By Keionna Newton
Microglia structure and function
As you go about each and every day, there are billions – yes, billions – of tiny little cells in your brain moving…
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By Mary Bullock Cooper
Do you have a bedtime? If you answered no… I’m sorry, but everyone has a bedtime! This bedtime is unlike the one in childhood that is…
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By Marta Garo-Pascual
Telomeres are the “shoelace caps” of linear chromosomes and, as shoelace caps protect shoelaces, telomeres serve a protective role for chromosomes. Barbara McClintock and Hermann Muller described…
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By Diana Ortega Cruz
In previous articles at Knowing Neurons, we have discussed the neurobiology of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), the most common form of dementia. This neurodegenerative disease has long…
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Written by Diana Ortega Cruz
In June of 2021, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved aducanumab, the first drug for the treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) that targets…
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Open data sharing efforts can advance research by analyzing existing data for new trends and fostering collaborations across institutions and countries, which are especially useful for complex diseases such as…
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Mental abilities change throughout life, first as a result of brain maturation and later with the ageing of brain cells and their billions of complex interconnections. As we age, our…
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Spanish Translation also available here: Neuro Cartilla: El Sueño
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It’s easy to ask: “Why sleep?” But we can also turn the question on its head: “Why wake?” We need…
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Whether it be forgetting 20 years of your life or having the same conversation every five minutes only to forget it each time, memory impairment can take a large toll…
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Every single day, a group of cells work tirelessly to monitor and protect the neural architecture of your brain. Some of them even move around, scanning neural networks like recon…
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What happens to the brain in aging?
Normal aging comes with many changes in brain structure and function. As individuals approach the age of 65 years and above, they experience…
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[dropcap]I[/dropcap]n a brand new episode of the Knowing Neurons podcast, we explore the concept of “mind uploading”. How would something like a mind upload really work?…
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In the sixth century, Pope Gregory I compiled an infamous list of seven deadly sins. Of these seven, sloth is the only sin named for an animal in English. But…
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[dropcap]B[/dropcap]iomedical researchers call it “the most replicated experiment in the history of science.” Simply put, the placebo effect is a phenomenon where people who believe they are being treated for…
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[dropcap]W[/dropcap]hat’s in a brain? That which we call a voxel by any other name would sound far less confusing.
Imagine all of the atoms in your brain. Now imagine how these…
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Epigenetics change which genes are active and which are inactive. Research over the past few years has shown that these changes are important for protecting the brain from neurodegeneration and…
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Sometimes it’s hard to understand why scientists do what they do. Why spend a career studying cells, fungus, or flies? Other than being nerdy and wanting to learn about our…
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We are another year older, perhaps a little wiser, and probably more forgetful. Indeed, making memories is quite a process in the brain: specific synaptic connections are strengthened and new…
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Turns out that tub of black licorice you got from Costco, and managed to eat in only a few days (don’t worry, I won’t tell anybody!), might have actually done…
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While we are still in the midst of the flu season, we all try to stay as healthy as possible by consuming large quantities of Vitamin C. Whether it’s chewable…
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Sleep deprivation has become a badge of honor in our modern society. Competitions break out in coffee shop lines over who is functioning on the least number of Zzzzzs and…
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Coincidence is a peculiar thing. We typically think of a coincidence as the occurrence of two events that happen to occur at the same time, but that have no underlying…
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The human brain contains roughly eighty-six billion (~10^10) neurons, each of which forms approximately ten thousand (10^4) synaptic connections with other neurons. Therefore, on average, there are one hundred trillion…
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Mitochondria are frequently implicated in several human disease states. From neurological disorders like Alzheimer’s disease and Autism Spectrum Disorder, to metabolic conditions like diabetes and obesity, energy abnormalities are seen…
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Humans normally have 23 pairs of chromosomes, but sometimes an error during cell division causes there to be an abnormal number of chromosomes. One of the most common chromosome abnormalities…
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