Article on possible direction of study for assisting brain self repair.

This article sounds a little heavy, but really interesting.  Well, not so much heavy, as it is trying to remember what all the transmitters, receptors, and sections of the brain do when you don't mess with them every day.  So I added a few links into things to help make the article more interesting.  Then I send you to the whole article if you wish to see more...

Researchers at the Center for Neuroscience Research at Children's National Medical Center have discovered that the two major types of signaling pathways activated during brain cell development - the epidermal growth factor receptor pathway and the Notch pathway - operate together to determine how many and which types of brain cells are created during growth and repair in developing and adult brains. This knowledge may help scientists design new ways to induce the brain to repair itself when these signals are interrupted, and indicate a need for further research to determine whether disruptions of these pathways in early brain development could lead to common neurodevelopmental disorders such as epilepsy, cerebral palsy, autism, Down syndrome, ADHD, and intellectual disabilities.
"By understanding how these cellular signaling pathways operate in the brain, we may be able to develop genetic or molecular approaches that target those signals to facilitate or induce regeneration of the brain from neural stem cells," said Vittorio Gallo, PhD, director of the Center for Neuroscience Research at Children's National. "These signaling pathways, normally activated during brain development, work in concert through the cellular microenvironment and through interactions with existing brain cells to determine how many of each type of brain cell are required for proper brain function."


These findings will be published in the September issue of Nature.

rest of article: