News by Subject Medicine & Health

Research News Tip Sheet: Story Ideas From Johns Hopkins Medicine

Researchers revealed how neurons in the basal ganglia, which are a brain region crucial for the control of voluntary movements and whose damage induces motor impairment, such as Parkinson's disease, convey information for the movement control by recording activity of multiple neurons simultaneously in Japanese monkeys.

Research led by investigators at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center provides new hope for recovery from degenerative neurological diseases -- such as ALS and multiple sclerosis -- as well from damage caused by traumatic brain and spine injuries and stroke.

Can COVID-19 infection increase the risk of developing Parkinson's disease? That's the question posed by a new commentary published in the journal Trends in Neurosciences, which explores three known case studies of people developing Parkinson's-like symptoms in the weeks following infection with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. While rare, these cases provide important insights into potential long-term implications of infections.

Movement in animals is complex. Little has been known about how spinal inhibitory interneurons work to silence other neurons and related muscle groups in coordination with the active muscle groups across changing speeds. Now a Northwestern University research team has discovered in a study of zebrafish that there is a very orderly relationship between when these critical inhibitory neurons are born, their participation in different speeds of movement and what part of a motor neuron they innervate.