Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Brain Works Best When Cells Keep Right Rhythms, New Studies Suggest


ScienceDaily (Apr. 26, 2009) — It is said that each of us marches to the beat of a different drum, but new Stanford University research suggests that brain cells need to follow specific rhythms that must be kept for proper brain functioning. These rhythms don't appear to be working correctly in such diseases as schizophrenia and autism, and now two papers due to be published online this week by the journals Nature and Science demonstrate that precisely tuning the oscillation frequencies of certain neurons can affect how the brain processes information and implements feelings of reward.

"A unifying theme here is that of brain rhythms and 'arrhythmias'," said Karl Deisseroth, MD, PhD, associate professor of bioengineering and of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and senior author of both papers.

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