PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Dopamine physiology in the brain unveiled through cutting-edge brain engineering!

2024-08-02
(Press-News.org) □ DGIST (President Lee Kunwoo) Department of Brain Sciences Professor Lee Kwang and his team have discovered a new correlation between neural signaling in the brain and dopamine signaling in the striatum. The human brain requires fast neural signal processing in a short period of less than a second. Dopamine is known to have the strongest effect on brain neural signals, but the research team’s newly developed “optical neural chip-based multiple brain signal monitoring technology” shows that changes in dopamine signals within the physiological range do not affect brain neural signal processing.

 

□ Dopamine is a chemical neuromodulator that plays an essential role in learning, movement, motivation, and decision-making. It has been linked to a number of diseases, including Parkinson’s disease, addiction, and depression. To analyze the relevance of dopamine signaling to brain neural signal processing and related diseases, DGIST Professor Lee Kwang and his team developed an “optical neural chip-based multiple brain signal monitoring technology” with Professor Masmanidis’ team at UCLA. The technology can simultaneously record electrical and chemical brain neural signals, and it confirmed that dopamine signaling in the artificially manipulated striatum induces action potential[1] changes in neurons. The findings were validated through machine learning.

 

□ The team used optogenetics to simultaneously observe dopamine and neural activity in the “ventral striatum” while controlling the activity of dopamine neurons. First, when dopamine was not released during neural signal processing in the brain, no abnormalities were found in the activity of the neurons, and when dopamine was released within the normal physiological range (e.g., during food intake), only small or inconsistent changes in the activity of the neurons were observed. However, when dopamine was artificially released at more than five times the normal physiological range, a significant effect on neural signal processing in the brain was observed. This suggests that other factors may be more important than dopamine signaling in the brain for certain neural signaling processes, contrary to current theories.

 

 

□ “This study demonstrates for the first time that dopamine signals from food rewards play a minor role in rapidly shaping neural activity in the striatum. This suggests that on a sub-second time scale, neural activity in the striatum may be influenced by other external neural inputs rather than dopamine,” said DGIST Professor Lee Kwang. “We will conduct follow-up studies to illuminate the sophisticated physiology of dopamine in relation to time, including its long-term contribution.”

 

□ The findings were published online in Nature Neuroscience in July.

 

- Corresponding Author E-mail Address : klee@dgist.ac.kr


 

[1] Action potential: A depolarizing electrical activity in which the membrane potential of a single nerve cell rapidly rises and then falls; the smallest unit of brain nerve activity. Neuroscientists use the term “spike.”

END


ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Precise package delivery in cells? Successful observation of endosome behavior provides new clues for disease treatment

2024-08-02
□ A team led by Professor Seo Dae-ha of the Department of Physics and Chemistry at DGIST (President Lee Kun-woo) has developed new real-time microscopy technology and successfully observed the behavior of “motor proteins”[1], which may hold the key to unraveling the efficient material transport strategy of cells. The research team used nanoparticle probe, high-resolution microscopy, and Fourier transform algorithm technologies to develop “Fourier transform-based plasmonic dark-field microscopy” (FT-pdf microscopy) with positional and angular accuracy comparable to electron microscopy, achieving the highest level of existing ...

Sustainable green energy innovation! Development of new technology for energy device that heals itself from damage incurred while generating electricity

2024-08-02
□ A team led by Professor Lee Joo-hyuk of the Department of Energy Engineering at DGIST (President Lee Kunwoo) has developed an ionic polyurethane-based triboelectric generator[1]with self-healing, biodegradable[2], and high electro-positive properties. The device has been designed as a green energy device that can minimize the impact on the environment by facilitating self-healing and biodegradability, while significantly enhancing power output performance through the use of ionic liquid. Based on these properties, it is expected to be used as a sustainable power source in next-generation soft electronic devices and wearable devices.  - ...

White Matter May Aid Recovery From Spinal Cord Injuries: Study

White Matter May Aid Recovery From Spinal Cord Injuries: Study
2024-08-02
Injuries, infection and inflammatory diseases that damage the spinal cord can lead to intractable pain and disability. Some degree of recovery may be possible. The question is, how best to stimulate the regrowth and healing of damaged nerves. At the Vanderbilt University Institute of Imaging Science (VUIIS), scientists are focusing on a previously understudied part of the brain and spinal cord — white matter. Their discoveries could lead to treatments that restore nerve activity through the targeted delivery of electromagnetic stimuli or drugs. As in the brain, the spinal cord is made up nerve cell bodies (gray matter), which process sensation and control voluntary movement, and ...

Reduction in folate intake linked to healthier aging in animal models

2024-08-02
August 1, 2024 - by Ashley Vargo - In a study published in Life Science Alliance, Texas A&M AgriLife Research scientists found that decreasing folate intake can support healthier metabolisms in aging animal models, challenging the conventional belief that high folate consumption universally benefits health. The study was led by Michael Polymenis, Ph.D., professor and associate head of graduate programs in the Texas A&M College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics.   Michael Polymenis, Ph.D., principal investigator, ...

How America’s elites may hold the key to lowering murder rates

2024-08-02
COLUMBUS, Ohio – New crime laws, police funding and similar efforts may have some effect on homicide rates in the United States – but the biggest impact will come from the actions of our political and economic elites.   That’s the conclusion of historian Randolph Roth, author of the 2009 book American Homicide, in a new report he wrote for the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation.   Roth, who is a professor of history at The Ohio State University, provides evidence that homicide rates are linked to how citizens feel about the legitimacy of government and their sense of connectedness ...

NSF awards new funding to bolster UVA research computing project

2024-08-02
The National Science Foundation is awarding a new grant to support the Virginia Assuring Controls Compliance of Research Data project, known as ACCORD, a program that has helped students and faculty at universities across Virginia gain access to critical research computing resources. The ACCORD program has provided a platform for researchers to securely share and store data as well as take on projects that require the protection of sensitive data. Participants have included minority-serving institutions, those that do not grant Ph.D. degrees, and others that lack this computing infrastructure. Neal Magee, an associate professor with the University of Virginia’s ...

FDA approves engineered cell therapy for treating rare sarcoma

2024-08-02
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted accelerated approval for the immunotherapy afamitresgene autoleuecel (Tecelra®, also known as afami-cel) for the treatment of adults with a rare soft tissue cancer called synovial sarcoma. Afami-cel is the first engineered T cell therapy to receive FDA approval for a solid tumor cancer.  The clinical trial that resulted in the drug’s approval was led by Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) sarcoma specialist and immunotherapy expert Sandra D’Angelo, MD.  “This treatment offers an important new option for people with this rare cancer,” Dr. D’Angelo ...

Emory researchers help discover source of deadly fungal infections in bone marrow transplant patients, new study finds

Emory researchers help discover source of deadly fungal infections in bone marrow transplant patients, new study finds
2024-08-02
Emory researcher David Weiss has spent years studying a baffling phenomenon called heteroresistance, in which a tiny fraction of bacteria remain resistant to antibiotics, while the remainder succumb. Recently, he brought his scientific acumen to the equally deadly threat of fungal bloodstream infections in patients receiving bone marrow transplants. Bloodstream infections can be lethal in these patients, including infections from Candida parapsilosis, a species of fungi that can live in the digestive tract and occasionally make it into the bloodstream. Weiss partnered ...

Brain activity associated with specific words is mirrored between speaker and listener during a conversation

Brain activity associated with specific words is mirrored between speaker and listener during a conversation
2024-08-02
When two people interact, their brain activity becomes synchronized, but it was unclear until now to what extent this “brain-to-brain coupling” is due to linguistic information or other factors, such as body language or tone of voice. Researchers report August 2 in the journal Neuron that brain-to-brain coupling during conversation can be modeled by considering the words used during that conversation, and the context in which they are used. “We can see linguistic content emerge word-by-word ...

Prescription fills for semaglutide products

2024-08-02
About The Study: The number of prescriptions filled for semaglutide has increased substantially, reaching 2.6 million prescriptions filled at retail pharmacies by December 2023. While Ozempic persistently accounted for most semaglutide fills, increases were considerably greater for Wegovy since its approval for weight loss in June 2021. These increases, which primarily occurred following increased awareness of weight-loss benefits in late 2022, are likely contributing to the FDA-reported shortage of Ozempic and Wegovy first issued in March 2022. Despite the disproportionate burden of obesity in Medicaid and Medicare Part D populations, and recent increases in public spending ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Exploring ternary metal sulfides as electrocatalyst for carbon dioxide reduction reactions

Breakthrough in proton barrier films using pore-free graphene oxide

Urbanization has impacted the population genetic structure of the Eurasian red squirrel in Japan within a short period of 30 years

Experimental mRNA cancer vaccine shows potential for advanced stage cancer patients in Phase 1 trial

Rapid new blood diagnostic test for ALS

Ignore antifungal resistance in fungal disease at your peril, warn top scientists

Increased testing for heart disease indicator needed worldwide

Huge gamma-ray burst collection 'rivals 250-year-old Messier catalogue'

Crude oil decimates sea otter buoyancy

Semaglutide and tirzepatide lead to better blood sugar control and weight loss in individuals with type 1 diabetes, US study finds

Fear of hypoglycaemia remains a major barrier to exercise among adults with type 1 diabetes

New technology ‘game changing’ for marathon runners with type 1 diabetes

Vitis vinifera and muscadines: Grape breeders seek the best of both grapes

A new tack for slack: motivate workers

UTA harvests first climate-smart soybean crop

JGU hosts annual meeting of the ATLAS Collaborative Research Center

Med school scientist receives prestigious NSF award for inflammation research

Uptick in drug overdose rates is widely reported especially among young women

Understanding what helps families with teens maintain household vaping bans

Can AI talk us out of conspiracy theories?

‘Even the deepest of rabbit holes may have an exit’

An exit for even the deepest rabbit holes: Personalized conversations with chatbot reduce belief in conspiracy theories

How is open access transforming science communication?

US food waste bans fail to reduce landfill waste, except in Massachusetts

Greenland landslide-induced tsunami produced global seismic signal that lasted 9 days

Climate change-triggered landslide unleashes a 650-foot mega-tsunami

New study reveals food waste bans ineffective in reducing landfill waste, except in Massachusetts

New research reveals how El Nino caused the greatest ever mass extinction

Climate-change-triggered landslide caused Earth to vibrate for nine days

Microbe dietary preferences influence the effectiveness of carbon sequestration in the deep ocean

[Press-News.org] Dopamine physiology in the brain unveiled through cutting-edge brain engineering!