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Skip to: Astrocytes Oligodendrocytes and NG2 Cells Microglia Other Functions Summary Glial cells are non-neuronal cells found within the brain and the rest of the nervous system. There are approximately 60 billion glia to 16 billion neurons within the cortex, but only 16 billion glia to 69 billion neurons in the cerebellum. Overall, there are roughly the same number of […]
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A growing pool of evidence suggests that Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and Parkinson’s disease (PD) may share common pathological mechanisms, and that the presence of T2DM increases the risk of developing PD by 40%. Measuring blood sugar level. Image Credit: Neirfy / Shutterstock How is T2DM Connected to PD? PD, the second most common neurodegenerative disorder after Alzheimer’s disease, […]
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Rapid Eye Movement—not only the name of a successful American rock band, but also and not least a characteristic eye movement in paradoxical sleep, the stage with high dream activity. This sleep phase has a peculiarity: Although the muscle tone of the sleeping person is completely relaxed, the eyes suddenly move back and forth. The name “paradoxical sleep” is well […]
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Where is Waldo? Whether we’re searching for Waldo or our keys in a room of clutter, we tap into a part of the frontal region of the brain when performing visual, goal-related tasks. Some of us do it well, whereas for others it’s a bit challenging. One West Virginia University researcher set out to investigate why, and what specifically this […]
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Every night while sleeping, we cycle between two very different states of sleep. Upon falling asleep, we enter non-rapid eye movement (non-REM) sleep where our breathing is slow and regular and movement of our limbs or eyes are minimal. Approximately 90 minutes later, how-ever, we enter rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. This is a paradoxical state where our breathing becomes […]
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Researchers from the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience have found that the rat brain activates the same cells when they observe the pain of others as when they experience pain themselves. In addition, without the activity of these mirror neurons, the animals no longer share the pain of others. Finding the neural basis for sharing the emotions of others is an […]
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While there has long been discussion whether exposure to anesthesia affects brain development, new Rush University Medical Center research published in the journal Cerebral Cortex describes how prenatal anesthesia in rats seems to disrupt the “precisely choreographed” and timed migration of neurons to the area of the developing brain where thinking, memory and language occur. The finding further fuels the […]
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Like a well-guarded fortress, the human brain attacks intruders on sight. Foreign objects, including neural probes used to study and treat the brain, do not last long. But now, researchers have designed a probe that looks, acts, and feels so much like a real neuron that the brain cannot identify the imposters. According to Charles M. Lieber, this breakthrough “literally […]
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Scientists trying to identify the roots of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), the leading cause of death in U.S. infants between 1 month and 1 year old, have increasingly turned their attention to the neurotransmitter serotonin and the brain cells that produce it. Studies have linked serotonin-producing neurons to the regulation of breathing, which may go awry in SIDS. In […]
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Schizophrenia, an often severe and disabling psychiatric disorder, affects approximately 1 percent of the world’s population. While research over the past few years has suggested that desynchronization of neurons may be the cause of its neuropsychiatric symptoms, including memory disorders, hyperactivity and hallucinatory phenomena, the cellular origin of such desynchronization remains poorly understood. Now, researchers at the University of Geneva […]
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