Featured Story:
What Can Babies’ Brain Waves Tell Us About Circuit Formation?
August 27, 2024
A lot is unknown about how brain circuits develop and mature in babies and toddlers. Carol Wilkinson shares new data on developmental trajectories of EEG activity from 0-3 years—revealing age-dependent, nonlinear changes in periodic alpha and beta brain waves that are suggestive of distinct milestones in circuit maturation.
Community Stories
August 1, 2024
Complement proteins are known to mediate the pruning of synapses by microglia. In new work with implications for our understanding of schizophrenia, Krishna K. Narayanan, Matthew L Baum, Matthew Johnson, and Beth Stevens, and colleagues at Boston Children's Hospital, find that a neuronal protein called CSDM1 opposes the deposition of complement proteins on synapses, making them less vulnerable to engulfment by microglia.
May 9, 2024
We know that the cerebral cortex is vital for the perception of our somatosensory environment. Yet much remains mysterious. How do we know when something is too hot and what sets that thermostat? Daniel G. Taub and Clifford J. Woolf explain how a specific region called the secondary somatosensory cortex can alter our somatosensory sensitivity.
Original article in: Nature Communications >
April 24, 2024
A hallmark of anorexia nervosa is the willful seeking and maintenance of a starvation state, potentially as a means to cope with stressful life experiences or trauma. Hakan Kucukdereli and Mark Andermann share their research on how they designed a virtual reality paradigm to study this phenomenon in mice.
Original article in: Neuron >
April 15, 2024
Deep brain stimulation is a powerful therapeutic approach for severe brain circuit dysfunctions that can effectively alleviate the heterogeneous symptoms characteristic of Parkinson’s disease, dystonia, Tourette’s syndrome, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Barbara Hollunder (Lab of Andreas Horn) explains what invasive brain stimulation can teach us about the circuit architecture of the brain’s dysfunction — and which commonalities it shares with a prism.
Original article in: Nature Neuroscience >
In the News
August 29, 2024
When tested for “hidden consciousness,” one in four patients with severe brain injury who appeared unresponsive were able to respond to instructions covertly. From Nicholas D Schiff and colleagues, first author Yelena G Bodien.
Original article in: New England Journal of Medicine >
August 29, 2024
New research from Sharon G Curhan and colleagues (first author Tian-Shin Yeh) has found that an episode of shingles is associated with about a 20 percent higher long-term risk of subjective cognitive decline, one of the earliest noticeable symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.
Original article in: Alzheimer's Research and Therapy >
August 29, 2024
Technological advances allow scientists to more rapidly create in vitro models of Parkinson’s disease using stem cells, in ways that could provide more personalized diagnostic and treatment methods. From Vikram Khurana and colleagues, co-first authors Isabel Lam and Alain Ndayisaba.
Original article in: Neuron >
Awards & Honors
August 6, 2024
Round up of awards and honors earned by the HBI community.
July 3, 2024
Round up of awards and honors earned by the HBI community.
Banner Image:
Spiral ganglion neuron density. Image courtesy of Isle Bastille (Lab of Lisa Goodrich, Harvard Medical School).