ScienceDaily: Mind & Brain News

A potential cornucopia of neuroactive compounds, which might yield clues to the design of future psychiatric and neurological drugs, has become more accessible to synthetic chemists.

A new report addresses the issue of exactly how bright lighting should be during the day and in the evening to support healthy body rhythms, restful sleep, and daytime alertness.

Researchers have identified a link suggesting that lithium could decrease the risk of developing dementia, which affects nearly one million people in the UK.

Scientists have long known that learning requires the flow of calcium into and out of brain cells. But researchers have now discovered that floods of calcium originating from within neurons can also boost learning. The finding emerged from studies of how mice remember new places they explore.

Researchers have found that people with severe alcohol use disorder miss more than double the number of workdays missed by individuals without alcohol use disorder.

A promising new treatment for Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) has shown 'very encouraging' early results following its use in six patients.

A large study examining the surgical management of traumatic brain injuries highlights regional inequalities in both major causes and treatment of such injuries.

Parkinson's disease is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by the destruction of a specific population of neurons: the dopaminergic neurons. A team has investigated the destruction of these dopaminergic neurons using the fruit fly as study model. The scientists identified a key protein in flies, and also in mice, which plays a protective role against this disease and could be a new therapeutic target.

A new study focuses on RNA molecules in plasma as biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease in African Americans -- the population at greatest risk for developing Alzheimer's disease. This approach enabled researchers to pinpoint specific molecules in plasma that could serve as biomarkers to confirm a diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease in this population.

In individuals with a genetic predisposition to Alzheimer's disease, the immune cells of the brain -- the 'microglia' -- start exerting a protective effect up to two decades before the first symptoms appear. A team draws this conclusion based on a study of more than 200 volunteers. In light of their study data, the scientists consider modulating the activity of microglia to be a promising therapeutic approach. To this end, they aim to develop drugs that target a cellular receptor called TREM2.

In mice, social ranking in a group was linked to the results of competition, and certain neurons in the brain stored this social ranking information to inform decisions. Manipulating the activity of these neurons could increase or decrease an animal's competitive effort and therefore control their ability to successfully compete against others.