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Department Of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School
The Department of Neurobiology at Harvard Medical School is located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, MA. The Department is part of the Basic Research Program at Harvard Medical School, with research pertaining to development of the nervous system, sensory neuroscience, neurophysiology, and behavior. The Department was founded by Stephen W. Kuffler in 1966, the first department dedicated to neurobiology in the world. The mission of the department is ''“to understand the workings of the brain through basic research and to use that knowledge to work toward preventive and therapeutic methods that alleviate neurological diseases”.'' History Prior to moving to Boston, while at Johns Hopkins University, Kuffler recruited Torsten N. Wiesel, David Hubel, David Potter, and Edwin Furshpan to work on various aspects of nerve physiology. As Hubel later recounted, Wiesel, Hubel, and Kuffler "...represented central nervous system physiology; Furshpan and Potter (and of course Ste ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Neurobiology
Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system (the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system), its functions, and its disorders. It is a multidisciplinary science that combines physiology, anatomy, molecular biology, developmental biology, cytology, psychology, physics, computer science, chemistry, medicine, statistics, and Mathematical Modeling, mathematical modeling to understand the fundamental and emergent properties of neurons, glia and neural circuits. The understanding of the biological basis of learning, memory, behavior, perception, and consciousness has been described by Eric Kandel as the "epic challenge" of the Biology, biological sciences. The scope of neuroscience has broadened over time to include different approaches used to study the nervous system at different scales. The techniques used by neuroscientists have expanded enormously, from molecular and cell biology, cellular studies of individual neurons to neuroimaging, imaging of Sen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the most populous city in the county, the List of municipalities in Massachusetts, fourth-largest in Massachusetts behind Boston, Worcester, Massachusetts, Worcester, and Springfield, Massachusetts, Springfield, and List of cities in New England by population, ninth-most populous in New England. The city was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England, which was an important center of the Puritans, Puritan theology that was embraced by the town's founders. Harvard University, an Ivy League university founded in Cambridge in 1636, is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Lesley University, and Hult Inte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
CRY2
Cryptochromes (from the Greek κρυπτός χρώμα, "hidden colour") are a class of flavoproteins found in plants and animals that are sensitive to blue light. They are involved in the circadian rhythms and the sensing of magnetic fields in a number of species. The name ''cryptochrome'' was proposed as a ''portmanteau'' combining the '' chromatic'' nature of the photoreceptor, and the '' cryptogamic'' organisms on which many blue-light studies were carried out. The genes ''CRY1'' and ''CRY2'' encode the proteins CRY1 and CRY2, respectively. Cryptochromes are classified into plant Cry and animal Cry. Animal Cry can be further categorized into insect type (Type I) and mammal-like (Type II). CRY1 is a circadian photoreceptor whereas CRY2 is a clock repressor which represses Clock/Cycle (Bmal1) complex in insects and vertebrates. In plants, blue-light photoreception can be used to cue developmental signals. Besides chlorophylls, cryptochromes are the only proteins known t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cryptochrome
Cryptochromes (from the Greek κρυπτός χρώμα, "hidden colour") are a class of flavoproteins found in plants and animals that are sensitive to blue light. They are involved in the circadian rhythms and the sensing of magnetic fields in a number of species. The name ''cryptochrome'' was proposed as a ''portmanteau'' combining the '' chromatic'' nature of the photoreceptor, and the '' cryptogamic'' organisms on which many blue-light studies were carried out. The genes ''CRY1'' and ''CRY2'' encode the proteins CRY1 and CRY2, respectively. Cryptochromes are classified into plant Cry and animal Cry. Animal Cry can be further categorized into insect type (Type I) and mammal-like (Type II). CRY1 is a circadian photoreceptor whereas CRY2 is a clock repressor which represses Clock/Cycle (Bmal1) complex in insects and vertebrates. In plants, blue-light photoreception can be used to cue developmental signals. Besides chlorophylls, cryptochromes are the only proteins known ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blood–brain Barrier
The blood–brain barrier (BBB) is a highly selective semipermeable membrane, semipermeable border of endothelium, endothelial cells that regulates the transfer of solutes and chemicals between the circulatory system and the central nervous system, thus protecting the brain from harmful or unwanted substances in the blood. The blood–brain barrier is formed by endothelial cells of the Capillary, capillary wall, astrocyte end-feet ensheathing the capillary, and pericytes embedded in the capillary basement membrane. This system allows the passage of some small molecules by passive transport, passive diffusion, as well as the selective and active transport of various nutrients, ions, organic anions, and macromolecules such as glucose and amino acids that are crucial to neural function. The blood–brain barrier restricts the passage of pathogens, the diffusion of solutes in the blood, and Molecular mass, large or Hydrophile, hydrophilic molecules into the cerebrospinal fluid, while a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ketogenic Diet
The ketogenic diet is a high-fat, adequate-protein, low-carbohydrate diet, low-carbohydrate dietary therapy that in conventional medicine is used mainly to treat hard-to-control (refractory) epilepsy in children. The diet forces the body to burn fats rather than carbohydrates. Normally, carbohydrates in food are converted into glucose, which is then transported around the body and is important in Brain metabolism, fueling brain function. However, if only a little carbohydrate remains in the diet, the liver converts triacylglycerol, fat into fatty acids and ketone bodies, the latter passing into the brain and replacing glucose as an energy source. An elevated level of ketone bodies in the blood (a state called ketosis) eventually lowers the frequency of epileptic seizures. Around half of children and young people with epilepsy who have tried some form of this diet saw the number of seizures drop by at least half, and the effect persists after discontinuing the diet. Some eviden ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Enhancer RNAs
Enhancer RNAs (eRNAs) represent a class of relatively long non-coding RNA molecules (50-2000 nucleotides) transcribed from the DNA sequence of Enhancer (genetics), enhancer regions. They were first detected in 2010 through the use of genome-wide techniques such as RNA-seq and ChIP-seq. eRNAs can be subdivided into two main classes: 1D eRNAs and 2D eRNAs, which differ primarily in terms of their size, polyadenylation state, and transcriptional directionality. The expression of a given eRNA correlates with the activity of its corresponding Enhancer (genetics), enhancer in target genes. Increasing evidence suggests that eRNAs actively play a role in transcriptional regulation in cis-acting, cis and in trans-acting, trans, and while their mechanisms of action remain unclear, a few models have been proposed. Discovery Enhancers as sites of extragenic Transcription (genetics), transcription were initially discovered in genome-wide studies that identified enhancers as common regions of RN ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hair Cell
Hair cells are the sensory receptors of both the auditory system and the vestibular system in the ears of all vertebrates, and in the lateral line organ of fishes. Through mechanotransduction, hair cells detect movement in their environment. In mammals, the auditory hair cells are located within the spiral organ of Corti on the thin basilar membrane in the cochlea of the inner ear. They derive their name from the tufts of stereocilia called ''hair bundles'' that protrude from the apical surface of the cell into the fluid-filled cochlear duct. The stereocilia number from fifty to a hundred in each cell while being tightly packed together and decrease in size the further away they are located from the kinocilium. Mammalian cochlear hair cells are of two anatomically and functionally distinct types, known as outer, and inner hair cells. Damage to these hair cells results in decreased hearing sensitivity, and because the inner ear hair cells cannot regenerate, this damag ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Central Sensitization
Nociplastic pain, formerly known as central sensitisation, is chronic pain that persists without evidence of tissue injury, resulting in and being sustained by aberrant or heightened pain signal processing of the central nervous system (CNS). It may occur in combination with the other types of pain or in isolation. The pain may be generalised or multifocal, and it can be out of proportion to any associated physical cause. The concept and term were formally added to the taxonomy of the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) following the recommendation of a task force in 2017. The root terms are Latin ''nocēre'', meaning to hurt, and Greek ''πλαστός'', meaning development or formation in a medical context. This type of pain typically arises in some chronic pain conditions, with the archetypal condition being fibromyalgia. Exercise, psychotherapy, and medical therapies are commonly prescribed for such conditions. Nociplastic pain has also been hypothesize ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gamma-Aminobutyric Acid
GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid, γ-aminobutyric acid) is the chief inhibitory neurotransmitter in the developmentally mature mammalian central nervous system. Its principal role is reducing neuronal excitability throughout the nervous system. GABA is sold as a dietary supplement in many countries. It has been traditionally thought that exogenous GABA (i.e., taken as a supplement) does not cross the blood–brain barrier, but data obtained from more recent research (2010s) in rats describes the notion as being unclear. The carboxylate form of GABA is γ-aminobutyrate. Function Neurotransmitter Two general classes of GABA receptor are known: * GABAA receptor, GABAA in which the receptor is part of a ligand-gated ion channel complex * GABAB receptor, GABAB metabotropic receptors, which are G protein-coupled receptors that open or close ion channels via intermediaries (G proteins) Neurons that produce GABA as their output are called GABAergic neurons, and have chiefly inhibito ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nobel Prize In Physiology Or Medicine
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine () is awarded yearly by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute for outstanding discoveries in physiology or medicine. The Nobel Prize is not a single prize, but five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's 1895 will, are awarded "to those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind". Nobel Prizes are awarded in the fields of Physics, Medicine or Physiology, Chemistry, Literature, and Peace. The Nobel Prize is presented annually on the anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death, 10 December. As of 2024, 115 Nobel Prizes in Physiology or Medicine have been awarded to 229 laureates, 216 men and 13 women. The first one was awarded in 1901 to the German physiologist, Emil von Behring, for his work on serum therapy and the development of a vaccine against diphtheria. The first woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Gerty Cori, received it in 1947 for her role in elucida ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Orientation Selectivity
Orientation selectivity is expressed by cells within the visual cortex, when such cells increase impulse or signal activity for specific oriented degree of lines or bars presented within the visual field. Orientation selectivity can also be expressed by simple cells if the orientation of a stimulus is orthogonal to the preferred degree of orientation, which results in the inhibition of impulse activity. Orientation testing Single receptive field cells across the retina, Lateral_geniculate_nucleus, LGN, and primary visual cortex are in a state of continuous neurotransmission. Impulse activity is the continuous state of regular and constant neurotransmission between neurons. Tests conducted by David H. Hubel and Torsten N. Wiesel (1968) utilized a single light dot presented within the visual field of a house cat to map out the location of a cell's receptive field within the cat's visual field. Once the receptive field of a cell had been completely mapped out, it was found that s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
