News

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  Psychiatry Researchers Investigate Why Some Adolescents Lose Motivation and Pleasure

  Aysenil Belger, PhD, professor of psychiatry, and Danielle Roubinov, PhD, director of the Child and Adolescent Anxiety and Mood Disorders Program, will lead an innovative study of the predictors of anhedonia — a common symptom of mental health conditions — in young people. Original full article can be found here.

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  UNC Startup Creates Eye-Tracking Technology to Potentially Help Regulate Psychiatric Symptoms

  In a UNC-Chapel Hill neuroscience lab, researchers recently monitored a mouse wearing a miniature, helmet-like device that streamed real-time data to a nearby computer. As data points on heart rate, pupil size and breathing patterns scrolled across the screen, capturing the intricate interplay between animal physiology and behavior, they realized that their device was more … Read more

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  Let Sleeping Babies Lie: Scientists Highlight Negative Impacts of Sleep Disruption on Early Brain Development

  The lab of Graham Diering, PhD, assistant professor of cell biology and physiology at the UNC School of Medicine, shows how sleep loss during early life impacts key aspects of brain development and how it can increase one’s risk for developing autism spectrum disorder. Original full article can be found here.

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  Michelle Itano: Leading a core, inspiring a community

  As Director of the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Neuroscience Microscopy Core, Michelle Itano develops state-of-the-art imaging whilst training scientists far and wide. Here’s how she became a core facility leader that is forging collaborations between researchers and data scientists to drive bioscience forward. Original article continued here.

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  Morika Williams is Demystifying Pain

  Williams, a former KL2/K12 scholar with NC TraCS, began her career as a veterinarian—but is now studying pain in both animals and humans. Pain is a tricky thing to measure. Unlike metrics such as blood pressure, heart rate or even cancer presence—all of which can be assessed with a test—diagnosing pain relies almost entirely on … Read more