sociability and AVPR1b for aggression. By selectively targeting …

3 Psychiatric Tools That Could Boost the Brain’s Natural Healing  The New York Times Source link