Neuroscience News

Why a defective gene is tied so strongly to Parkinson’s disease has baffled researchers. Now, a study led by Stanford scientists appears to have pieced together a major part of the puzzle.

Genetic mutations affecting a single gene called LRRK2 play an outsized role in Parkinson's disease, but nobody's been able to say what the connection is between the genetic defect and the brain-cell die-off that characterizes the condition. Here's a clue

Studies have associated low zinc levels with autism spectrum disorder. But why this should be the case has been unclear. Now, scientists may have an explanation for the link.

Stanford researchers have shown in rats that pharmacologically active amounts of a fast-acting anesthetic drug could be released from nanoparticle "cages" in small, specified brain areas at which the scientists had aimed a beam of focused ultrasound.

Stanford researchers used focused ultrasound to pry molecules of an anesthetic loose from nanoparticles. The drug’s release modified activity in brain regions targeted by the ultrasound beam.

Autism spectrum disorder is marked by severe social deficits. Stanford researchers were able to reverse those types of deficits in mice by activating a single brain circuit.

The release of a single signaling chemical from a specific nerve-cell tract in a particular part of the brain, like an on/off switch, may spell the difference between sociability and social awkwardness.

Neurons in the brain and body send chemical signals from one to the next. Now, scientists led by Stanford's Steven Chu are a step closer to watching those signals take shape inside individual neurons.

Stanford psychiatric researcher Natalie Rasgon, MD, PhD, and her collaborators in a multicenter study have identified a substance, acetyl-L-choline, whose levels in the blood of people suffering from depression are correspondingly depressed.

Investigators at Stanford and elsewhere have shown, for the first time in humans, that low blood levels of acetyl-L-carnitine track with the severity and duration of depression.

Stanford neuroscientist Lisa Giocomo, PhD, and her colleagues examined the navigational behavior and brain-activity patterns of mice traveling through a virtual reality environment.

Your brain doesn't just sits still inside your skull, it rhythmically bulges and shrinks with each heartbeat, by an amount equivalent to a bit less the width of a human hair.

For years, the people developing artificial intelligence drew inspiration from what was known about the human brain, and it has enjoyed a lot of success as a result. Now, AI is starting to return the favor.

Parkinson's disease affects millions of people worldwide, slowing their movements and making it difficult to walk, but exactly how Parkinson's works remains a bit mysterious.

In the new study, a team directed by Stanford neuroscientist Andy Huberman, PhD, unraveled the brain circuitry that fine tunes the fright-flight-or-fight response to a visually perceived threat.

Stanford researchers set out to test a seminal theory of Parkinson’s disease and several related conditions. What they found is more complex than anyone had imagined.