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Category: neuroscience

Neuron position found less crucial for brain connectivity than once thought

The human brain contains billions of connected neurons that collectively support different mental functions, including the processing of sensory information, the encoding of memories, attention processes, and decision-making. For a long time, neuroscientists have assumed the position of specific neurons in the brain plays a key role in the brain’s connectivity and proper functioning.

Researchers at University of Geneva, INSERM, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne and other institutes recently gathered evidence that contradicts this long-standing assumption, showing misplaced neurons can still retain their “identity,” connect with other neurons and support the processing of sensory information.

Their paper, published in Nature Neuroscience, could reshape the present understanding of developmental disorders and other conditions linked to the rearrangement of neurons or cortical malformations.

Different Autism Mutations Can Lead to Similar Brain Changes

The shared pathways were linked to neuron maturation, synapse formation, and the control of gene activity. Further analysis pointed to a group of genes involved in organizing DNA and regulating which genes are switched on or off. These genes sit high in the regulatory chain, influencing many downstream processes previously linked to autism.

To test whether this network played an active role, the team reduced the activity of several key regulators using CRISPR-based methods in neural cells. This led to downstream changes similar to those seen in the autism models.

However, organoids from individuals with idiopathic autism showed less consistent changes, likely reflecting the complex and distributed genetic risk seen in most autism cases.

CLN3 mediates chloride efflux from lysosomes

Lysosomes degrade damaged organelles and macromolecules to recycle nutrient components. Lysosomal storage diseases (LSDs) are linked to mutations of genes encoding lysosomal proteins and may lead to age-related disorders, including neurodegenerative diseases. But, how lysosomal dysfunction contributes to neurodegenerative diseases is not clear yet…

The researchers identify CLN3 (ceroid lipofuscinosis, neuronal 3), linked to Batten disease as a conserved lysosomal protein that regulates lysosomal chloride homeostasis, pH, and protein degradation.

Curcumin analog C1 is a natural compound with anti-inflammatory properties could enhance CLN3 activity and improve lysosomal function by activating TFEB. sciencenewshighlights ScienceMission https://sciencemission.com/CLN3-n-chloride-efflux-n-lysosomes

Wang et al. identify CLN3 as a conserved lysosomal protein that regulates lysosomal chloride homeostasis, pH, and protein degradation. Transcription factor EB (TFEB) activation enhances CLN3 function, revealing the TFEB-CLN3 signaling axis as a promising therapeutic target for lysosomal storage disorders.

Scientists May Have Found How the Brain Becomes One Intelligent System

New research suggests intelligence arises not from a single brain region, but from how networks across the brain work together as an integrated system. Neuroscientists often describe the brain as a collection of specialist teams. Skills like attention, perception, memory, language, and thinking h

Wave of Suicides Hits as India’s Economy Is Ravaged by AI

As Rest of World reports, rising anxiety over the influence of AI, on top of already-grueling 90-hour workweeks, has proven devastating for workers. While it’s hard to single out a definitive cause, a troubling wave of suicides among tech workers highlights these unsustainable conditions.

Complicating the picture is a lack of clear government data on the tragic deaths. While it’s impossible to tell whether they are more prevalent among IT workers, experts told Rest of World that the mental health situation in the tech industry is nonetheless “very alarming.”

The prospect of AI making their careers redundant is a major stressor, with tech workers facing a “huge uncertainty about their jobs,” as Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur senior professor of computer science and engineering Jayanta Mukhopadhyay told Rest of World.

10,000 Brain Scans Reveal Why Your Memory Gets Worse With Age

Our episodic memory – the ability to recall past events and experiences – is known to decline as we age. Exactly how and why has remained something of a mystery, and a recent study goes some way towards solving it.

Researchers led by a team from the University of Oslo in Norway wanted to see whether this memory loss affects everyone equally, or if it might be driven by individual risk factors, such as the APOE ε4 gene linked to Alzheimer’s disease.

The scale of their analysis is impressive. The scientists combined data from 3,737 cognitively healthy participants, tracked over several years, including 10,343 MRI scans and 13,460 memory assessments, from multiple long-running studies.

Key to human intelligence lies in how brain networks work together, neuroimaging study suggests

Modern neuroscience understands the brain as a set of specialized systems. Aspects of brain function such as attention, perception, memory, language, and thought have been mapped onto distinct brain networks, and each has been examined largely in isolation.

While this approach has yielded major advances, it has left unresolved one of the most basic facts about human cognition: its overall unity as an integrated system.

Now, researchers at the University of Notre Dame have conducted a neuroimaging study to investigate how the brain is organized and how that integrated system gives rise to intelligence. Their study was published in the journal Nature Communications.

Several Psychiatric Disorders Share The Same Root Cause, Study Suggests

Researchers have discovered that eight different psychiatric conditions share a common genetic basis.

A study published in early 2025 pinpointed specific variants among those shared genes, showing how they behave during brain development.

The US team found many of these variants remain active for extended periods, potentially influencing multiple developmental stages – and offering new targets for treatments that could address several disorders at once.

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