Archive: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017
The body knows various mechanisms that dampen painful sensations. They can be examined with new methods.
When two painful stimuli act on us at the same time, we perceive the one of them as less painful. This phenomenon is part of the body’s own pain control system. A disfunction of this inhibition is associated with chronic pain disorders. Researchers at Berufsgenossenschaftliches Universitätsklinikum Bergmannsheil, clinic of Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB), have developed a method for this. They were able to show that the method works effectively with both painful electrical stimuli and heat pain. Two consecutive studies on this have been published in the journals Brain Sciences and BMC Neuroscience.
In einem Malwettbewerb, ausgerichtet von IGSN und dem SFB 874, konnten die Kinder zeigen, wie sie sich ihr Gedächtnis vorstellen.
„Was passiert beim Lernen im Gehirn?“ Dieser Frage sind Schülerinnen und Schüler von Bochumer Grundschulen bei einem Malwettbewerb nachgegangen. Entstanden sind 133 fantastische Kunstwerke, die zeigen, wie sich die Kinder ihr eigenes Gedächtnis vorstellen. Die eingesendeten Bilder sind vom 18. bis 31.Dezember 2020 in einer Open-Air Ausstellung auf Litfaßsäulen in der Bochumer Innenstadt zu sehen.
When we see a banana, at first we only notice yellow and smoothness. Only later do we recognise the crescent shape and the fact that it is a banana.
Contrary to previous assumptions, visual short-term memory is not merely based on one kind of information about an object, such as only its colour or only its name. Rather, several types of information can be retained simultaneously in short-term memory. Using complex EEG analyses and deep neural networks, researchers at Beijing Normal University and Ruhr-Universität Bochum have discovered that short-term memory is more complex than previously assumed. The team describes their findings in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, PNAS for short, published online on 7 December 2020.
Implantate sollen direkt die Hirnareale ansteuern, die für die Verarbeitung visueller Informationen zuständig sind.
Eine Miniaturkamera, die visuelle Informationen sammelt, welche in geeignete Signalmuster übersetzt an Implantate im Gehirn übertragen werden, sodass Blinde wieder Seheindrücke haben: Das ist die Vision, die das Konsortium des Projekts „I See“ antreibt. Das Forschungsteam aus Deutschland, der Schweiz und Kanada, dem der Neurowissenschaftler der Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB), Privatdozent Dr. Dirk Jancke, angehört, wird von der Europäischen Kommission mit rund 900.000 Euro gefördert.
Glaucoma is a leading cause of blindness worldwide. An increased intraocular pressure is the main risk factor. But there are other triggers.
Researchers at Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) have studied the role of the immune response in the development of glaucoma in mice. They showed that inflammatory processes are associated with the pathogenesis of the disease and that the extracellular matrix molecule tenascin-C plays a key role as a modulator of the immune response. Glaucoma is a common cause of blindness worldwide. Typically, intraocular pressure is increased in patients, but in around 40 per cent it stays in normal ranges. The results on the role of the immune response were published online on 9 October 2020 in the journal Frontiers in Immunology.
Some highly selective drugs cause unexpected effects in nerve cells: they not only reduce the activation of certain receptors, but also their inactivation.
In order to treat certain brain diseases more precisely and with fewer side effects, researchers are focusing on drugs that only inhibit distinct subtypes of the receptors responding to the neurotransmitter glutamate. However, under certain conditions, such drugs can elicit the opposite effect: Rather than inhibiting the receptors as desired, they potentiate their activity. Professor Andreas Reiner and Stefan Pollok from the junior research group Cellular Neurobiology at Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) report on this unexpected finding and the underlying mechanisms in the journal PNAS from 30 September 2020.
A research team clears up 150 years of false assumptions.
Some birds can perform amazing cognitive feats – even though their forebrains seem to just consist of lumps of grey cells, while mammalian forebrains harbour a highly complex neocortex. A study conducted by a research team at Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) and researchers from Düsseldorf, Jülich and Aachen reveals for the first time amazing similarities between the neocortex of mammals and sensory brain areas of birds: both are arranged in horizontal layers and vertical columns. These findings refute 150-year-old assumptions. The team, published its findings in the journal “Science” from 25. September 2020.”
For the first time, a research team examined pigeon brains using functional magnetic resonance imaging while the birds were actively involved in a discrimination task.
How do birds make decisions and which brain regions are particularly active when they solve tasks? Researchers from the Department of Biopsychology at Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) are investigating these questions. So far, only anesthetized birds and therefore passive experiments could be examined using the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Thus, the examination of brain processes during active tasks was not possible. Now the cognitive neuroscientists at the Biopsychology lab have constructed an experimental set-up which allows them to carry out fMRI examinations on awake pigeons and thus also investigate cognitive processes for the first time. They published their results online in the journal “Nature Communications” on 18 September 2020.
To unmask their impairments, researchers had to come up with a unique experimental design.
Alzheimer’s patients develop severe symptoms of spatial disorientation as the disease progresses and are unable to find even the simplest ways. An international research team headed by Anne Bierbrauer, Dr. Lukas Kunz, Dr. Carlos Gomez and Professor Nikolai Axmacher from Ruhr-Universität Bochum and Universitätsklinikum Freiburg now reports that problems in spatial navigation can also be detected in people with a genetic risk for Alzheimer’s. Their article was published in the journal Science Advances, released online on 28 August 2020. The team from Bochum, Freiburg, Dortmund, Sevilla, Madrid, Parma and Brussels explored the ability of path integration.
No one can remember the first years of their life. A study suggests possible reasons.
If and how babies recall what they have learned depends on their mood: what they’ve learned when feeling calm is inaccessible when they’re acitive and vice versa. This was shown in a study conducted by developmental psychologists at Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) with 96 children aged nine months. They published their report in the journal “Child Development” from 19. August 2020.
Die Ergebnisse sollen helfen zu verstehen, wie bestimmte psychische Störungen, etwa Angststörungen, entstehen und aufrechterhalten werden.
Menschen mit psychischen Störungen wie Depressionen oder Angststörungen deuten Situationen oft anders als gesunde Personen. Warum das so ist, will Psychologin Dr. Marcella Woud im Rahmen einer neuen Emmy-Noether-Nachwuchsgruppe untersuchen. Die Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft fördert die Gruppe an der Ruhr-Universität Bochum mit einem Gesamtvolumen von 1,54 Millionen Euro für sechs Jahre mit einer Evaluation nach drei Jahren. Sie wird ihre Arbeit unter dem Namen „Die zugrunde liegenden Mechanismen von Interpretationsverzerrungen bei Angststörungen – Verknüpfung von experimenteller Forschung und klinischer übersetzung“ Anfang 2021 aufnehmen.
Das Forschungsprojekt starteten eine deutsche und eine US-amerikanische Gruppe unabhängig voneinander. Die Ergebnisse passen dennoch perfekt zusammen.
Forscherinnen und Forscher aus Bochum und Boston haben untersucht, wie instabil das Huntingtin-Gen in verschiedenen Hirnregionen und Organen von Huntington-Patienten ist. Die Instabilität des Gens, genauer gesagt der CAG-Region, war zuvor meist in Tiermodellen beschrieben, aber nicht umfassend bei Menschen untersucht worden. Die beiden Gruppen der Medizinischen Fakultät der Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) und am Massachusetts General Hospital der Harvard Medical School hatten die Frage ursprünglich unabhängig voneinander erforscht. Als sie von den Arbeiten der jeweils anderen Gruppe erfuhren, verglichen sie ihre Daten und publizierten sie gemeinsam am 7. Juli 2020 in der Zeitschrift Human Molecular Genetics. Die Ergebnisse beider Patientenkohorten stimmen überein.
Tactile stimulation repeatedly administered over a sustained period of time changes neuronal processing in the hand area of the brain.
Stimulating the fingertip rhythmically for a sustained period of time, markedly improves touch sensitivity of this finger. A research team led by Associate Professor Dr. Hubert Dinse at Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) analysed the impact of this process in the brain. Using electroencephalography (EEG), the scientists recorded neuronal activity of brain areas associated with tactile processing. They were able to observe changes in activity over time – possibly illustrating a learning process. The team reported their findings in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience on 30 June 2020.
An algorithm developed by neuroinformatics engineers in Bochum estimates age and ethnic origin as exactly as humans do. The researchers are not yet sure which features it interprets.
Wrinkles, furrows, spots: a person’s aging process is accompanied by tell-tale signs on their face. Researchers from the Institute for Neural Computation at Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) have developed an algorithm that interprets these features very reliably. It makes it possible to estimate the age and ethnicity of people so accurately that it catapulted RUB researchers to the top of the league table worldwide for a while. The RUB team published its report in the journal “Machine Learning” from May 2020.
Visual illusion uncovers processing strategies of the brain.
A popular theory in neuroscience called predictive coding proposes that the brain produces all the time expectations that are compared with incoming information. Errors arising from differences between actual input and prediction are then iteratively minimized along a hierarchical processing scheme. It is assumed that such stepwise iteration leads to updating of brain predictions so that internal prediction errors are finally explained away. Neuroscientists at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) together with colleagues at the Freiburg University show that this is not strictly the case. Instead, they show that prediction errors can occasionally appear as visual illusion when viewing rapid image sequences. Thus, rather than being explained away prediction errors remain in fact accessible at final processing stages forming perception. Previous theories of predictive coding need therefore to be revised. The study is reported in Plos One on 4. May 2020.
The brain doesn’t cope well with age-related deafness and memory suffers.
If your hearing deteriorates in old age, the risk of dementia and cognitive decline increases. So far, it hasn’t been clear why. A team of neuroscientists at Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) in Germany examined what happens in the brain when hearing gradually deteriorates: key areas of the brain are reorganized, and this affects memory. The results are published online in the journal “Cerebral Cortex” dated 20 March 2020.
Researchers from Bochum have identified two brain regions that are important for decision making during learning.
During learning, the brain is a prediction engine that continually makes theories about our environment and accurately registers whether an assumption is true or not. A team of neuroscientists from Ruhr-Universität Bochum has shown that expectation during these predictions affects the activity of various brain networks. Dr. Bin Wang, Dr. Lara Schlaffke and Associate Professor Dr. Burkhard Pleger from the Neurological Clinic of Berufsgenossenschaftliches Universitätsklinikum Bergmannsheil report on the results in two articles that were published in March and April 2020 in the journals Cerebral Cortex and Journal of Neuroscience.
The neurotransmitter fine-tunes weights of sensory stimulation and internal ongoing processes.
Our brain is steadily engaged in soliloquies. These internal communications are usually also bombarded with external sensory events. Hence, the impact of the two neuronal processes need to be permanently fine-tuned to avoid their imbalance. A team of scientists at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) revealed the role of the neurotransmitter Serotonin in this scenario. They discovered that distinct serotonergic receptor types control the gain of both streams of information in a separable manner. Their finding may facilitate new concepts of diagnosis and therapy of neuronal disorders related to malfunction of the serotonin system. The study is published online in the open access journal „Elife“ on 7. April 2020.
Alle bisherigen Daten beruhten auf Schätzungen. Jetzt bringt eine riesige Analyse verlässliche Informationen.
Eines war schon immer klar: Linkshänder sind seltener als Rechtshänder. Aber wie viele Menschen wirklich die linke Hand bevorzugen, ist erst jetzt geklärt: 10,6 Prozent beträgt die Linkshänder-Quote. Das ergab die weltgrößte Untersuchung zu diesem Thema, in der ein Forschungsteam der Universitäten St. Andrews, Athen, Oxford, Bristol und Bochum Studien zur Händigkeit von insgesamt mehr als zwei Millionen Menschen auswertete. Die Ergebnisse sind in der Zeitschrift Psychological Bulletin vom 2. April 2020 veröffentlicht.
Intestinal bacteria operate as a self-sufficient organ: they influence the immune system and the brain via their metabolites.
The short-chain fatty acid propionic acid influences the intestine-mediated immune regulation in people with multiple sclerosis (MS). This has been shown by a team from the Department of Neurology of Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) at St. Josef-Hospital in an international study headed by Professor Aiden Haghikia. The application of propionic acid in addition to MS medication reduced the relapse rate and the risk of disability progression in the long term. Moreover, initial Magnetic Resonance Imaging studies indicated that propionic acid may reduce brain atrophy as a sign of neuronal cell death. The results were published in the journal “Cell” from 10 March 2020.
A sports stress test and psychosocial stress produce similar stress hormone increases. And yet, the first one is perceived as positive, the second one as negative. Why is that?
Cell-free DNA might be a marker for distinguishing physical and psychosocial stress. This is the theory pursued by the team at the Department of Genetic Psychology at Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB). Dr. Dirk Moser and Professor Robert Kumsta compared the physical reactions of test participants after a sports stress test and a fictitious job interview. Both caused the stress hormone level to rise, but at the same time, cell-free DNA of different origin was detected in the blood.
Kumsta and Moser were interested in how different types of stress affect the body and why stress is sometimes perceived to be positive and sometimes to be negative. The researchers published a report on their work in Rubin, the RUB’s science magazine.
Proteins can be controlled with light of different wavelengths. Even several at once, thanks to a new tool.
Light-sensitive proteins, also known as optogenetic tools, can be switched on and off by light pulses, thus triggering specific cellular processes. A research team at Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) has characterised a new optogenetic tool, the protein parapinopsin, which can be switched on and off with very weak and short light signals. The excitation wavelengths required for this purpose differ greatly from those used by other known optogenetic tools. Consequently, it is possible to use two such tools simultaneously. The teams headed by Professor Stefan Herlitze and Professor Klaus Gerwert report on these findings in the cover story of the journal ChemBioChem from 2. March 2020.
Why the back hurts less when we look at it.
Chronic back pain is reduced when people watch a real-time video of their back for a short time. Watching it also increases the effectiveness of therapies such as massage. This has been shown by studies conducted by the team of Professor Martin Diers from the Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy at the LWL University Hospital of the Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB). The specialists therefore recommend the so-called multisensory integration in the treatment of pain.
You can find a detailed article on this topic in the science magazine Rubin.
Genes associated with Parkinson’s disease point to an interface between the nervous system and immune system. This may lead to the development of novel therapeutic strategies.
Mutations in the Parkin gene are a common cause of hereditary forms of Parkinson’s disease. Similar to Parkin, the neighbouring Parkin Co-Regulated Gene PACRG regulates a signalling pathway that plays an important role in the innate immune system. This was discovered by a team of researchers led by Professor Konstanze Winklhofer from the Department of Molecular Cell Biology at Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB). The team was thus able to provide further evidence that there are interfaces between the nervous system and immune system. The researchers hope that the protagonists or antagonists of this signalling pathway may be suitable for therapeutic interventions. They report on this in the cover story in the journal Science Signaling on 4 February 2020.
Wenig soziale Kontakte, kaum kognitive Anreize, schlechte Hygiene und Ernährung – das hat Folgen bis ins Erwachsenenalter.
Erwachsene, die als Kinder aus rumänischen Heimen adoptiert wurden, haben kleinere Gehirne als Adoptierte, die keine vergleichbare Vernachlässigung im Kindesalter erfahren haben. Je mehr Zeit die Kinder im Heim verbracht hatten, desto geringer war ihr Gehirnvolumen später. Das berichtet ein internationales Forschungsteam unter Federführung des King’s College London in der Zeitschrift Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, kurz PNAS, vom 6. Januar 2020. An der Arbeit beteiligt war auch Prof. Dr. Robert Kumsta von der Ruhr-Universität Bochum.
Copyright © RDN 2024
Last update: 2024/02/28 | 10 am