All articles tagged with #excitatory neurons
Researchers identified two brain cell types—mood-related excitatory neurons and inflammation-regulating microglia—that are altered in depression, providing new insights into its biological basis and potential targets for precision therapies.
A new study has resolved the paradoxical findings surrounding visual recognition memory (VRM) by showing that increased visual evoked potentials (VEPs) during the recognition of familiar stimuli indicate the brain's rapid identification process, leading to decreased overall neural activity. The study found that VEPs occur in all layers of the cortex but depend on NMDA receptors on a population of excitatory neurons in layer 6. The findings shed light on the mechanisms underlying VRM and highlight the role of inhibitory neurons in regulating neural activity. However, further research is needed to fully understand the exact circuits involved in VRM.
A new study suggests that two major subtypes of autism may be explained by opposite paths in fetal brain development. One subtype is characterized by an unusually high number of excitatory neurons, leading to large heads (macrocephaly), while the other subtype has a decreased number of these cells, resulting in typical head sizes. The findings indicate that therapeutic approaches for these subtypes may need to be drastically different, potentially explaining why current drug treatments for autism are failing. The research also suggests that an imbalance in brain development may be a common feature in autism, regardless of head size. The study used brain organoids derived from autistic boys and their non-autistic fathers, and identified alterations in the expression of genes associated with excitatory neurons. Further research is needed to explore the genetic and molecular pathways underlying these imbalances.