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What we don’t know: Neuroscience research at CMHC

The third floor of the CMHC houses the Clinical Neuroscience Research Unit (CNRU), an inpatient and outpatient research facility. It’s an honor to be asked to start a dialogue with you about what we do on the CNRU. Over the next few months, I’d like to introduce you to the scientists and clinicians and their teams that work on the CNRU. Today I’d like to introduce you to some of the things we do on the 3^rd floor.

Just as others in the building, my CNRU colleagues and I come to work to tackle the problems addressed on the other floors of the CMHC: the debilitating symptoms of mental illness including depression, hallucinations, delusions, drug addiction and anxiety to name a few. (more…)

Human Cognition Depends Upon Slow-Firing Neurons

By Guest PostFebruary 26, 2013Sciencealzheimer's disease, amy arnsten, any sensory stimulation, brain circuits, clear thinking, cognitive deficits, dementia, disease, Environment, firing of neurons, glutamate signaling regulate, good mental health, hallmark, human cognition, john krystal, mathematical models, medicine, mental sketch pad, min wang, molecular basis, nao j gamo, neuronal firing, new york university, nmda nr2b receptors, prefrontal cortex, receptors, schizophrenia, street drug, types of nmda, xiao jing wang, yale neurobiologist, yale school, yang yang

Good mental health and clear thinking depend upon our ability to store and manipulate thoughts on a sort of “mental sketch pad.” In a new study, Yale School of Medicine researchers describe the molecular basis of this ability — the hallmark of human cognition — and describe how a breakdown of the system contributes to diseases such as schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s disease.

“Insults to these highly evolved cortical circuits impair the ability to create and maintain our mental representations of the world, which is the basis of higher cognition,” said Amy Arnsten, professor of neurobiology and senior author of the paper published in the Feb. 20 issue of the journal Neuron. (more…)

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Mysteries of neuroscience

Human Cognition Depends Upon Slow-Firing Neurons