As our environment becomes ever increasingly complex, understanding how sex differences impact disease risk and resilience will only become more critical. The 2019 , "Sex Matters," edited by Dr. Tracy L. Bale, highlights the causal and mechanistic value in cases where significant sex differences are found, as well as when they're not; where sex differences may arise at one period of life and disappear in another. Additionally, this podcast, as well as the special issue, reinforces the message that males are not the control, and females are not more variable. The value is in appreciating the difference. Sex matters. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Aggression is an evolutionary behavior seen throughout the animal world. When it comes to humans, however, some forms of aggression can be seen as pathological, dangerous, and quite costly to society. And yet there's a dearth of approved, effective treatments for aggression. Meghan Flanigan is a graduate student at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and one of the authors of a new article in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology, titled "Recent advances in the study of aggression," in which she argues that there isn't much data about the causes of abnormal aggression in humans, and part of the problem has been that it hasn't been modeled well in animals. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

While the influence of sweet taste on neurocognitive function has been widely studied, umami or savory has received less of a research focus. Animal models and even some small human studies seem to show that umami given in a broth before a meal can influence appetite and food intake. And this inspired Dr. Miguel Alonso-Alonso, Assistant Professor and Director of the Laboratory of Bariatric and Nutritional Neuroscience at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School. He and his colleagues decided to test the influence of glutamate on behavior and food choice, as well as the neurocognitive mechanisms that might be affecting such behavioral changes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For years now, scientists have noticed a rather strange phenomenon in animal models: scientists would stimulate dopamine production in the brain, but once the stimulation was over, the dopamine would remain. Bita Moghaddam is chair and professor of behavioral neuroscience at Oregon Health and Science University. She says that when dopamine is released, dopamine transporters take the dopamine back up into cells so it can be synthesized and broken down. So scientists had assumed that the dopamine that remained for those twenty minutes was just leftover dopamine from the original activation. But in theory the dopamine transporters should be more efficient in taking up the dopamine. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The question of whether neurogenesis persists in humans and for how long -- that is, whether and where humans grow new neurons in their brains, and how long into our lives -- is one that has engaged neuroscientists for decades. Some papers showed that humans did retain neurogenesis into adulthood, but the issue has been debated. That debate was reignited just recently with the publication of two new studies. The first one, published in Nature, is titled "Human hippocampal neurogenesis drops sharply in children to undetectable levels in adults." Not long after, a second paper was published in Cell Stem Cell, titled, "Human hipoocampal neurogenesis persists throughout aging." To discuss the seemingly contradictory results of these two papers on Neuropsychopharmacology's BrainPod are Dr. Lisa Monteggia, professor of neuroscience at UT Southwestern Medical Center, and Dr. Christoph Anacker, assistant professor in clinical neurobiology at Columbia University. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

There's a technology that's proven to be increasingly useful in the past decade -- it's called DREADD, or "designer receptors exclusively activated by designer drugs." The current approach is to create a designer receptor that is unlocked by the drug, clozapine-n-oxide, or CNO. Researchers have used it to study the function of populations of neurons or of particular pathways in the brains in rodents, by using the DREADD technique to turn on and off these neurons or pathways. However, last year, a paper published in the journal Science called the use of DREADDs into question. Some people interpreted the paper as an overall indictment of the DREADD technology, though this wasn't the original intent of the authors. Listen to Neuropsychopharmacology's latest podcast to learn more! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The 2018 issue of Neuropsychopharmacology Reviews, "Cannabis and Cannabinoids: From Synapse to Society," showcases the remarkable advances in the biology of cannabinoids and cannabis in the past two decades, ranging from their impact at the synaptic level through to public health.Edited by Margaret Haney and Matthew N Hill, this issue represents current findings across several major research areas, contributing novel insights into psychiatric illness treatment and a data-driven perspective relevant to public policy changes occurring worldwide.Neuropsychopharmacology Reviews: http://www.nature.com/nppr/index.html Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Many people who exercise regularly have experienced a so-called "runner's high," either a feeling of euphoria after exercise, or a feeling of happiness and well-being. Scientists have studied this and found that exercise does indeed improve mood and combat stress, for instance, but researchers at Finland's University of Turku wanted to know: Are endorphins being produced in and thus affecting the brain? To try to answer this question, the team labeled a drug that can bind to endorphin receptors in the brain and compete with endogenous endorphins. So if the study subjects were producing endorphins in the brain, the drug binding should be reduced. Listen to Neuropsychopharmacology's latest podcast to learn more! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Studies have shown that stress and trauma early in life can lead to an increased risk for drug addiction later in life. In rat models developed to mimic and study this effect, some rats received normal maternal care, while others received enriched maternal care - extra grooming and attention from their mothers. Those with enriched maternal care have been shown to be less likely to return to a room in which the rats received a dose of morphine. But does that accurately represent drug use? They've also been shown to have neurological changes in the brain - but these changes have been correlational. A new study published in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology was set up to tease out a number of aspects of this research. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

One method of treating Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) involves extinction therapy, but researchers have found that the timing of such therapy is extremely important, and that it often doesn't work if the therapy is conducted too soon after the initial trauma. Stress itself may be harming the efficacy of the treatment. A team of researchers at Texas A&M University conducted research to determine whether there was a way to dampen stress and make extinction therapy more effective by using pharmaceuticals. The results were published in a recent issue of the journal Neuropsychopharmacology. Listen to the latest podcast to hear about this study from researchers Stephen Maren and Tom Giustino! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Autism Spectrum Disorder is a disorder that has been defined by the medical community, but so far, none of the medications available for ASD treat the core symptoms of the disease, but rather secondary symptoms such as agitation or hyperactivity. Because ASD is genetically linked to Fragile X syndrome, researchers noticed that in a mouse model, the drug arbaclofen reduced what would be core symptoms of autism, such as combatting social avoidance and improving social function. A randomized placebo-controlled trial was conducted to test this idea and the results were recently published in Neuropsychopharmacology. Listen to the latest BrainPod to hear Dr. Jeremy Veenstra-VanderWeele discuss these results! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The National Institutes of Health recently published a statement requiring sex as a biological variable in studies. This is in part simply because it's good science, and in part to correct for decades in which both animal and human studies were largely conducted with male subjects. In their review paper responding to this statement, Dr. Tracy Bale and Dr. Neill Epperson discuss how sex has a direct impact on brain development, and how it results in a sexually dimorphic brain: meaning there are physical differences between males and females. Listen to the latest BrainPod, Neuropsychopharmacology's official podcast, to hear Dr. Bale and Dr. Epperson discuss this topic! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The National Institutes of Health recently published a statement requiring sex as a biological variable in studies. This is in part simply because it's good science, and in part to correct for decades in which both animal and human studies were largely conducted with male subjects. In their review paper responding to this statement, Dr. Tracy Bale and Dr. Neill Epperson discuss how sex has a direct impact on brain development, and how it results in a sexually dimorphic brain: meaning there are physical differences between males and females. Listen to the latest BrainPod, Neuropsychopharmacology's official podcast, to hear Dr. Bale and Dr. Epperson discuss this topic! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The 2017 issue of Neuropsychopharmacology Reviews, "The Immunology of Behavior focuses on the growing appreciation of the immune system in understanding brain and health illness.This podcast synthesizes this year's issue, which showcases a wide range of reviews about the relationship between immunology and brain and health illness, demonstrating how advances in our understanding of immunology have led to novel insights into psychiatric illnesses and their treatment. Hear more from Andrew H Miller, Ebrahim Haroon, and Jennifer C Felger, the editors of this NPPR issue! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

LSD is not only a well-known psychedelic drug, but it was also studied extensively for its potential in psychotherapy in the early days of its use, about fifty years ago. Those early studies didn't necessarily meet today's standards for clinical trials, and previous research ended in the 1970s, due to changing regulations and a prohibition against LSD. Today, LSD is once again being studied for its therapeutic use, this time in a carefully controlled clinical setting. In a recent study, a team of researchers investigated LSD's effects on fear recognition, emotional empathy, and sociality. Listen to the latest BrainPod, Neuropsychopharmacology's official podcast, to hear Dr. Matthias Liechti discuss this study! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.