The Brain and the Nervous System

The brain is the most complicated organ in the human body. It gives us our personality and our feelings, and is responsible for consciousness, self-awareness, time perception, and memory functions.

 

The nervous system receives and stores information, processes and interprets sensory information, and controls bodily functions.

The brain, the spinal cord, and the peripheral nerves within a human being contain 100 billion nerve cells, called neurons, of at least 10,000 different types. Studies of the molecular energy mechanisms that control specialization have revealed that neurons are not controlled by a single regulatory gene, but by a sequential, combined effect of many regulatory genes and their unique interaction with the brain’s neural pathways.
Research into the nervous system has made great strides in recent years.

It has been passably well demonstrated today how neurotransmitters in various parts of the brain contribute to stimulating or impeding signals from being transmitted further. The new molecular biology, and new imaging techniques and surgical methods, have radically increased the opportunities to understand and fix injuries and diseases in the nervous system.

Research

Ingrid Asp Kidney Research Center

Image of molecules that will take you to WCMM's homepage.

Wallenberg Centre for Molecular Medicine at LiU

WCMM at LiU focuses on the medicine-technology interface, and build upon our existing strengths in research within medical technology, materials science and bioengineering.

An adult's hand holds the hand of a premature baby.

N-forte trial

The aim of the N-forte trial is to explore how breast milk composition influences the development of NEC, sepsis and neurological impairment in extremely preterm infants in order to improve future treatments in this patient group.

Research center

Research center

News

Person (Peter Larsson) infront of a microscope.

Existing drug can repair ion channel linked to epilepsy

Mutated variants of a particular ion channel cause difficult-to-treat epilepsy. A study published in the journal Nature now shows that a commonly used anaesthetic drug, propofol, can restore the function of this ion channel.

Close-up of baby belly.

Autism and ADHD are linked to disturbed gut flora very early in life

Disturbed gut flora during the first years of life is associated with diagnoses such as autism and ADHD later in life. This is according to a study led by researchers at the University of Florida and LiU and published in the journal Cell.

headshot of a woman smiling.

With pain as a driving force – from refugee to professor

After a childhood marked by displacement, Bijar Ghafouri came to a place where she could stay. “In Sweden I got the opportunity to study what I wanted. Age or gender didn’t matter,” she says. Today, she is a professor researching long-term pain.