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Study stops stress-based drug relapse in rats

By Guest PostMarch 22, 2013Health, Scienceabigail polter, addiction recovery, basic brain research, blocking a step, brain region, brown university, drug relapse, gaba releasing neurons, julie kauer, kappa opioid receptors, long-term potentiation, ltp, neuron, nor bni, rat models, rats, relapse, relapse mechanism, stress based drug, stress related, therapeutic targets, university of pennsylvania, ventral tegmental area, vta

In a new study in Neuron, scientists identified specific key steps in the chain of events that causes stress-related drug relapse. They identified the exact region of the brain where the events take place in rat models and showed that by blocking a step, they could prevent stress-related relapse.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — All too often, stress turns addiction recovery into relapse, but years of basic brain research have provided scientists with insight that might allow them develop a medicine to help. A new study in the journal Neuron pinpoints the neural basis for stress-related relapse in rat models to an unprecedented degree. The advance could accelerate progress toward a medicine that prevents stress from undermining addiction recovery. (more…)

The Placebo Effect Goes Beyond Humans, UF Researchers Find

By Guest PostDecember 1, 2012Health, Sciencebrain, common, drug abuse, ethical issues, florida, humans, jianguo cheng, john neubert, niall murphy, novel treatment, orthodontics, pain relief, pain specialist, placebo, placebo effects, placebo response, preclinical model, rats, therapeutic targets, university

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Rats and humans have at least one thing in common: They both react the same way to a placebo, according to a new University of Florida study.

“That was the big finding — that the animals that expected pain relief actually got pain relief when you gave them an inert substance,” said co-author John Neubert, a pain specialist and an associate professor with the UF College of Dentistry department of orthodontics. “It helps validate our model that what we do in the rats, we believe, is a good representation of what’s being seen in humans.”

The investigation of placebo effects might lead to the identification of new therapeutic targets in the brain and of novel treatment strategies for a variety of health conditions. (more…)

New Ability To Regrow Blood Vessels Holds Promise For Treatment of Heart Disease

By Guest PostFebruary 11, 2012Scienceaaron baker, austin, blood vessels, cell growth, cell receptor, cellular differentiation, central ischemia, chronic myocardial ischemia, clinical disease, coreceptor, coronary vessel, disease, extra component, fgf 2, fibroblast growth factor 2, growth factor, heart, hindlimb ischemia, limbs, lipid based nanoparticles, lipid embedded receptor, lipid incased substance, organ dysfunction, patient, plaques, rats, revascularization approach, smoking, syndecan 4, synthetic, university of texas, western world

AUSTIN, Texas — University of Texas at Austin researchers have demonstrated a new and more effective method for regrowing blood vessels in the heart and limbs — a research advancement that could have major implications for how we treat heart disease, the leading cause of death in the Western world.

The treatment method developed by Cockrell School of Engineering Assistant Professor Aaron Baker could allow doctors to bypass surgery and instead repair damaged blood vessels simply by injecting a lipid-incased substance into a patient. Once inside the body, the substance stimulates cell growth and spurs the growth of new blood vessels from pre-existing ones. (more…)

What Do Animals ‘Know’? More Than You May Think

By Guest PostDecember 11, 2011Nature, Scienceaaron blaisdell, aging, ambiguity, ambiguous situations, animal behavior, animal cognition, animal intelligence, animal kingdom, auditory cues, brain, brain malfunctions, cynthia fast, degenerative diseases, face of uncertainty, human imagination, lack of information, logical inferences, national science foundation, origins of imagination, psychologists, rational, rats, sugar solution, teenagers like soda, uncertainty

Rats use their knowledge to make decisions when faced with ambiguous situations, UCLA psychologists report.

“Rats often make judgments and behave as if they’re rational creatures,” said UCLA associate professor of psychology Aaron Blaisdell, a member of UCLA’s Brain Research Institute and senior author of a new study published in the December issue of the journal Psychonomic Bulletin and Review.

“To make a decision in the face of uncertainty, rats call on prior history and reasoning,” Blaisdell said. “They apply what they know to a situation where they are uncertain. The rats are not necessarily thinking like little humans, but they have learned through experience. A lot of animal behavior seems to be rational. Their behavior follows logical inferences.” (more…)

Helping Your Fellow Rat: Rodents Show Empathy-Driven Behavior

By Guest PostDecember 9, 2011Scienceanimals, behavior, biological inheritance, chocolate, chocolate chips, emotional contagion, empathetic behavior, empathy driven helping behavior, empathy in rodents, evolutionary tree, homo sapiens, inbal ben ami bartal, jean decety, jeffrey mogil, laboratory rats, mcgill university, neuroscientists, peggy mason, phenomenon in humans, primates, pro social, rats, robert mitchum, rodents, special test, Technology, test arena, university of chicago, wild species

*Rats free trapped companions, even when given choice of chocolate instead*

The first evidence of empathy-driven helping behavior in rodents has been observed in laboratory rats that repeatedly free companions from a restraint, according to a new study by University of Chicago neuroscientists.

The observation, published today in Science, places the origin of pro-social helping behavior earlier in the evolutionary tree than previously thought. Though empathetic behavior has been observed anecdotally in non-human primates and other wild species, the concept had not previously been observed in rodents in a laboratory setting. (more…)

Tag Archives: rats

Study stops stress-based drug relapse in rats

The Placebo Effect Goes Beyond Humans, UF Researchers Find

New Ability To Regrow Blood Vessels Holds Promise For Treatment of Heart Disease

What Do Animals ‘Know’? More Than You May Think

Helping Your Fellow Rat: Rodents Show Empathy-Driven Behavior