News
A Nature paper led by PhD student Brenden Tervo-Clemmens revealed a crucial flaw in studies that attempt to predict complex personality traits from one-off brain scans. Learn More
A study in the Journal of Clinical Investigation identified CD8+ regulatory-like T cells that provide direct neuroprotective effects, as well as limit inflammation and secondary brain damage. Learn More
In PLOS Biology, Taylor Abel and colleagues showed that two areas of the auditory cortex help us instantly identify characteristics of a speaker, including gender, age, mood and even height. Learn More
Tharick Pascoal reports in Nature Communications that HDAC inhibitors—now in clinical testing against mild Alzheimer’s disease—might be harming rather than helping patients. Learn More
Anita McElroy and colleagues developed the first mouse model that mimics brain damage caused by Rift Valley fever virus, which belongs to a family of viruses likely to give rise to future pandemics. Learn More
Electrical stimulation of nerve roots sprouting from the spinal cord toward arm and hand muscles improved precision, force and range of movement in animals with cervical spinal cord injury. Learn More
Rebecca Seal and Benedict Alter describe how practitioners match drugs to specific types of pain. Learn More
Blackrock Neurotech is teaming with Pitt to test a compact, remote brain-computer interface system that people who are paralyzed can use outside the lab to operate electronic devices. Learn More
Christina Cerkevich and Peter Strick found striking differences in the brain anatomy of macaques, which have limited ability to vocalize, and marmosets, which have remarkable vocal skills. Learn More
A team at Pitt is working to connect prosthetic arms and legs with the nervous system to give patients a sense of touch. Learn More
Omar Gharbawie and Nick Card report in Progress in Neurobiology on their use of intrinsic signal optical imaging to study neural networks in living brains. Learn More
Christina Cerkevich and colleagues found parallel processing in neural wiring, challenging the common assumption that primary motor cortex has sole influence on the larynx. Learn More
Robert Friedlander and Amantha Thathiah will use a $200K grant from the Clear Thoughts Foundation to study whether melatonin treatment can increase the survival of brain cells in Alzheimer’s disease Learn More
The study led by Marlene Cohen tests hypotheses about neural coding principles as well as uncovering neuronal mechanisms that underlie the behavioral effects of methylphenidate. Learn More
NPR interviews the Pitt team that seeks to find the biological underpinnings of paradoxical kinesia. Learn More
A study in Current Biology suggests how neurons are able tell motor signals apart from sensory signals, and let the brain know when to make the body move. Learn More
A multidiscipinary team led by Peter Strick plans to study and exploit a neural circuit that receives input from brain sites such as the amygdala that are largely unaffected by Parkinson’s. Learn More
The study in Neuropsychopharmacology revealed distinctive shape differences in fiber bundles of white matter in the accumbofrontal tract, which correspond to oversensitivity to negative feedback. Learn More
A novel computational platform identifies top-performing viral vectors that could deliver gene therapies to the retina with maximum efficiency and precision. Learn More
Tharick Pascoal and colleagues aim to build a scale to align scans that use different tracers, so clinicians can make more informed treatment decisions. Learn More