A recent study published in NeuroImage reveals that while human brains naturally synchronize during cooperative video games, this mental alignment does not guarantee success. High neural synchrony was actually linked to worse strategic performance.
Category: neuroscience
Which genes make people more susceptible to depression and other psychiatric disorders?
A study by the University of Barcelona has identified nearly 20 genes that could contribute to some people being more susceptible to depression, anxiety and traits such as irritability and neuroticism. These genes are regulated by the RBFOX1 gene, which acts as the central hub of a genetic network linked to several key processes in brain function. According to the researchers, this genetic overlap between different disorders and traits could help explain why they often appear together in the same person.
“These results provide a new insight into the biological mechanisms shared by depression and various associated disorders, and could contribute in the future to the development of more personalized biomarkers and treatments,” explain the researchers who coordinated the study, Bru Cormand and Noèlia Fernández, from the Department of Genetics, Microbiology and Statistics at the Faculty of Biology and the Institute of Biomedicine of the UB (IBUB), the Sant Joan de Déu Research Institute (IRSJD) and the CIBER Area for Rare Diseases (CIBERER).
The study, published in the journal Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry, also involved researchers from Goethe University Frankfurt (Germany).
Immune therapy for Alzheimer’s takes a step forward: Phase I trial reports positive results
Dozens of research teams around the world are working to halt, treat and even prevent Alzheimer’s disease, which silently develops in the brain for more than a decade before symptoms appear. Although recent years have brought important advances, researchers continue to search for therapies that can more effectively alter the course of Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia.
Professor Michal Schwartz of the Weizmann Institute of Science’s Brain Sciences Department has developed an innovative strategy for treating Alzheimer’s disease. A recipient of the Israel Prize in Life Sciences, Schwartz pioneered research showing that the body’s most protected organ—the brain—is tightly dependent on the immune system for its lifelong functioning, maintenance and repair.
These findings overturned the long-held dogma that the brain was entirely isolated from immune activity and that any immune activity within the brain was inherently detrimental and should therefore be suppressed.
The future of neurotechnology | Sri Sarma | TEDxBoston
NOTE FROM TED: This talk only represents the speaker’s personal approach to and understanding of neural systems, technology, and defense. TEDx events are independently organized by volunteers. The guidelines we give TEDx organizers are described in more detail here: http://storage.ted.com/tedx/manuals/t…
Autonomous systems can process vast amounts of information—but they struggle when the unexpected happens. The human brain, by contrast, thrives in uncertainty. In this provocative talk, Sri Sarma reveals how merging machine intelligence with living neural systems could create a new class of adaptive technologies, from resilient autonomous vehicles to precision therapies that operate inside the human body. The nations that lead this future in \.
Two hours of sleep restored: Researchers make Alzheimer’s breakthrough
There’s a small fire isolated in your kitchen. If you had the right tool, you might be able to put it out. But before you can, the sprinklers turn on and flood your entire house. An automatic response to an issue has now damaged everything you own.
That’s akin to what happens in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s: Amyloid plaques, sticky protein clumps that build up in the brain, are the fire in the kitchen. Microglia, the brain’s resident immune cells, are the sprinklers. A mechanism designed to protect the body ends up hurting it.
Researchers at the University of Kentucky have discovered this harmful process for the first time—and figured out how to turn it off.