A new study that followed participants for two decades found some were up to a quarter less likely to develop a memory disease years after doing “brain training.”
Category: neuroscience – Page 24
The Computer That Consumes Stars
And a black hole would be a type of computer if we could use it.
What is the ultimate limit of a civilization? It isn’t conquering a galaxy. It is processing power.
A “Matrioshka Brain” is a megastructure so massive it encases an entire star. It is a Dyson Sphere upgraded to God-Mode. Instead of just harvesting energy, it uses the star to fuel a computer powerful enough to simulate trillions of universes.
If a civilization builds one of these, they don’t need to explore space. They can upload their minds to a digital heaven and live forever. This might be the terrifying reason why the universe is so silent.
Chapters:
Neural crest cells: Miniature electric muscles that colonize embryonic organs
Neural crest cells are a population of stem cells that invade the embryo in early development. They play a big role in what you look like: the pigments of your eyes, of your skin, and the bone structure of your face are all neural crests. Inside your body, the neural crest will form the myelin sheath of your peripheral nervous system and the entire nervous system of your intestine, the so-called “second brain.”
Neurocristopathies are a range of pathologies resulting from defective neural crest migration. One of the most frequent ones is Hirschsprung disease; it affects 1 in 5,000 newborns. These babies lack a nervous system inside their colon because the neural crest cells didn’t make it all the way to the end of the digestive tract during embryogenesis. The condition is lethal if not surgically treated at birth and its causes remain unknown in more than half of cases.
Among the identified genes involved in Hirschsprung disease, one has stood out for more than half a century: the peptide endothelin 3. Mice and humans with genetic defects in either endothelin 3 or its receptor EDNRB develop the disease, in some cases accompanied with pigmentation or craniofacial defects.
Discovery of unique brain tumor subtypes offers hope for targeted glioma therapies
Researchers have uncovered the mechanisms behind three unique subtypes of mismatch repair deficient high-grade gliomas. The findings provide a clearer understanding of how these tumors develop, explain why patients respond differently to immunotherapy, and are already helping guide more precise therapies.
High-grade gliomas are a group of aggressive brain tumors and one of the deadliest tumors in children and young adults. In some children, the tumors are driven by mismatch repair deficiency (MMRD), which is characterized by hypermutation (a large and quickly accumulating number of mutations in tumor cells) and resistance to standard treatments such as chemotherapy and radiation.
Tumors driven by mismatch repair deficiency are known as primary mismatch repair deficient high‑grade gliomas (priMMRD‑HGG). Because priMMRD-HGG have high numbers of mutations, treatment has shifted to immunotherapy, which uses the body’s own immune system to fight cancer by targeting cancer cells.
This Brain Experiment Made People Choose Others Over Themselves
Scientists found that synchronizing activity between two brain regions made people more generous.
A new study suggests that synchronizing activity in specific parts of the brain can make people more likely to act generously. Research published today (February 10) in the open-access journal PLOS Biology reports that stimulating two brain regions in a coordinated way increased altruistic behavior. The study was led by Jie Hu of East China Normal University in China, working with colleagues from the University of Zurich in Switzerland.
Why some people are more altruistic than others.
Scientists Have Discovered a Protein That Reverses Brain Aging in The Lab
Our brains age along with the rest of our bodies, and as they do, they produce fewer new brain cells. Now, researchers have found a key mechanism through which the typical age-related decline in neuron production might be slowed.
In later life, the neural stem cells (NSCs) that turn into fully fledged neurons become more dormant – almost as if they’re going into retirement after a long lifetime of service. As that happens, cognitive decline creeps in.
A major reason why NSC activity fades with age is the wear and tear on telomeres, the protective caps on the ends of DNA. Telomeres fray a little more each time a cell divides, and over time, this impairs cells’ ability to grow and divide, leading to increasing cell death.
The ‘Miracle Mineral Solution’—amazing cure or toxic illusion?
Miracle Mineral Solution, also known as MMS, has been marketed for years as a purported miracle cure for various conditions, including cancer, autism, and COVID-19. MMS is the marketing name for sodium chlorite (NaClO₂), a powerful disinfectant used, among other things, for water treatment. When sodium chlorite is acidified, chlorine dioxide (ClO₂) is formed. Its consumption can be hazardous to health.
A team of scientists from Wroclaw Medical University decided to investigate this.
In a study published in Scientific Reports, they analyzed the effects of acidified sodium chlorite (ASC), from which ClO₂ is produced.
“The Bioelectric Interface to the Collective Intelligence of Morphogenesis” by Michael Levin
This is a ~57 minute talk titled “The Bioelectric Interface to the Collective Intelligence of Morphogenesis: development, regeneration, cancer, and beyond” which I gave at a UCSF seminar for an audience of graduate students and post-docs in Biophysics, Bioinformatics, and Chemical Biology. I covered the role of bioelectricity as cognitive glue underlying high-level adaptive plasticity in living tissue, recent progress in exploiting that interface, and new developments in research platforms for this field.
Michael Levin: Novel Embodiments of Mind: Natural, Bioengineered, and Hybrid Interfaces
This is an invited talk in BAMΞ’s Mathematical Phenomenology Sprint.
Cf. https://bamxi.org/research-activities/mathematical-phenomenology-sprint/
Organizing Institutions:
Bamberg Mathematical Consciousness Science Initiative (BAMΞ) https://bamxi.org.
& Association for Mathematical Consciousness Science (AMCS) https://amcs-community.org