Grand Challenges

Depression

UCLA and Stanford researchers pinpoint origin of sighing reflex in the brain

Researchers now have a better understanding of how the brain triggers sighing, which is vital to lung function.

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Scientists, including UCLA’s Jack Feldman (department of Neurobiology in the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and a member of the UCLA Brain Research Institute), have pinpointed two tiny clusters of neurons that are responsible for transforming normal breaths into sighs, which could one day allow physicians to treat patients who cannot breathe deeply on their own.

UCLA researchers develop therapy to treat PTSD, depression

Veteran Ron Ramirez discusses the trigeminal nerve stimulation neuromodulation device with Andrew Leuchter, director of the Neuromodulation Division at UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior and a psychiatry professor.

CalFoto

Research conducted by Andrew Leuchter (Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Science) and David Geffen School of Medicine’s Ian Cook (department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences) and Christopher DeGiogio (department of Neurology) is currently underway to figure out the effectiveness of the NeuroSigma Inc. electric patch, a box about the size of a deck of cards. Patients can use it to self-administer trigeminal nerve stimulation, or TNS. The therapy has been proven to significantly reduce symptoms in veterans with PTSD and major depressive disorders.

UCLA scientists receive prestigious BRAIN Initiative grant from NIH

The microscopes will visualize individual neurons expressing calcium-triggered fluorophores, which light up when specific wavelengths of light are shined on them.

Daniel Aharoni/UCLA Health

Research led by Dr. Peyman Golshani, (David Geffen School of Medicine) was awarded $2.3 million from the BRAIN Initiative to study how neural circuits in brains process, encode and retrieve information.

UCLA Grand Challenge aims to tackle depression on global scale

UCLA researchers launched a 35-year project Wednesday that aims to decrease the global economic and health impact of depression by 50 percent by 2050. The Depression Grand Challenge initiative will be the largest UCLA research initiative thus far, with an anticipated budget of $525 million for the first 10 years, according to the statement released.

Electroconvulsive therapy changes key areas of the brain that play roles in memory and emotion

A new study by Katherine Narr (Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior) reveals that electrconvulsive therapy provides changes in certain areas of the brain that play a role in how people feel, learn and respond to environmental factors. This work may help the Depression Grand Challenge reach its goals of finding new and novel ways to treat depression.

Archive Tag: Discovery Neuroscience