Vanderbilt Brain Institute

Brain Blast, sponsored by the Vanderbilt Brain Institute, attracted about 325 children and 300 adults to a variety of free, hands-on activities directed by 50 volunteers, including Vanderbilt graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and faculty members. Read More

March is Brain Awareness Month at Vanderbilt University, and the public is invited to hear national experts discuss their research on autism and other brain disorders. Read More

The brains of children who are obese function differently from those of children of healthy weight, and exhibit an “imbalance” between food-seeking and food-avoiding behaviors, researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center have found. Read More

Dora Angelaki, Ph.D., the Wilhelmina Robertson Professor and chair of Neuroscience at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, will provide a “computational perspective on autism” during the next Flexner Discovery Lecture on Thursday, Jan. 14. Read More

For her contributions to public communication, outreach and education about neuroscience, Nicole Baganz, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow in Pharmacology, received the 2015 Next Generation Award from the Society for Neuroscience. Read More

Vanderbilt researchers are exploring how neuroblastoma tumors begin and progress, knowledge that could provide new treatments for this pediatric cancer. Read More

Hundreds of the world’s leading music cognition researchers are coming to Nashville from Saturday, Aug. 1, to Wednesday, Aug. 5, as Vanderbilt plays host to the biennial meeting of the Society for Music Perception and Cognition. Read More

Vanderbilt researchers have discovered a possible molecular mechanism of schizophrenia that could lead to new treatments for the disorder. Read More

Vanderbilt investigators report the first use of a specialized type of MRI to study the hippocampus in patients with schizophrenia. Read More

Stanford University neurobiologist Eric Knudsen, Ph.D., well known for his studies of learning and attention in birds, will deliver the next Flexner Discovery Lecture at 4 p.m. April 30 in 208 Light Hall. Read More

It’s a story of love and determination and a debilitating lifelong disorder. A son’s rare genetic disease has led his mom to become a scientist at Vanderbilt University. Watch this VUCast Extra and a mom’s race against time. Read More

"Brain Blast" is sponsored annually by the Vanderbilt Brain Institute to raise awareness about the brain in health and disease. Read More

A genetic predisposition to Parkinson’s disease makes neurons more vulnerable to the toxicity of heavy metals such as copper. Read More

Although heteromeric dopamine receptors composed of both D1 and D2 subunits have been proposed to play a role in depression and schizophrenia, recent studies suggest these heteromers do not exist. Read More

Vanderbilt researchers have developed tools to probe the role of the essential metal manganese in neurons, and which offer a started point for developing therapeutic agents for manganese-related neurological disorders. Read More

Trans-institutional neuroimaging research at Vanderbilt finds that the brain may be structured differently in children with dyslexia. Read More

Augmenting the signals of natural “endocannabinoids” in the brain may be a promising approach for treating mood and anxiety disorders. Read More

Critically acclaimed musician-composer Ben Folds, left, chats with McGill University neuroscientist Daniel Levitin, Ph.D., during last week’s “Music and the Mind” symposium in Ingram Hall of the Blair School of Music. Presented by the Vanderbilt Brain Institute, the event also featured Vanderbilt’s Marianne Ploger, associate… Read More

A protein in the myelin coating on nerves helps form a “seal” that enables effective nerve conduction; loss of the protein causes inherited neuropathies. Read More

Vanderbilt investigators have used two types of neuroimaging to establish a “map” of connections for a brain region important in anxiety and addiction. Read More