Researchers at Virginia Tech's Fralin Biomedical Research Institute find activity in more easily accessible Purkinje cells in the cerebellum is not a reliable substitute for understanding activity in connected but less accessible deep cerebellar nuclei cells. The finding is important to both understanding and treating movement disorders, such as dystonia, ataxia, and tremor.

Neurons tucked away in an ancient part of the brain control the ability to pay attention by suppressing distractions and directing focus.

The discovery of these neurons in mice by Johns Hopkins University researchers, in a part of the brain that exists across all vertebrates including humans, could be an initial step toward more targeted treatments for attention disorders.

An epigenetic “mechanostat” has been discovered that protects tooth-forming progenitor cells from mechanical stress and supports lifelong tissue renewal. Using mouse incisors, the study shows that KDM6B restrains force-induced calcium signaling by regulating the mechanosensitive channel PIEZO1 through a chromatin-based pathway. The findings reveal how mineralized tissues adapt to constant mechanical loading and identify potential therapeutic targets for skeletal and dental degeneration, while providing new insights into tissue regeneration and mechanobiology overall.

The experiences we face early in life may leave their marks on our health in ways that echo across decades—and even across the entire body.

 

A new study examined a unique group of free-living, rhesus macaques who have been followed their entire lives to document their experiences. Pairing these histories with genomic data from 12 tissues collected in adulthood, the study provides some of the clearest molecular evidence yet that early life adversity leaves a lasting, system-wide impression at the epigenome, the biological layer on top of the human genome that regulates gene activity.

A new kind of brain wave has been discovered that specifically rotates over space and time, relies on a circular anatomical circuit in the sensory cortex, and impacts activity across the brain. The findings were made in mouse studies. Scientists hope to learn whether these rotating traveling waves play a global role in sensing and interpreting internal and external stimuli, in laying down memory, and in managing motor performance. The researchers have yet to determine if rotating traveling waves are coordinated globally to the same extent in other species, including humans, as they are in mice.