News
Sep 10
The Claustrum is Involved in Cognitive Processes Related to the Classical Conditioning of Eyelid Responses in Behaving Rabbits
Fruit of a collaboration work of the Brain Circuits Therapeutics Lab
The laboratory of Ikerbasque Professor Dr. Mazahir T. Hasan at ACHUCARRO and the lab of Dr. José M. Delgado García at the Pablo de Olavide University in Seville have demonstrated for the first time the functional activity of this brain center during learning and memory tests in behaving laboratory animals.
Aug 18
Specific Hippocampal Interneurons Shape Consolidation of Recognition Memory
New paper from our colleague Edgar Soria-Gómez
The present study reveals that a specific subpopulation of hippocampal D1R/CB1R-positive neurons controls late consolidation of NOR memory and associated synaptic plasticity by moderating local inhibitory GABAergic activity in the hippocampus.
Sep 3
A new animal model to study post-traumatic stress disorder
Result of the ERA-NET project led by Mazahir T. Hasan
Within the framework of the European "ERA-NET NEURON" call, a cooperative research project called "topdownPTSD" was started in 2018, which aims to investigate how brain circuits modulate emotional circuits. The working hypothesis is that a traumatic experience can trigger a dysfunction in the memory circuits, and that this can lead to dysfunctions in the emission circuits, which will manifest themselves in the form of post-traumatic stress. In order to carry out laboratory research on this phenomenon, it is essential to have experimental tools such as those created. The project is coordinated by the Ikerbasque researcher Mazahir T. Hasan, who works at the ACHUCARRO center in Leioa, and has an endowment of 1.2 million euros. The consortium is made up of 6 partners from 5 European countries: Spain, Italy, Norway, Germany and Poland.
Jul 21
Cover in Molecular Psychiatry to a collaborative work by Juanma Encinas
The collaboration work unveiled the molecular mechanisms that explain how, as the brain ages, hippocampal neural stem cells slow down their mitotic activity and prevent their depletion.
Our colleague Juanma Encinas collaborated with Dr. Carlos Fitzsimons from the University of Amsterdam in the recently published article entitled "Circadian glucocorticoid oscillations preserve a population of adult hippocampal neural stem cells in the aging brain" published in the prestigious journal Molecular Psychiatry and has been given de cover for the July's issue.
Jul 11
Brain extracellular microenvironment and Parkinson's disease
An intriguing interplay between the extracellular space, matrix and glia
In a new study published in Nature Communications by Dr. Federico N. Soria and other colleagues have been able to "illuminate" the extracellular compartment of parkinsonian mice, revealing its structure and diffusion at an unprecedented scale.
Hereby, they obtained precious information about this dark side of the brain, for the first time in pathological conditions. This examination at "super-resolution" allowed the researchers to discover local alterations in the extracellular space of the parkinsonian brain, modify them, and protect partially the neurons that are normally lost in this pathology. Moreover, the study describes an intriguing relation between the hyaluronan matrix (main component of the neural matrix) and microglia (the chief immune cell in the brain). In particular, how these cells remodel the extracellular matrix by phagocytosis, reducing it in an animal model of Parkinson's disease. This, in turn, exacerbates further activation of microglia, creating a positive feedback loop.