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The Different Effects of Deep Brain Stimulation in Parkinsonian and Essential Tremor

Nearly one million people in the United States alone suffer from Parkinson’s disease (PD), an astounding number and one expected to double by 2040. Being the second most common neurodegenerative disease, understanding Parkinson’s disease and developing new treatments is critical [1].  One

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How Machine Learn Can Improve Diagnosis of Alzheimer's Disease

You’re sitting in a hospital waiting room. The furniture, the walls, and the air all feel sterile and sanitized. There’s a disproportionate number of tissue boxes for the cramped room, and the doctor informs you that they didn’t identify the disease

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Brains May Hold the Secret to Efficient Computing

Kwabena Boahen grew up in Accra, Ghana, and vividly remembers his father bringing home the family’s first digital computer when Kwabena was 16 years old [1]. He immediately began learning all of its ins and outs in an attempt to program the classic

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Seeing Faces: Face Pareidolia and its Connection to Parkinson’s

Once you see it, you can’t stop seeing it. A frowny face on your outlet. A look of shock on your bowling ball. Even a colon and the letter D, “:D” – all these things were not designed after human faces, and yet, we

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How Targeted Sounds During Sleep Could Improve Your Memory

Have you ever been rocked to sleep as a child? Might this soothing motion that could calm us down as children have an effect on quality of sleep and memory consolidation?  In 2020, a team of researchers, motivated by this question, mounted a bed

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Scientists Develop a New Way to See into the Mind of a Behaving Octopus

Octopuses have long been a subject of fascination. From deceiving predators to learning from past experiences, they display many behaviors associated with high intelligence [1]. This has sparked curiosity about their brain function and perception of reality. Octopuses also have large brains relative to

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Whi(te) Does It Matter? Examining the Significance of Altered Diffusion Metrics in Diagnosing Multiple Sclerosis

One of the most prominent neurodegenerative diseases, multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune condition where the immune system attacks the myelin sheath of its own axons. This renders neuronal axons vulnerable and exposed, leaving behind glial lesions/“scars” in brain tissue which are the

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Neuroinflammation after Traumatic Brain Injury Linked to TREM1 and Microglia Activation

Every year, there are over 50 million cases of traumatic brain injury worldwide, making it one of the major causes of death and disability [1]. A traumatic brain injury, or TBI, has two important parts: the primary injury, which happens right as the blow

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Desynchronized brain activity may be the key to Psilocybin-assisted treatment of Depression

In 1957, TIME magazine shocked readers with the cover story “Seeing the Magic Mushroom,” introducing most Americans, for the first time, to psychedelics [1]. The Controlled Substances Act, denoting psilocybin a Schedule 1 drug, halted the first wave of western psychedelic research in 1970,

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Antisocial Addiction: Exploring Cocaine’s Effects on Empathy

The study of empathy, altruism, and other behaviors that help another at one's own expense has long been a topic of interest and debate. Altruism was believed to be an evolutionary disadvantage, and for a while theories focusing on a biological understanding of it

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New Ginkgo Extract Can Aid Stroke Recovery

An ischemic stroke is a common type of brain injury caused by impaired blood flow to the brain. Currently, the only FDA-approved treatment for strokes is the drug Tissue Plasminogen Activator (TPA), composed of the human TPA protein that breaks down blood clots. However,

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How Astrocytic TDP-43 protein accumulation and dysregulation accelerate neurodegeneration

When most people think of neurodegenerative disease, they probably think of the loss of neurons and corresponding loss of memories or cognitive function. This expected relationship between neurons and neurodegenerative disease makes sense. After all, neurons are the cells that send information throughout the

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Towards the Effective and Safe Treatment of Psychosis and Alzheimer’s Disease

In the U.S. alone, there are 6.2 million people living with Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), the most common form of dementia [1]. While this unfortunate reality is generally recognized by the public, a lesser-known fact is that approximately 50% of those suffering

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Synchronized Sleep Enhances Memory Consolidation

Have you ever crammed for an exam the night before and woken up with new information embedded in your mind? Almost like a magic spell, your biological diagrams, calculus equations, or chemistry reactions have been ingrained in your memory as you slumbered away. Perhaps,

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Improving Sleep Quality in Insomnia with Magnetic Stimulation

Nearly one-third of adults will experience some symptoms of insomnia in their lifetime, whether it be lack of sleep, low sleep quality, or waking up at inappropriately early times [1]. Changes in just sleep quality may not seem like a particularly important issue on

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How Pupillometry Can Help Predict and Detect Mild Alzheimer's Disease

It is commonly said that the “eyes are the windows to the soul.” What if this was actually true for patients with Alzheimer’s Disease (AD)?

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Conversations between the lungs and the brain cause COVID headaches

SARS-CoV-2, or COVID-19, remains mysterious even in a “post-COVID” era. Researchers have yet to discover the full extent of its expression, especially concerning its neurological effects.

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What Strategic Choices of Rhesus Monkeys Can Teach Us About Decision-Making and Optimization

Decisions are constantly made in our daily lives. Whether it is to restock the morning cereal in the canister or watch a newly released Netflix series late at night, our decisions are more or less indicative of how we put value into the actions we make.

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Hungry, Angry, and Hangry: How Our Internal Signals Shape Emotions and Sensation

Imagine you have classes from 8:30 am to  5:30 pm and have no time to eat anything. You're hangry.

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Mitochondria, The Powerhouse of the Cell? Perhaps Not If You Have ALS

In the United States, baseball plays a large part in sports culture and has captivated families around the nation for decades. In its most popular days, news of baseball greats often overlapped with daily headlines, which is why you’ve probably heard of Lou Gehrig’s disease, or ALS.

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Probiotics reveal a surprising link between gut microbiota and Alzheimer’s Disease progression

If your doctor told you that eating yogurt every day could reduce your chances of getting Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), how would you react? If you were like me, you’d probably switch to a new doctor.

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Cannabidiol’s Therapeutic Potential for Chronic Pain

Surgery is a powerful tool that enables an abundance of treatments for previously incurable diseases, but it doesn't always lead to a better life for the patient, sometimes due to post-surgical chronic neuropathic pain.