Science News about Basic Research

Awake Mental Replay of Past Experiences Critical for Learning

Press Release • May 03, 2012
Awake mental replay of past experiences is essential for making informed choices, suggests a study in rats. Without it, the animals’ memory-based decision-making faltered, say scientists funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Linked Brain Centers Mature in Sync

Science Update • March 13, 2012
Brain imaging is providing a new picture of how functionally connected parts of the brain develop in sync.

Turning on Dormant Gene May Hold Key for Correcting a Neurodevelopmental Defect

Science Update • January 05, 2012
Scientists working in cell culture and in mice have been able to correct the loss of gene activity underlying a rare but severe developmental disorder by turning on a gene that is normally silenced in brain cells.

Biology, Not Just Society, May Increase Risk of Binge Eating During Puberty

Science Update • August 22, 2011
Biological changes associated with puberty may influence the development of binge eating and related eating disorders, according to a recent study on female rats conducted by NIMH-funded researchers.

New Neurons in Adult Brain Buffer Stress

Science Update • August 16, 2011
New neurons growing in the adult brain help buffer the effects of stress, according to a new study in mice.

HIV-Infected Astrocytes Disrupt Blood-Brain Barrier, Contribute to Cognitive Impairment

Science Update • August 16, 2011
Astrocytes, a type of support cell in the brain, that are infected with HIV show abnormal connections and functioning that disrupt the blood-brain barrier, according to an NIMH-funded study.

Stress-Defeating Effects of Exercise Traced to Emotional Brain Circuit

Science Update • June 09, 2011
Evidence in both humans and animals points to emotional benefits from exercise, both physical and mental. Now, in recent experiments with mice, scientists have traced the stress-buffering effect of activity to a brain circuit known to be involved in emotional regulation as well as mood disorders and medication effects. The finding is a clue to understanding the neurological roots of resilience, key to developing new means of prevention and treatment for stress-related illness.

Tired Neurons Caught Nodding Off in Sleep-deprived Rats

Press Release • April 27, 2011
A new study in rats is shedding light on how sleep-deprived lifestyles might impair functioning without people realizing it. The more rats are sleep-deprived, the more some of their neurons take catnaps – with consequent declines in task performance. Even though the animals are awake and active, brainwave measures reveal that scattered groups of neurons in the thinking part of their brain, or cortex, are briefly falling asleep, scientists funded by the National Institutes of Health have discovered.

Study Reveals New Clues to How Depression May Develop

Science Update • April 20, 2011
Activating neurons in a brain structure linked to disappointment increased depression-like behaviors in rats, while suppressing the neurons’ activity reduced the behaviors, according to an NIMH-funded study. The findings help to explain previous research linking this brain structure to depression in humans and highlight a cellular process that hadn’t been previously explored in mood disorders research. The study was published in the February 24, 2011, issue of Nature.

Enzyme Enhances, Erases Long-term Memories in Rats

Press Release • March 03, 2011
Even long after it is formed, a memory in rats can be enhanced or erased by increasing or decreasing the activity of a brain enzyme, say researchers supported, in part, by the National Institutes of Health.

Same Behavior, Different Brain in Adolescent and Adult Rats

Science Update • January 28, 2011
A study that measured the activity of single cells in the brains of rats found striking differences between adolescents and adults even when both behaved identically on a task motivated by a reward. The finding offers clues to the neurological underpinnings of adolescent behavior and this age group’s vulnerability to mental illness.

Little-known Growth Factor Enhances Memory, Prevents Forgetting in Rats

Press Release • January 26, 2011
A naturally occurring growth factor significantly boosted retention and prevented forgetting of a fear memory when injected into rats' memory circuitry during time-limited windows when memories become fragile and changeable. In the study funded by the National Institutes of Health, animals treated with insulin-like growth factor (IGF-II) excelled at remembering to avoid a location where they had previously experienced a mild shock.

Transgenic Mouse Offers a Window on Gene/Environment Interplay: Prenatal Infection Alters Behavior in Genetically Vulnerable

Science Update • December 15, 2010
Experiments in transgenic mice have provided a novel glimpse of how a prenatal infection could interact with a specific gene variant to cause behavioral and neurologic changes in adults that mirror those seen in major psychiatric disease.

NIMH’s Dr. Mortimer Mishkin to be Awarded National Medal of Science 

Press Release • November 12, 2010
National Institutes of Health intramural researcher Mortimer Mishkin, Ph.D., will be awarded the National Medal of Science at a White House ceremony later this month. Mishkin is chief of the National Institute of Mental Health’s (NIMH) Section on Cognitive Neuroscience, and acting chief of its Laboratory of Neuropsychology. He is the first NIMH intramural scientist to receive the medal, which the President presents each year for outstanding contributions to science. Mishkin is among 10 recipients this year.

NIH launches Genotype-Tissue Expression Project

Press Release • October 08, 2010
The National Institutes of Health today announced awards to support an initiative to understand how genetic variation may control gene activity and its relationship to disease. Launched as a pilot phase, the Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) project will create a resource researchers can use to study inherited susceptibility to illness and will establish a tissue bank for future biological studies.

Drug Substitutes for Training in Rats, Inducing a Memory of Safety

Press Release • June 04, 2010
Researchers have found a way to pharmacologically induce a memory of safety in the brain of rats, mimicking the effect of training. The finding suggests possibilities for new treatments for individuals suffering from anxiety disorders.

Novel Model of Depression from Social Defeat Shows Restorative Power of Exercise  

Science Update • April 13, 2010
In a study in a mouse model that mimics the contribution of social stress to human depression, an environment that promotes exercise and exploration alleviated depressive behavior in the mice. The beneficial effect of activity depended on the growth of new neurons in the adult brain.

Gene’s Impact on Forgetting a Fear-Based Memory Same in Humans and Mice

Science Update • March 05, 2010
Both humans and mice carrying a variant of a gene that plays a role in memory were slow to learn to forget a fear-based memory. The parallels in gene effects observed in mice and humans in this work means that investigation using the mouse model can provide insights into effects in humans; results may inform treatment approaches to anxiety disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder.

From Neurons to Thought: Coherent Electrical Patterns Observed Across the Brain

Science Update • January 25, 2010
Amidst the background hum of electrical signaling generated by neurons in the brain, scientists have found that local groups of neurons, firing in coordination, sometimes create a signal that is mirrored instantaneously and precisely by other groups of neurons across the brain.  These transient episodes of coherence across different parts of the brain may be an electrical signature of thought and actions.

Behavioral Training Improves Connectivity and Function in the Brain

Press Release • December 09, 2009
Children with poor reading skills who underwent an intensive, six-month training program to improve their reading ability showed increased connectivity in a particular brain region, in addition to making significant gains in reading, according to a study funded in part by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). The study was published in the Dec. 10, 2009, issue of Neuron.

Symptoms in Mice Lacking a Single Receptor Type Mimic the Development of Schizophrenia

Science Update • December 03, 2009
Deleting one type of neurotransmitter receptor in a specific population of brain cells can induce schizophrenia-like behavior in mice, but only when the receptor is deleted early in development, according to a study by NIMH intramural scientists. The work provides strong support for previous observations implicating these receptors in psychosis; further, the mice provide a model of how psychotic symptoms can arise from a disruption in neuronal development, consistent with observations of how schizophrenia emerges in humans.

NIH Funds Four Centers of Excellence in Genomic Science

Press Release • September 28, 2009
The National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) and National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), both part of the National Institutes of Health, today announced grants expected to total approximately $45 million to establish new Centers of Excellence in Genomic Science at the Medical College of Wisconsin and University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill as well as to continue support of existing centers at Johns Hopkins University and the University of Southern California.

NIH Launches the Human Connectome Project to Unravel the Brain’s Connections

Press Release • July 16, 2009
The National Institutes of Health Blueprint for Neuroscience Research is launching a $30 million project that will use cutting-edge brain imaging technologies to map the circuitry of the healthy adult human brain. By systematically collecting brain imaging data from hundreds of subjects, the Human Connectome Project (HCP) will yield insight into how brain connections underlie brain function, and will open up new lines of inquiry for human neuroscience.

Much Touted “Depression Risk Gene” May Not Add to Risk After All

Press Release • June 16, 2009
Stressful life events are strongly associated with a person’s risk for major depression, but a certain gene variation long thought to increase risk in conjunction with stressful life events actually may have no effect, according to researchers funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), part of the National Institutes of Health. The study, published in the June 17, 2009, issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, challenges a widely accepted approach to studying risk factors for depression.

Key Molecule in Inflammation-Related Depression Confirmed

Science Update • March 20, 2009
Scientists have confirmed the role of an immune-activated enzyme in causing inflammation-related depression-like symptoms in mice.

New Silvio O. Conte Centers Address Brain Development, Disorders

Science Update • March 18, 2009
With a mandate to use innovative, multidisciplinary research approaches to address important mental health questions, four newly funded centers have begun investigations of schizophrenia, brain development, and adolescent mood disorders.

Brain Awareness Week Teaches Kids How Their Brains Work

Press Release • March 17, 2009
The 10th annual Brain Awareness Week (BAW), a science and health education fair held in various locations across the United States, teaches fifth through eighth grade students about the brain. In Washington, D.C., it will take place March 16-20, 2009, at the National Museum of Health and Medicine at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Several institutes from the National Institutes of Health will provide interactive exhibits and lectures focusing on brain health and neuroscience on March 18th and 19th.

Brain Scanning Gives Clues to How Genes Shape Behavior, Disease Risk

Science Update • February 27, 2009
In an experiment in which people viewed changing images of slot machines, inherited differences in brain chemistry predicted the magnitude of responses in the brain to the prospect and receipt of reward.

Research Shows How Chronic Stress May be Linked to Physical and Mental Ailments

Science Update • February 03, 2009
While scientists have long known that the levels of certain hormones rise in response to chronic stress, an NIMH study is the first to describe a potential fundamental mechanism for this process.

Caffeine No Substitute for a Nap to Enhance Memory

Science Update • December 08, 2008
Hoping to improve your tennis serve? It's probably better to catch a few winks than load up on java after a lesson, results of a NIMH-supported study suggest.