Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), Charcot's disease, or Lou Gehrig's disease is a severe neurodegenerative disease that leads to progressive paralysis of muscles involved in voluntary movement. To date, no curative treatment exists. The disease is typically fatal within three to five years of onset. Researchers from Inserm and University of Strasbourg, at the Center for Biomedical Research, have made progress in understanding the mechanisms underlying ALS. In a new...
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of visual disability in people over 50 years of age. Improving the treatment offering for patients is a major challenge for research. In a new study, a team of researchers from Inserm, CNRS and Sorbonne Université at the Vision Institute in Paris describes the efficacy of dopaminergic drugs in slowing the progression of one of the forms of the disease, namely...
In a new study, researchers from Inserm, Lille University Hospital and Université de Lille at the Lille Neuroscience and Cognition research centre have taken a step further in understanding the mechanisms underlying its development. They have shown that the pathological increase in certain receptors in the neurons at the time of disease onset promotes a loss of synapses, and as such the early onset of memory impairments in an...
A team of researchers from Inserm, Caen-Normandy University Hospital and Université de Caen Normandie have looked at the role that immune cells known as central nervous system-associated macrophages (CAMs) could play in the neurological damage that occurs following a stroke. Their research shows that during the course of ageing these cells acquire a key role in regulating the immune response triggered in the wake of a stroke.
Because of their cyclical rhythm and similar durations, the menstrual and lunar cycles have often been assumed to be linked, despite no solid evidence so far to support this. To gain a better understanding of the origin of the rhythmic regularity of the menstrual cycle, an international research team involving Inserm, CNRS and Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 compared a large amount of data on cycles collected from studies...
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or Charcot’s disease is a neurodegenerative disease that results in progressive paralysis and subsequent death. Diagnosing it is difficult and no curative treatment exists to date, making these challenges for research. In a new study, Inserm researcher Caroline Rouaux and her team at the Strasbourg Biomedical Research Centre (Inserm-Université de Strasbourg), in collaboration with researchers from Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, CNRS and Sorbonne Université, show...
A team from Inserm and Université de Caen Normandie, in collaboration with researchers from the University of Jena (Germany) and University College London (UK), has studied the potential benefits of meditation and health education interventions in people who feel that their memory is in decline. This research was performed as part of the European H2020 Silver Santé Study programme coordinated by Inserm . It shows that learning mindfulness meditation...
Why does some music make us want to dance more than others? This is the question that a research team from Inserm and Aix-Marseille Université tried to answer by studying the desire to dance (also called the 'groove') and the brain activity of 30 participants who were asked to listen to music. Their findings show that the groove sensation is highest for a moderately complex rhythm and that the desire...
One in three French adults is thought to have a sleep disorder. While the prevalence of these disorders increases with age, the biological mechanisms at play are relatively unknown, leaving scientists in doubt as to their origin. In a new study, Inserm researcher Claude Gronfier and his team at the Lyon Neuroscience Research Center (Inserm/CNRS/Université Claude-Bernard Lyon 1) hypothesised that their onset during ageing was linked to a desynchronisation...
Contrary to all expectations, GluD1 – a receptor considered to be excitatory – has been shown in the brain to play a major role in controlling neuron inhibition. Given that alterations in the GluD1 gene are encountered in a certain number of neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders, such as autism (ASD) and schizophrenia, this discovery opens up new therapeutic avenues to combat the imbalances between excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmissions associated...
