神经生物学

Immunologic techniques are being used extensively in investigation of brain transmitters and there are prospects for significant advances in the the use of this approach. A variety of techniques has been developed for production of antisera with characteristics that make them suita ...

Many of the most significant advances in neurobiology in the 1970s relate to the study of receptor function Receptors are proteinaceous membrane components that, when occupied by a specific ligand (neurotransmitter, neuromodulator, or hormone), will initiate a cellular response T ...

N-methyl-d-aspartate receptors (NMDARs) are ligand-gated ion channels belonging to the family of ionotropic glutamate receptors. Functional NMDARs are heterotetrameric assemblies of NR1 subunits with at least one type of NR2 subunits. Various combinations of these subunits f ...

Electrophysiological techniques can be used to great effect to help determine the mechanism of action of a compound. However, many factors can compromise the resulting data and their analysis, such as the speed of solution exchange, expression of additional ion channel populations incl ...

Hypofunctioning of glutamate synaptic transmission in the central nervous system (CNS) has been proposed as a factor that may contribute to cognitive deficits associated with various neurological and psychiatric disorders. Positive allosteric modulation of the α-amino-3-h ...

The voltage-clamp electrophysiology method is the gold standard for measuring the function of ion channels. In the past, this technique has had limited applicability in pharmaceutical drug discovery because of its low throughput, steep learning curve, and challenges in standardiz ...

The need for a simple method of examining the early postnatal development of mouse models of human neurodevelopmental disorders has become evident. The following method for evaluating the developmental milestones of newborn mice allows for fast throughput of large numbers of mice in a ba ...

Activity-dependent neuroprotective protein (ADNP, human calculated molecular mass 123,562.8 Da) is a newly discovered glial protein that it is essential for embryonic development and brain formation. ADNP includes an active neuroprotective site, an 8 amino acid peptide NAPSVIPQ ...

What we know today about dopamine (DA) receptors stems directly from the discovery of potent and selective neuroleptic drugs. These compounds are not only essential tools in neuropharmacology, but are also guides that neurobiologists follow to identify, isolate, and even dismantle the ...

Laterality research with normal subjects is plagued by contradictory findings, stemming from the diversity of methods used. These may include reaction time (RT) or accuracy measures with an imposed speed or accuracy set, go/no-go or target/nontarget discriminations, identity, sim ...

After centuries of the theoretical assignment of soul, mind, and bodily functions to various anatomical places, the mid-nineteenth century experienced an explosion of information that allowed accurate cerebral localization to begin. The British philosopher Herbert Spencer a ...

Testing of split-brain patients over the last 25 years has involved a myriad of procedures, both clinical and experimental. Some were adapted from animal testing, others from clinical neurology, and more from experimental psychology. Of these procedures, some proved cumbersome, others ...

Intracarotid injections of amobarbital have been performed for clinical purposes since 1949, when Wada described a method for determination of hemispheric language dominance. It was noted that the intracarotid injection of amobarbital, performed in an attempt to investigate the ...

Functional neuroimaging techniques are to the second century of neurobehavioral research what the clinicopathological method was to the first century—the ultimate empirical method by which theoretical speculations are to be tested. Thus, from Charcot’s day until our own, the “gold ...

Neuropsychological assessment has become increasingly dependent upon the use of test batteries. The use of such batteries has evolved with the influence of several historical perspectives. A prominent factor has been the unequivocal elucidation in the past 30–40 yr of the complexity a ...

Neurodegenerative disorders are common diseases that afflict our society with tremendous medical and financial burdens. As a whole, neurodegeneration strikes individuals of all ages, but becomes increasingly frequent with age, coming to affect a very large share of our elderly popu ...

Mitochondria are key regulators of cellular death. The mitochondrial membranes contain essential enzyme complexes for maintaining metabolic homeostasis and meeting the energy requirements of the cell (Tait and Green, Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 11:621–632, 2010 and Galluzzi et al., Apopto ...

The application of electron microscopic immunolabeling techniques to the identification and analysis of degenerating processes in neural tissue has greatly enhanced the ability of researchers to examine apoptosis and other degenerative disease mechanisms. This is partic ...

Many experimental animal models of human neurodegenerative diseases have been developed to understand the events leading toward neuronal dysfunction and death. However, definitive comprehension of the molecular and cellular mechanisms in these animal models is problematic ...

Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and the related induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) have attracted considerable attention since they can provide an unlimited source of many different tissue types. One challenge of using pluripotent cells is directing their broad different ...