Restoring the brain’s flexibility may help addicts act on their desire to quit.
Read this story at Scientific American Mind.
glutamate
Dissecting cognition at the synapse
Two studies from the United Kingdom, published December 2 in Nature Neuroscience, use genetics and mouse-friendly touchscreens to dissect the contributions of different synaptic proteins to cognition. Several of these proteins are targets of research for schizophrenia.
Read this story at Schizophrenia Research Forum.
Simulating schizophrenia with ketamine
Disrupting glutamate signals in the brain blurs the contrast between the brain’s background “default” activity and its task-related engagement, according to a study published online 25 September in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The findings suggest that glutamate regulates the flow of information within the brain’s networks, which, when disrupted with ketamine, reveals schizophrenia-like abnormalities in healthy people.
Read this story at Schizophrenia Research Forum.
Antipsychotic balancing act?
A new study in Cell proposes that the therapeutic effects of both atypical antipsychotic drugs and the newer glutamate candidates depend on activation of curious hybrid receptors composed of the serotonin 5-HT2Areceptor and the mGluR2 metabotropic glutamate receptor.
Read this article at Schizophrenia Research Forum.
