Monthly Archives: October 2013

The authors of this report investigated whether higher blood glucose and glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) levels exert a negative impact on memory performance and hippocampal volume and microstructure in healthy, older, nondiabetic individuals without dementia. 141 individuals were studied (mean age … Continue reading

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Lacking scientific understanding of the function of naps in early childhood, policy makers may curtail preschool classroom nap opportunities due to increasing curriculum demands. Here Kurdziel and colleagues show evidence that classroom naps support learning in preschool children by enhancing … Continue reading

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Progressive phases of multiple sclerosis are associated with inhibited differentiation of progenitor cells that generate the mature oligodendrocytes required for remyelination and disease remission. In this paper, Deshmukh and colleagues identified benztropine, a drug already used for treatment of Parkinson’s … Continue reading

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During prion disease, an increase in misfolded prion protein leads to sustained overactivation of an unfolded protein response (UPR) that controls the initiation of protein synthesis. This results in persistent repression of translation, synaptic failure and neuronal death. Localized genetic … Continue reading

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Parkinson disease is well described at end-stage in postmortem studies, but there remains a need to define early functional changes in susceptible neurons and circuits. In particular, mechanisms underlying the vulnerability of the dopamine neurons of the substantia nigra pars … Continue reading

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  Research suggests a role of vitamin D in the central nervous system and the vitamin D receptor is widely distributed in the human brain. Animal studies have shown that vitamin D is important in neurodevelopment, up-regulation of neurotrophic factors, … Continue reading

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The development of drugs for autism spectrum disorder is hampered by the limited understanding of its pathophysiology, the heterogeneity of its symptoms and a dearth of experimental models. In this report, Ghosh and colleagues present recent insights into the molecular … Continue reading

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