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A study analyzes in old rats the effects of a calorie-restricted diet on the hippocampus, a brain structure that is critical in learning and memory processes. The results corroborate that there is a cognitive improvement derived from diet, linked to a reduction in the levels of inflammation and neuronal loss in the hippocampus. It has been described that some of the brain alterations observed during aging are related to the cognitive dysfunction that manifests naturally as we age. These processes, which depend on both genetic and environmental factors, are particularly important in the hippocampus. Calorie-restricted diets have been shown to...

Destroying senescent cells in the aging stem cell niche enhances hippocampal neurogenesis and cognitive function in mice, researchers report. "Our results provide further support for the notion that excessive senescence is a driving factor behind aging, and even late-life reduction of these cells can rejuvenate and restore the function of the stem cell niche," says senior author David Kaplan. "Moreover, they identify stem cells as a key cellular target, potentially explaining the widespread effects of senescent cells on tissue decline." Senescent cells, which are permanently arrested because of chronic stress, are partly responsible for tissue decline during aging. "Stem cells...

A new study, led by researchers from University College London, is offering some of the first robust evidence showing how cannabidiol (CBD), a key compound in cannabis, increases cerebral blood flow in memory processing regions of the brain such as the hippocampus. CBD is just one of more than 100 different cannabinoids found in cannabis. Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is the compound most often associated with the plant’s psychoactive euphoric effects. CBD on the other hand is increasingly being found to confer a number of positive health outcomes. It recently became the first cannabis-derived compound ever approved by the FDA, used to...

Planned Parenthood is harnessing star power in a new effort to advertise abortion. But with its straw-man messaging, Planned Parenthood and its celebrity PR team are only preaching to their choir. They’re not converting anyone. On August 26, Planned Parenthood announced that it had collected the signatures of nearly 140 musicians as part of its latest campaign for abortion called “Bans Off My Body.” To boast about its supporters, the nation’s largest abortion provider purchased an ad listing the artists – from Lady Gaga to Ariana Grande – in Billboard magazine. Planned Parenthood began its campaign in June in response...

Most Tuesdays, I run early in the morning with a woman named Meredith. For such close friends, we’re quite different. Meredith is a voluble social worker who draws energy from crowds. I’m an introverted editor who works from home. Meredith runs her best in large races and loves training with big groups. I’ve set PRs in solo time trials and tend to bail when a run’s head count gets above five. Meredith is a worrier, beset by regrets and anticipated outcomes, who has sought treatment for anxiety. I have dysthymia, or chronic low-grade depression. We like to joke that Meredith...

The human hippocampus sits at the base of the brain. It stores memories, helps regulate emotions and guides navigation by spatial processing.It’s the first part of the brain impaired by Alzheimer’s; hippocampus degeneration also can cause epilepsy and other diseases.“Like a new atlas, we’ve constructed the most detailed diagram of the hippocampus to date. With a better map, we can see each region and how it functions,” said Dr. Michael Bienkowski, co-lead author of the study.“A better map is a resource scientists can use to better understand the hippocampus and how its degeneration leads to diseases.”“Researchers can use the new...

Given her background in psychology, it is not surprising that during yesterday's testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Christine Ford should tell us that the laughter of Judge Brett Kavanaugh and his friend Mark Judge is indelible in her hippocampus. Nor is it unusual that it took the New Republic only a few minutes to publish a characteristically biased and irresponsible article on the subject.

Seahorses are a group (genus Hippocampus) of small fish belonging to the family Syngnathidae, which also includes pipefish and sea dragons. These creatures are named for the shape of their head, which looks like the head of a horse.They are found in shallow tropical and temperate waters throughout the world.Unlike most other fish, seahorses are monogamous and mate for life. Pygmy seahorses of the genus Hippocampus are diminutive in size (0.5-1 inch, or 1.36-2.6 cm, long).They live in close association with octocorals, colonial hydrozoans, bryozoans, seagrass and algae.They are morphologically distinct from the more numerous and larger species (0.9-14 inches,...

The hippocampus is a region of the brain largely responsible for memory formation. Credit: Salk Institute ============================================================================================================================================== Male and female brains operate differently at a molecular level, a Northwestern University research team reports in a new study of a brain region involved in learning and memory, responses to stress and epilepsy. Many brain disorders vary between the sexes, but how biology and culture contribute to these differences has been unclear. Now Northwestern neuroscientists have found an intrinsic biological difference between males and females in the molecular regulation of synapses in the hippocampus. This provides a scientific reason to believe that...

“Fascinating,” says medical resuscitation expert Sam Parnia of a recent PLOS One study finding highly unexpected electrical activity in the hippocampus of one man, and 26 cats, with flat-lined “isoelectric” electroencephalograms (EEGs). The isoelectric flat line—so popular in movies and on TV shows—helps determine if patients are in a brain death they can’t recover from.

New neurons may explain why adults can’t remember being infants Unlike the proverbial elephants, babies always forget. Infants’ memories may be wiped clean by the genesis of new brain cells, a study in rodents suggests. The findings offer an explanation for why people can’t recall memories from early childhood, a century-old mystery. The study’s authors “make a very interesting and compelling case,” says neuroscientist and psychiatrist Thomas Insel, director of the National Institute for Mental Health in Bethesda, Md. “It’s just truly fascinating,” he says. “Nobody has actually looked at this very carefully before.” More than 100 years ago, Sigmund...

Researchers working at MIT have successfully manipulated the content of a rat's dream by replaying an audio cue that was associated with the previous day's events, namely running through a maze (what else). The breakthrough furthers our understanding of how memory gets consolidated during sleep — but it also holds potential for the prospect of "dream engineering." Working at MIT's Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, neuroscientist Matt Wilson was able to accomplish this feat by exploiting the way the brain's hippocampus encodes self-experienced events into memory. Scientists know that our hippocampus is busy at work replaying a number of...

Deleting a certain gene in mice can make them smarter by unlocking a mysterious region of the brain considered to be relatively inflexible, scientists at Emory University School of Medicine have found. Mice with a disabled RGS14 gene are able to remember objects they'd explored and learn to navigate mazes better than regular mice, suggesting that RGS14's presence limits some forms of learning and memory. The results were published online this week in the Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Since RGS14 appears to hold mice back mentally, John Hepler, PhD, professor of pharmacology at...

He knew his name. That much he could remember. He knew that his father’s family came from Thibodaux, La., and his mother was from Ireland, and he knew about the 1929 stock market crash and World War II and life in the 1940s. But he could remember almost nothing after that. In 1953, he underwent an experimental brain operation in Hartford to correct a seizure disorder, only to emerge from it fundamentally and irreparably changed. He developed a syndrome neurologists call profound amnesia. He had lost the ability to form new memories. For the next 55 years, each time he...

Applying a gentle electric current to the brain during sleep can significantly boost memory, researchers report. A small new study showed that half an hour of this brain stimulation improved students? performance at a verbal memory task by about 8%. The approach enhances memory by creating a form of electrical current in the brain seen in deep sleep, the researchers suggest. ... The students? various sleep stages were monitored using an electroencephalogram (EEG) machine. When the students entered a period of light sleep, Born?s team started to apply a gentle current in one-second-long pulses, every second, for about 30 minutes....