Cell Reports: Keep the balance of the brain

With the advent of the new school year, we all realize the importance of energizing students

If too many excitable cells (students in this metaphor) start to excite at the same time, the overexcitement may spread to the entire neural network (classroom) and cause epileptic activity

Now, researchers at the Gladstone Institutes have found that decreased levels of tau protein (known for its role in Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative diseases) change excitability and inhibition Sex cells make it harder for the brain to explode due to excessive excitement

Lennart Mucke, MD, director of the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Diseases and senior author of the new study published in Cell Reports, said: "Epilepsy may be related to many brain diseases, including Alzheimer's disease and Autism

Maintaining a balance between excitatory cells and inhibiting cell activity is crucial so that the brain can process information, properly control movement, and perceive things in a real way, not in a distorted way

"The diseases we are interested in have one thing in common, which is that they cause an imbalance of excitatory inhibition in the brain," said Mucke, who is also a Joseph B.

Mucke and his team found that reducing tau protein levels affects both excitatory and inhibitory cells, but in different ways

Together, these effects reduce the excitability-inhibition ratio in the brain network, offsetting the disease that caused the abnormal increase in this ratio

Just as keeping calm in the classroom helps with learning, reducing the calming effect of tau on the brain network may improve the brain’s ability to perform its functions, especially when calm is disrupted by disease

DOI

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Article title

Tau reduction affects excitatory and inhibitory neurons differently, reduces excitation/inhibition ratios, and counteracts network hypersynchrony