Neighborly help in the brain: Cerebral cortex networks rapidly reorganize to compensate for lost neurons

How the brain largely maintains its function when neurons are lost—this is what researchers at the University Medical Center Mainz, the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies (FIAS) and Hebrew University (Jerusalem) have deciphered. They show that neuronal networks in the cerebral cortex reorganize within a short period of time, with other nerve cells taking over the tasks of the lost neurons.
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Structural brain changes identified up to 15 years before Alzheimer’s symptoms in people with Down syndrome

A study led by the Sant Pau Research Institute (IR Sant Pau) has succeeded in describing, for the first time in detail, the structural evolution of the medial temporal lobe (MTL) regions across the clinical stages of Alzheimer’s disease in people with Down syndrome. The results, published in the journal Brain, reveal that volume and cortical thickness loss in these regions can begin 13 to 15 years before the onset of symptoms, marking a significant advance in early diagnosis and the design of preventive clinical trials.
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