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Anatomy & Neurobiology
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Top honors
NIH Director's Pioneer Award to Washington University scientist
Oct. 1,
2009 -- A Washington University scientist has won a prestigious NIH Director's Pioneer Award — one of only 18 given this year — to develop innovative ways to simultaneously monitor the activity of many neurons.
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Improving care and treatment
Registry to track children with infantile spasms
Sept. 16,
2009 --
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| Paciorkowski |
Researchers at the School of Medicine and the University of Chicago have launched what is believed to be the first worldwide, online registry of children with infantile spasms, a severe type of epilepsy that affects babies in the first few months of life.
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Insight into insomnia
Insomniac flies resemble sleep-deprived humans
June 2,
2009 -- Researchers at the School of Medicine have created a line of fruit flies that may someday help shed light on the mechanisms that cause insomnia in humans. The flies, which only get a small fraction of the sleep of normal flies, resemble insomniac humans in several ways.
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Blocking bad brain changes
Drug's epilepsy-prevention effect may be widely applicable
June 1,
2009 -- A drug with potential to prevent epilepsy caused by a genetic condition may also help prevent more common forms of epilepsy caused by brain injury, according to researchers at the School of Medicine. Scientists found that the FDA-approved drug rapamycin blocks brain changes believed to cause seizures in rats.
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Sleep promotes learning
Sleep may help clear the brain for new learning
April 2,
2009 --
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| Researchers have used socialization and mating among fruit flies to explore the connections between memory and sleep. |
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A new theory about sleep's benefits for the brain gets a boost from fruit flies in this week's Science. Researchers at the School of Medicine found evidence that sleep, already recognized as a promoter of long-term memories, also helps clear room in the brain for new learning.
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Chemist receives funding to unravel tricks of neuronal wiring
Midline crossing
Dec. 22,
2008 --
Joshua Maurer, Ph.D., assistant professor of chemistry in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, has received a four-year, $1,216,000 grant from the National Institute of Mental Health for research titled, "Unraveling Development: New Materials for Understanding Neuronal Wiring." Maurer's long term objective is to develop methodology that allows the study of a variety of neuronal wiring processes. He is starting by unscrambling a phenomenon known as midline crossing using zebrafish. During development, neurons from the right eye cross the midline of the brain to make a connection in the left hemisphere.
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Brain-computer interfaces may help move limbs
Brain implants may help stroke patients overcome partial paralysis
Nov. 11,
2008 -- Scientists have shown for the first time that neuroprosthetic brain implants may be able to help stroke patients with partial paralysis. Researchers found that implants known as brain-computer interfaces (BCI) may be able to detect activity on one side of the brain that is linked to hand and arm movements on the same side of the body. They hope to use these signals to guide motorized assistance mechanisms that restore mobility in partially paralyzed limbs.
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Brain tweak lets sleep-deprived flies stay sharp
Brain tweak lets sleep-deprived flies stay sharp
July 31,
2008 --
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| Scientists testing sleep's effects on learning have devised a model that presents fruit flies with a simple choice: fly into a lighted vial or a darkened one. |
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Staying awake slows down our brains, scientists have long recognized. Mental performance is at its peak after sleep but inevitably trends downward throughout the day, and sleep deprivation only worsens these effects. For the first time, researchers at the School of Medicine have found a way to stop this downward slide. When scientists genetically tweaked a part of the brain involved in learning and memory in fruit flies, the flies were unimpaired even after being deprived of sleep.
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Love in the air?
Steroids in female mouse urine light up nose nerves of male mice
June 17,
2008 -- A group of steroids found in female mouse urine goes straight to the male mouse's head, according to researchers at the School of Medicine. They found the compounds activate nerve cells in the male mouse's nose with unprecedented effectiveness.
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Mental processes
Researchers find that neurons compensate for electrical changes
June 11,
2008 -- All mental processes, including thinking, learning and memory, depend on the electrical properties of individual nerve cells in the brain and on the connections between them. In turn, the electrical responses of each nerve cell, or neuron, reflect the unique set of pores — called ion channels — that perforate its surface and allow the passage of charged particles, or ions. So researchers at the School of Medicine were a little surprised when they saw no harmful effects in mice after eliminating an important type of potassium ion channel from neurons in the brain.
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