A healthy brain is critical for living a longer and fuller life. The projected aging of the population, however, raises new challenges in maintaining quality of life. As we age, there is increasing compromise of neuronal activity that affects functions such as cognition, also making the brain vulnerable to disease. Once pathology-induced decline begins, few… Continue reading A Primary Care Agenda for #Brain Health: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association
Tag: Brain
Lifetime perspective on #alcohol and #brain health
Harm prevention policies must take the long view The maintenance of brain health is central to health and wellbeing across the lifespan.1 Evidence suggests three periods of dynamic brain changes that may be particularly sensitive to the neurotoxic effects of alcohol: gestation (from conception to birth), later adolescence (15-19 years), and older adulthood (over 65… Continue reading Lifetime perspective on #alcohol and #brain health
#Language comprehension in the social #brain: Electrophysiological brain signals of social presence effects during syntactic and semantic sentence processing
Although, evolutionarily, language emerged predominantly for social purposes, much has yet to be uncovered regarding how language processing is affected by social context. Social presence research studies the ways in which the presence of a conspecific affects processing, but has yet to be thoroughly applied to language processes. The principal aim of this study was… Continue reading #Language comprehension in the social #brain: Electrophysiological brain signals of social presence effects during syntactic and semantic sentence processing
The human #cerebellum has almost 80% of the surface area of the #neocortex
The surface of the human cerebellar cortex is much more tightly folded than the cerebral cortex. It was computationally reconstructed for the first time to the level of all individual folia from multicontrast high-resolution postmortem MRI scans. Its total shrinkage-corrected surface area (1,590 cm2) was larger than expected or previously reported, equal to 78% of… Continue reading The human #cerebellum has almost 80% of the surface area of the #neocortex
Conservation of #brain connectivity and wiring across the mammalian class
Over 100 years ago, Ramon y Cajal hypothesized that two forces played a role in the evolution of mammalian brain connectivity: minimizing wiring costs and maximizing conductivity speed. Using diffusion MRI, we reconstructed the brain connectomes of 123 mammalian species. Network analysis revealed that both connectivity and the wiring cost are conserved across mammals. We… Continue reading Conservation of #brain connectivity and wiring across the mammalian class
Dynamic functional connectivity between nucleus accumbens and the central executive network relates to chronic cannabis use
The neural mechanisms of drug cue‐reactivity regarding the temporal fluctuations of functional connectivity, namely the dynamic connectivity, are sparsely studied. Quantifying the task‐modulated variability in dynamic functional connectivity at cue exposure can aid the understanding. We analyzed changes in dynamic connectivity in 54 adult cannabis users and 90 controls during a cannabis cue exposure task.… Continue reading Dynamic functional connectivity between nucleus accumbens and the central executive network relates to chronic cannabis use
Permissive microbiome characterizes human subjects with a neurovascular disease cavernous angioma
Cavernous angiomas (CA) are common vascular anomalies causing brain hemorrhage. Based on mouse studies, roles of gram-negative bacteria and altered intestinal homeostasis have been implicated in CA pathogenesis, and pilot study had suggested potential microbiome differences between non-CA and CA individuals based on 16S rRNA gene sequencing. We here assess microbiome differences in a larger… Continue reading Permissive microbiome characterizes human subjects with a neurovascular disease cavernous angioma
Physical presence of spouse enhances brain-to-brain synchrony in co-parenting couples
Co-parenting spouses who live together remain in close physical proximity to each other and regularly engage in reciprocal social interactions in joint endeavors to coordinate their caregiving. Although bi-parental rearing is a common occurrence in humans, the influence of the physical presence of a co-parenting spouse on parental brain responses remains largely unknown. Synchrony is… Continue reading Physical presence of spouse enhances brain-to-brain synchrony in co-parenting couples
Emotional #Stress Induces Structural Plasticity in Bergmann Glial Cells via an AC5–CPEB3–GluA1 Pathway
..SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Astrocytes play important roles in synaptic transmission by extending fine processes around synapses. In this study, we showed that a single exposure to an acute stress triggered a retraction of lateral/fine processes in mouse cerebellar astrocytes. These astrocytes express GluA1, a glutamate receptor subunit known to lengthen astrocyte processes. We showed that astrocytic… Continue reading Emotional #Stress Induces Structural Plasticity in Bergmann Glial Cells via an AC5–CPEB3–GluA1 Pathway
2 Medical News 