A multidisciplinary neuroscience study using rare, intraoperative brain recordings suggests that low frequency stimulation of a deep brain region may be able to improve cognitive function in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD). The study findings, published Nov. 28 online in the journal Brain,...
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INI member Daniel Tranel has been named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the journal Science. Read the full story
In support of its goal to build high-impact neuroscience research, the Iowa Neuroscience Institute (INI) has awarded its first Accelerator Grants. The four funded proposals represent a mix of foundational, translational, and clinical research. They focus on neuroscience topics that are new or that...
A new study by researchers from the Iowa Neuroscience Institute indicates that protecting nerve cells with a specific compound helps prevent memory and learning problems in lab animals. Read Full Article
INI's Jacob Michaelson is part of a network of researchers partnering with the Simons Foundation on a national autism research initiative to connect individuals with a professional diagnosis of autism and their biological family members to research opportunities to advance autism knowledge. The...
The cerebellum is most commonly associated with movement control, but work in the INI is gradually revealing a much more complex role in cognition that positions the cerebellum as a potential target for treating diseases that affect thinking, attention, and planning—diseases like schizophrenia...
Researchers aiming to understand why autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are more common in boys have discovered differences in a brain signaling pathway involved in reward learning and motivation that makes male mice more vulnerable to an autism-causing genetic glitch. “One intriguing aspect of autism...
By combining whole exome sequencing, machine learning, and network analysis, researchers have identified new, ultra-rare gene mutations within specific biological pathways that may contribute to eating disorders. Full Story
John Wemmie, a neuroscientist at the University of Iowa, says that while the findings of Miyakawa’s group are intriguing, “it's tissue after the animals or the humans have died, so it's hard to know if that's related to the pH changes [in the living brain].”
Each morning, Katie woke up and began playing with her dolls. She didn’t talk; she just played—for hours on end. And when her parents interrupted, the five-year-old often became angry and destructive. Katie has autism, and her parents, who live in a small western Iowa town, are 90 miles from the closest behavioral services. In desperation, they signed up for a University of Iowa study that connected them to video coaching they could use to better manage their daughter’s frustrations.