While the exact causes of neurodegenerative brain diseases like Alzheimer’s and dementia are still largely unknown, researchers have been able to identify a key characteristic in affected brains: reduced blood flow. Building upon this foundational understanding, a team at Penn State recently found that a rare neuron that is extremely vulnerable to anxiety-induced stress appears to be responsible for regulating blood flow and coordinating neural activity in mice.
The researchers found that eliminating type-one nNOS neurons — which make up less than 1% of the brain’s 80 billion neurons and die off when exposed to too much stress — resulted in a drop in both blood flow and electrical activity in mice brains, demonstrating the impact this neuron type has on the proper brain functions of animals, including humans.
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