learning and memory tagged posts

Findings extend understanding of how a continuous supply of neurons throughout life is connected with learning and memory. Researchers have shown, in mice, that one type of stem cell that makes adult neurons is the source of this lifetime stock of new cells in the hippocampus. These findings may help neuroscientists figure out how to maintain youthful conditions for learning and memory, and repair and regenerate parts of the brain after injury and aging.

“We’ve shown for the first time, in mammals, that neurons in the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus grow and develo...

This confocal image shows the mossy cell commissural projections (red) and neural stem cells (in green) in the adult mouse dentate gyrus region of the brain.
Credit: Song Lab, UNC School of Medicine

Scientists showed that ‘mossy cells’ in the hippocampus regulate local stem cells to control their production of new neurons, which is important for normal learning and memory, stress response, and mood regulation. Such neurogenesis in the adult brain is disrupted in many common conditions including Alzheimer’s disease, depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, traumatic brain injury, and some forms of epilepsy.

Targeting mossy cells to reverse such disruption may therefore offer a new strategy for treating these conditions”The hope is we could manipulate even a small number of mossy cells to restore ...

ab115630 at 10ug/ml staining GRASP1 in Human brain (cortex) tissue by immunohistochemistry (FFPE)

Learning and memory depend on cells’ ability to strengthen and weaken circuits in the brain. Now, researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine report that a protein involved in recycling other cell proteins plays an important role in this process. Removing this protein reduced mice’s ability to learn and recall information. “We see deficits in learning tasks,” says Richard Huganir, Ph.D., professor and director of the neuroscience department at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

The team also found mutations in the gene that produces the recycling protein in a few patients with intellectual disability, and those genetic errors affected neural connections when introduced into mouse brain...

The KCC-3 ion transporter, shown here in green, is expressed in glial cells but only near a particular neuron, shown in red. Credit: Laboratory of Developmental Genetics at The Rockefeller University/Cell

Glial cells nourish, protect, and support neurons, but their role is far from passive. A new study shows how they can change the shape of nerve endings by interacting with them through a previously unknown molecular pathway and distinguish between the different types of neurons they encase. More than half of our brains are made up of glial cells, which wrap around nerve fibers and insulate them allowing electrical and chemical impulses to travel faster. In the past, neuroscientists considered the glial cell an essential yet passive helper of nerve cells...