Restaurer la vision grâce à une thérapie associant génétique et ultrasons ? Tel est l’objectif poursuivi par une équipe internationale dirigée par les directeurs de recherche Inserm Mickael Tanter et Serge Picaud, associant respectivement le laboratoire Physique pour la médecine (ESPCI Paris/PSL Université/Inserm/CNRS) et l’Institut de la vision (Sorbonne Université/Inserm/CNRS) à Paris en partenariat avec l’Institut d'ophtalmologie moléculaire et clinique de Bâle. Dans une nouvelle étude, ils ont apporté la...
Mieux comprendre divers processus invisibles à l’œil nu, qui ont lieu à l’échelle de nos cellules, grâce à un minuscule robot construit à base d’ADN... Si cela s’apparenterait presque à un projet de science-fiction, il s’agit en fait de travaux très sérieux menés par des scientifiques. Ce « nano-robot », très innovant, devrait permettre d’étudier de plus près des forces mécaniques qui s’appliquent à des niveaux microscopiques et qui sont cruciales...
Our ability to understand the syntax of complex sentences is one of the most difficult language skills to acquire. In 2019, research had revealed a correlation between being particularly proficient in tool use and having good syntactic ability. A new study has now shown that both skills rely on the same neurological resources, which are located in the same brain region. Furthermore, motor training using a tool improves our...
What if a few minutes of interaction with a chatbot could effectively address vaccine concerns? In an article published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied (28 October 2021), researchers from the CNRS, INSERM, and ENS-PSL show that such an interface is indeed capable of swaying the vaccine-hesitant.
For the past 30 years, it was thought that the brain – responsible for motor control – worked to continuously compensate for the effects of gravity. In an initial study in 2016, the researchers had suggested that our brains use gravity to minimize the effort our muscles have to make. Those results were recently confirmed by new experiments conducted in collaboration with New York University on non-human primate models...
Huntington's disease is a hereditary disorder that causes degeneration of the neurons involved in cognitive, motor and psychiatric functions. While existing treatments address the symptoms and relieve certain aspects of the disease, they cannot alter its course.
Understanding the three-dimensional structure of DNA and RNA and how they interact with other molecules is necessary for the advancement of biomedical research and drug development. A team led by Inserm researcher Valérie Gabelica at the Nucleic acids: natural and artificial regulation laboratory (ARNA, Inserm/CNRS/Université de Bordeaux)[1] has developed an innovative method pairing mass spectrometry with circularly polarized light, enabling better characterization of these different molecular interactions.
When it comes to recognizing a melody or understanding a spoken sentence, the human brain does not mobilize its hemispheres in an equivalent way. A team of researchers has been able to show that, due to different receptivities to the components of sound, the left auditory cortex neurons participate in the recognition of speech, whereas the right auditory cortex neurons participate in that of music.
The leading cause of mortality worldwide, cardiovascular diseases claim over 17 million lives each year, according to World Health Organization estimates. To open up new research avenues into this serious public health problem, Inserm researcher Nicolas L’Heureux and his team are developing "human textiles" from collagen in order to repair damaged blood vessels.
Using cerebral imaging, connections between the various brain regions can be visualized. These connections form a veritable "map" of its structure, specific to each individual. Knowledge of these "maps" is enough to predict not just brain function but also the potential development and treatment of neurological diseases.
