Podcast appearances and mentions of mercedes paredes

In this episode, we’re turning back the clock to our earliest days - just after birth. What happens to our brains in this sensitive time of life? More than we ever thought, it turns out. We spoke with Dr. Mercedes Paredes, assistant professor of neurology at UCSF, to learn more about how humans’ brain cells are still moving and changing even after we’re born. As we learn more about the brain’s initial stages, we can better understand its vulnerabilities. Not only that, but we can also figure out how to intervene early on to stave off neurological problems like psychiatric illness or epilepsy. This episode was written and produced by Stella Belonwu, Rebecca Fang, Deanna Necula, and Ben Mansky. Music in this episode includes “A Day at the Park,” “Fomalhaut,” and “Convergence” by Pictures of the Floating World and “Autowaschanlage Instrumental” by Lobo Loco. For more on recent developments with the HHS Fetal Tissue Ethics Review Board, see www.washingtonpost.com/health/trump-…aa_story.html.

If a brain functions normally, neuron excitation and inhibition work in balance. “And when you have this good balance, then you have normal cognitive function. When this is disrupted, that’s when people have seizures – where you have excess excitation, dysregulated activity of the brain, and don’t have appropriate inhibition.” That’s neurologist Mercedes Paredes of the University of California, San Francisco. She says researchers used to pay more attention to excitatory neurons in their studies and downplayed the role of inhibitory neurons. But according to Paredes these neurons are crucial for the newborns’ brain development. “So excitatory neurons are the largest population and they pretty much are active, their normal function is what causes brain activity. It’s the regulation of that function, the fine-tuning of that function, where we use inhibitory neurons.” By understanding how inhibitory neurons develop, Paredes hopes to shed new light on the origin of neurological disorders, like seizures or epilepsy.

Historically, neuroscientists have been mainly focused on excitatory neurons, which stimulate our brain and have paid less attention to the calming, inhibitory neurons. According to Mercedes Paredes, a neurologist at the University of California, San Francisco, it turns out that these inhibitory neurons play a more important role than previously thought. "They make a lot more of synaptic connections with other neurons and play a role not just in maintaining the balance and the activity, but also in the potential for the brain to be flexible." Paredes has discovered that inhibitory neurons, also called interneurons, continue shaping our brain long after we are born, making the brain extremely vulnerable in the first couple of months to a year of our lives. "Inhibitory neurons are the main regulators of the balance between excitation and inhibition in the cortex. When there is damage to interneurons, balance is at risk and it can lead to disorders all the way from epilepsy to potentially neuropsychiatric disorders."

Does talking or singing to a newborn really their brain development? This week on Science Today, we chatted with neurologist Mercedes Paredes of the University of California, San Francisco to find out. She says this type of stimulation may affect inhibitory neurons, which keep fine-tuning and shaping infants’ brains during the first couple months of life. "These cells are reaching their target, these brain regions that control the development of motor skills, social skills and language skills. So, I imagine that they might play a role in that. And understanding how they do that will be important for parents knowing, OK, these are the foundations of how the milestones develop." And as far as we’re concerned, talking or singing to newborns is hard to resist! But how about when those babies become adolescents? There may not be as much talking going then as they hole up in their rooms using social media. But how is that affecting their brains? UCLA’s Adriana Galván says there’s still not enough data to determine the impact because the media itself is still relatively new. "And so we don’t have the long-term data over many years to determine what it’s doing to the brain, but certainly we do know that it’s another form of teenagers having more social interactions, having greater reactions emotionally to things that they see on media or read about, but we don’t really know what it’s doing to the brain, yet, but stay tuned - a lot of people are doing that research." Finally, with heavy rainfalls helping quench the parched state of California, there are some questions being raised in the aftermath of drought. UC Berkeley biologist Todd Dawson says in the last couple of years, droughts have killed millions of trees in the Golden State. "Will we have to manage our forests in different ways? So for example, we have to thin some of our forests, so the limited water resources that we have can keep at least some trees alive, but maybe not at the densities that our current forests are at." So Dawson calls for scientists to work more closely with governmental agencies to choose the best environmental strategies, especially when it comes to water. That’s all for now – if you want to hear these and other University of California research stories, subscribe to Science Today on iTunes. I’m Larissa Branin, thanks for listening. Subscribe to Science Today: iTunes: apple.co/1TQBewD Stitcher: www.stitcher.com/podcast/science-today Follow us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ucsciencetoday Stories mentioned in this roundup: https://soundcloud.com/sciencetoday/baby_brain https://soundcloud.com/sciencetoday/adolescent_brain_research https://soundcloud.com/sciencetoday/drought_aftermath

Many mothers talk or sing to their newborns, but how does this really help babies’ development? Mercedes Paredes, a neurologist at the University of California, San Francisco, thinks such stimulation might affect inhibitory neurons that keep fine-tuning and shaping infants’ brains during the first couple of months of their lives. “These cells are reaching their target, these brain regions that control the development of motor skills, social skills and language skills. So, I imagine that they might play a role in that. And understanding how they do that will be important for parents. These are foundations of how the milestones develop.” But Paredes adds, if these neurons become damaged – during or soon after birth - that could trigger childhood psychiatric and neurological disorders – like epilepsy. “The first couple of months to a year of life are uniquely active for the brain and we need to do things to protect the brain or at least be cognizant of the potential damage that could happen.”

Our brains take more time to develop than was previously thought. Those were the findings of a new study conducted by neurologist Mercedes Paredes of the University of California, San Francisco. “The old dogma has been that a lot of the development that happened after birth was more related to fine tuning, changes such as white matter development and synaptic connections, the connections between brain cells or neurons.” But Paredes has found that the brain is still developing – significantly right after birth, with young neurons moving to the frontal lobe of the brain, where they then become functional. “And that is something new, both in terms of how long brain development is still ongoing, but also the fact that this is period right around the time of birth and there is a lot of pathological changes that can happen and the brain is vulnerable.” So trying to understand what’s happening in newborn babies’ brains will help scientists get a better sense of what triggers developmental disorders.

This week, we chat about some of our favorite stories—including making bees optimistic, comparing yawns across species, and “mind reading” in nonhuman apes—with Science's Online News Editor David Grimm. Plus, Science's Alexa Billow talks to Mercedes Paredes about her research on the developing infant brain.   Listen to previous podcasts   [Image: mdmiller/iStockphoto; Music: Jeffrey Cook]

This week, we chat about some of our favorite stories—including making bees optimistic, comparing yawns across species, and “mind reading” in nonhuman apes—with Science’s Online News Editor David Grimm. Plus, Science’s Alexa Billow talks to Mercedes Paredes about her research on the developing infant brain.   Listen to previous podcasts   [Image: mdmiller/iStockphoto; Music: Jeffrey Cook]