Gender and pain sensation, sleep as a future predictor

While asleep, the brain not only replays past events but also attempts to predict the future experiences of the sleeper. After studying the behavior of rats, scientists from Rice University in Houston concluded that sleeping rodents not only dreamed about the places in the maze they visited but also developed potential new routes to complete it. This research could potentially help in treating neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease.

Researchers from the University of Arizona Health Sciences have identified the first functional sex differences in nociceptors between women and men. Nociceptors are specialized nerve cells that produce pain. The experiments revealed that the hormone prolactin sensitizes only female cells, while the neurotransmitter orexin B sensitizes only male cells. These findings underscore the importance of a precision medicine approach, taking into account the patient’s gender when choosing a treatment for pain, and thereby reassuring the medical community about the progress in personalized healthcare.

Experts from University College London have identified brain areas that influence the response to pleasure in bipolar disorder. Some mood distortion in the patients was linked to increased activation in their striatum, a brain region that responds to pleasant experiences, and decreased communication between the striatum and the insula. This research may help explain why people with bipolar disorder can get stuck in a “vicious cycle” in which their moods get heightened, sometimes causing them to take more risks than usual.