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	Podcast:		UC Science Today
	Episode:		A new finding may shed light on the origin of neurobiological disorders
	Category:		Science & Medicine
	Duration:		00:01:02
	Publish Date:		2017-02-16 18:00:00
	Description:		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.
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