Brain

Changes in our REM sleep patterns could potentially be used to diagnose the severity of epilepsy, a new study by Tohoku University researchers has suggested. They showed that astrocytes - star-shaped glial cells that control the local ionic and metabotropic environment of the brain - exhibit an acid response with REM sleep in mice. They theorize that the acid response could be the underlying drive for specific information processing and generating plasticity during sleep.

Researchers at Tohoku University have shown that astrocytes in the mouse brain exhibit an acid response with intensified epileptic seizures. The astrocytes’ acid response could lead to the amplification of excitatory neuronal signals and be the underlying drive for generating plasticity for epileptogenesis.

Researchers from the Department of Neurology at Tohoku University have developed a new taxonomy for a rare autoimmune disease known as neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder. The disease was previously thought to be a form of multiple sclerosis (MS) and had, until now, borrowed its taxonomy from MS.

Scientists say some myelin-damaging disorders have a distinctive pathology that groups them into a unique disease entity.