Silvia Middei

• Italian National Research Council

Early in brain development, impaired neuronal signalling during time-sensitive windows triggers the onset of neurodevelopmental disorders. GABA, through its depolarizing and excitatory actions, drives early developmental events including neuronal circuit formation and refinement. BDNF/TrkB signalling cooperates with GABA actions. How these developm...

Background Clinical evidence indicates that patients affected by Alzheimer's Disease (AD) fail to form new memories although their memories for old events are intact. This amnesic pattern depends on the selective vulnerability to AD-neurodegeneration of the hippocampus, the brain region that sustains the formation of new memories, while cortical re...

Early in brain development, impaired neuronal signaling during time-sensitive windows triggers the onset of neurodevelopmental disorders. GABA, through its depolarizing and excitatory actions, drives early developmental events including neuronal circuit formation and refinement. BDNF/TrkB signaling cooperates with GABA actions. How these developmen...

In the subventricular zone (SVZ) of the adult brain, the neural stem cells (NSCs) ensure a continuous supply of new neurons to the olfactory bulb (OB), playing a key role in its plasticity and olfactory-related behavior. The activation and expansion of NSCs within the SVZ are finely regulated by environmental and intrinsic factors. Running represen...

The brain is made up of trillions of synaptic connections that together form neural networks needed for normal brain function and behavior. SLM2 is a member of a conserved family of RNA binding proteins, including Sam68 and SLM1, that control splicing of Neurexin1-3 pre-mRNAs. Whether SLM2 affects neural network activity is unknown. Here, we find t...

Epilepsy is characterized by impaired circuit function and a propensity for spontaneous seizures, but how plastic rearrangements within the epileptic focus trigger cortical dysfunction and hyperexcitability is only partly understood. Here we have examined alterations in sensory processing and the underlying biochemical and neuroanatomical changes i...