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- Autism Research Efforts Highlighted in Biological Psychiatry Special Issue
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February 6, 2007
Science Update
The February 15, 2007 special issue of Biological Psychiatry is dedicated to recent advances in autism research, including many studies funded by the Institute.
- Brain’s Reward Circuit Activity Ebbs and Flows with a Woman’s Hormonal Cycle
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February 2, 2007
Press Release
Fluctuations in sex hormone levels during women’s menstrual cycles affect the responsiveness of their brains’ reward circuitry, an imaging study at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) has revealed.
- New Tests May Help Researchers Detect Genetic Basis For Autism
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January 30, 2007
Science Update
Researchers have developed a set of behavioral tests in mice that mimic the core features of autism and may prove useful in detecting a genetic basis for the deficits in social interactions and rigid thinking seen in the disorder.
- Clues to Making and Breaking Memories Included in List of Year’s Top Science
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January 30, 2007
Science Update
NIMH-funded researchers were cited in Science Magazine’s December 2006 “Breakthrough of the Year” special issue.
- Gene Variant Linked to Schizophrenia
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January 23, 2007
Science Update
A gene implicated in schizophrenia in adults has now also been linked to schizophrenia in children for the first time, strengthening evidence that the gene plays a role in the disease.
- Different Families, Different Characteristics — Different Kinds of Bipolar Disorder?
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January 3, 2007
Science Update
People with bipolar disorder (BPD) tend to share similarities in certain characteristics with other members of their families, NIMH-funded researchers have shown.
- Experience Sculpts Brain Circuitry to Build Resiliency to Stress
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December 21, 2006
Press Release
It’s long been known that experiencing control over a stressor immunizes a rat from developing a depression-like syndrome when it later encounters stressors that it can’t control.
- Receptor Helps Neurons Grow in Right Direction
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December 12, 2006
Science Update
Researchers have discovered a receptor for a key protein that helps guide certain nerve cells into the correct position as the nervous system develops — a vital part of a process that enables the brain to receive sensory input from the environment and to send messages to the rest of the body via the spinal cord.
- Broad HIV Screening Valuable Even in Communities with Low Infection Rates
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December 5, 2006
Science Update
An HIV/AIDS screening program may be cost-effective even in communities where the infection rate and the prevalence of the disease are very low and among populations at low risk for HIV infection, according to an NIMH-funded study published December 5, 2006, in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
- Brain’s Fear Center Likely Shrinks in Autism’s Most Severely Socially Impaired
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December 4, 2006
Press Release
The brain’s fear hub likely becomes abnormally small in the most severely socially impaired males with autism spectrum disorders, researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and National Institute on Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) have discovered.