Basic Neuroscience Related Content

Imagine if depression or obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) could be treated with non-drug therapies, such as those currently being used to tackle Parkinson’s disease and other movement disorders. Suzanne Haber, PhD, is working toward that goal in her labs at McLean Hospital and the University of...

Ross J. Baldessarini, MD , originally thought he wanted to be an industrial organic chemist, not a doctor. The prospect of medical school didn’t thrill the Williams College chemistry major. He found it to be more like a trade school than an academic endeavor, not to mention it being “cutthroat and...

For decades, scientists have known that gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) is a key factor in the development of neuropsychiatric disorders. But recent discoveries in the Angiogenesis and Brain Development Laboratory of Anju Vasudevan, PhD, have literally opened a new pathway. Disruptions in prenatal...

This edition of Discovery demonstrates some of the depth and breadth of research at McLean Hospital. With hundreds of hardworking researchers who hail from all parts of the world, our robust research program has all the tools to bring research from the bench to the bedside. There is much more...

Why does one person who experienced severe childhood adversity become homeless or addicted, while another with a similar background builds a loving family life and a thriving career? Is the answer in our genes, or perhaps in how trauma affects our genes? A collaboration between McLean Hospital and...

Former Board Chair David Barlow has endowed a fellowship that forges a closer relationship between two institutions that are dear to his heart: McLean Hospital and his alma mater, Bates College. The John Kelsey Fellowship is named after the retired Bates professor who built the college’s...

McLean Hospital Research Fellow Natalia V. Luchkina, PhD, took part in the annual Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting in Lindau, Germany, this past June. Established in 1951, this event provides undergraduates, PhD candidates, and post-doctoral researchers with the opportunity to listen and learn from...

McLean Hospital has announced the recipients of 12 fellowships for the 2018-2019 academic year. These fellowships are made possible through a combination of generous support from donors and internal funding resources. McLean Hospital is grateful to its donors, whose philanthropic investments...

A McLean Hospital scientific team’s comprehensive analysis of recent research into how the brain shapes responses to cognitive and emotional challenges has revealed the potential for new brain treatments for psychiatric conditions that target specific brain circuits. The detailed review, “ An...

The ultimate solution to the opioid crisis is answering the question of what causes addiction and whether it is possible to treat it more effectively or even prevent it. That’s the challenge Elena H. Chartoff, PhD , is taking on in her laboratory. As director of the Neurobiology of Motivated...

McLean Hospital neuroscientists have found that immune system activation during pregnancy and right at birth can cause alterations in an offspring’s brain neural circuits during young adulthood that are consistent with behavioral symptoms common in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and other...

McLean Hospital’s Harvard Brain Tissue Resource Center (HBTRC) and the Foundation for Research and Education in Eating Disorders (FREED), an organization dedicated to helping determine the causes and risk factors associated with eating disorders, have partnered to establish the first and only...

When the Harvard Brain Tissue Resource Center (HBTRC) at McLean receives a brain donation, with permission, staff comb through the donor’s medical records to glean critical information. It’s a painstaking and manual process, but now, thanks to a million-dollar endowment from The Manton Foundation...

McLean Hospital neuroscientists have found that even a brief episode of immune system activation within days of birth can cause persistent changes in sleep patterns concurrent with increases in epilepsy-like brain activity—a combination of symptoms common in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and other...

Bill Carlezon, PhD , chief of McLean’s Jerry and Phyllis Rappaport Center of Excellence in Basic Neuroscience Research and director of the Behavioral Genetics Laboratory, has agreed to continue in his role as editor in chief of Neuropsychopharmacology , the official journal of the American College...

A team of investigators from McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School, led by Kai-Christian Sonntag, MD, PhD , and Bruce M. Cohen, MD, PhD , has found a connection between disrupted energy production and the development of late-onset Alzheimer’s disease (LOAD). The findings appear in the current...

McLean Hospital’s Joseph T. Coyle, MD, widely renowned for his revolutionary neuroscience research that has led to improved clinical care for those with mental illness worldwide, was honored today by the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) with the 2017 Rhoda and Bernard Sarnat International Prize in...

Conducting state-of-the-art scientific investigation to maximize discovery and accelerate translation of findings towards achieving prevention and cures is a core element of the McLean Hospital mission. Demonstrating that commitment, we have developed this new publication. This inaugural edition and...