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    Category Health/Medical

    Study reveals how Brain Multitasks

    October 21, 2015, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    This is an image of a human brain, courtesy of Michael Halassa.The thalamic reticular nucleus (TRN) surrounds the thalamus (pictured in red, with a switchboard in the background).

    This is an image of a human brain, courtesy of Michael Halassa.The thalamic reticular nucleus (TRN) surrounds the thalamus (pictured in red, with a switchboard in the background).

    Findings help explain how the brain pays attention to what’s important and how neural circuits may be ‘broken’ in attention-deficit disorders. Researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center say they have added to evidence that the thalamic reticular nucleus or TRN in the central brain, is likely responsible for the ability to routinely and seamlessly multitask.

    The process, they suggest, is done by individual TRN neurons that act like a “switchboard,” continuously filtering sensory information and shifting more or less attention onto one sense – like sight – while relatively blocking out distracting information from o...

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    New study explains why you Bulk up with Resistance training, not Endurance training

    October 20, 2015, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    At the level of gene expression, PGC-1α is sensitive to numerous signaling cascades, most pronounced of which is the cAMP signaling pathway

    At the level of gene expression, PGC-1α is sensitive to numerous signaling cascades, most pronounced of which is the cAMP signaling pathway

    Although both exercises activate PGC-1α gene (peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma coactivator), the adaptation processes stimulated are not the same and depend on the type of exercise.

    Proteins run the body: They turn processes on or off or speed them up or slow them down. The body has many different proteins, and the instructions to make them are written on sections of DNA, referred to as genes. Different genes code for different proteins, but different proteins can also come from the same gene. Called isoforms, these proteins are produced when only part of the gene’s code is read.

    The PGC-1α protein turns on other genes...

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    Drug Delivery Technique Bypasses BBB may help many patients with Neurological Conditions

    October 20, 2015, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology, Environment/Geology

    Drugs used to treat a variety of central nervous system diseases may be administered through the nose and diffused through an implanted mucosal graft (A, in red) to gain access to the brain. Under normal circumstances, there are multiple layers within the nose that block the access of pharmaceutical agents from getting to the brain including bone and the dura/arachnoid membrane, which represents part of the blood-brain barrier (B). After endoscopic skull base surgery (C), all of these layers are removed and replaced with a nasal mucosal graft, which is 1,000 times more porous than the native blood-brain barrier. Consequently, these grafts may be used to deliver very large drugs, including proteins, which would otherwise be blocked by the blood-brain barrier. Credit: Garyfallia Pagonis and Benjamin S. Bleier, M.D.

    Drugs used to treat a variety of central nervous system diseases may be administered through the nose and diffused through an implanted mucosal graft (A, in red) to gain access to the brain. Under normal circumstances, there are multiple layers within the nose that block the access of pharmaceutical agents from getting to the brain including bone and the dura/arachnoid membrane, which represents part of the blood-brain barrier (B). After endoscopic skull base surgery (C), all of these layers are removed and replaced with a nasal mucosal graft, which is 1,000 times more porous than the native blood-brain barrier. Consequently, these grafts may be used to deliver very large drugs, including proteins, which would otherwise be blocked by the blood-brain barrier...

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    Researchers learn how to Steer the Heart with Light

    October 20, 2015, Categories  Physics, Technology/Electronics, Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    All-optical system for control of wave dynamics in biological media.

    All-optical system for control of wave dynamics in biological media.

    Team first to use optogenetics to control excitation waves in heart cells.
    We depend on electrical waves to regulate the rhythm of our heartbeat. When those signals go awry, the result is a potentially fatal arrhythmia.
    For heart patients there are currently 2 options to keep these waves in check: electrical devices (pacemakers or defibrillators) or drugs (eg beta blockers). However, these methods are relatively crude: they can stop or start waves but cannot provide fine control over the wave speed and direction

    Dr Gil Bub, from Oxford University explained: ‘When there is scar tissue in the heart or fibrosis, this can cause part of the wave to slow down...

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