dopamine tagged posts

The source of alcohol craving may be a pea-sized structure deep inside the right side of the brain. The brain scans showed that the beer flavor induced more activity in both frontal lobes and in the right ventral striatum of the subjects’ brains than did the sports drink. Credit: B. Oberlin and D. Kareken, Indiana University School of Medicine

If you really want a drink right now, the source of your craving may be a pea-sized structure deep inside the right side of your brain, according to scientists at the Indiana University School of Medicine. Using PET and fMRI, the researchers compared the results of giving beer drinkers a taste of their favorite beer versus a sports drink...

Image illustrating the concept of the sleep homeostat. Credit: Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour/ University of Oxford

Oxford University researchers have discovered what causes a switch to flip in our brains and wake us up. Sleep is governed by 2 systems – the circadian clock and the sleep homeostat. While the circadian clock is quite well understood, very little is known about the sleep homeostat. Professor Gero Miesenböck explained: ‘The circadian clock allows us to anticipate predictable changes in our environment that are caused by the Earth’s rotation. As such, it makes sure we do our sleeping when it hurts us least, but it doesn’t speak to the mystery of why we need to sleep in the first place.

‘That explanation will likely come from understanding the second controller – slee...

A midbrain organoid in a petri dish. The black pigment is neuromelanin, a hallmark of the human midbrain. Credit: Image courtesy of The Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR)

Scientists in Singapore have made a big leap on research on the ‘mini-brain’. These advanced mini versions of the human midbrain will help researchers develop treatments and conduct other studies into Parkinson’s Disease (PD) and aging-related brain diseases. These mini midbrain versions are 3D miniature tissues grown in the lab and have certain properties of specific parts of the human brains. This is the first time that the black pigment neuromelanin has been detected in an organoid model. The study also revealed functionally active dopaminergic neurons.

The human midbrain, which is the information sup...

These are brain scans of a representative patient showing Dopamine transporter binding (red) before and after 3-month NAC treatment. Credit: Thomas Jefferson University

n-acetylcysteine (NAC), with strong antioxidant effects, shows potential benefit as part of the management for patients with Parkinson’s disease. Combining clinical evaluations of a patient’s mental and physical abilities with brain imaging studies that tracked the levels of dopamine, the lack of which is thought to cause Parkinson’s, doctors from the Depts of Integrative Medicine, Neurology, and Radiology, at Thomas Jefferson University showed that patients receiving NAC improved on both measures.

Current treatments for Parkinson’s disease are generally limited to temporarily replacing dopamine in the brain as well as some...