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Category: neuroscience – Page 119

Aging is a universal experience, evident through changes like wrinkles and graying hair. However, aging goes beyond the surface; it begins within our cells. Over time, our cells gradually lose their ability to perform essential functions, leading to a decline that affects every part of our bodies, from our cognitive abilities to our immune health.

To understand how cellular changes lead to age-related disorders, Calico scientists are using advanced RNA sequencing to map molecular changes in individual cells over time in the roundworm, C. elegans. Much like mapping networks of roads and landscapes, we’re charting the complexities of our biology. These atlases uncover cell characteristics, functions, and interactions, providing deeper insights into how our bodies age.

In the early 1990s, Cynthia Kenyon, Vice President of Aging Research at Calico, and her former team at UCSF discovered genes in C. elegans that control lifespan; these genes, which influence IGF1 signaling, function similarly to extend lifespan in many other organisms, including mammals. The genetic similarities between this tiny worm and more complex animals make it a useful model for studying the aging process. In work published in Cell Reports last year, our researchers created a detailed map of gene activity in every cell of the body of C. elegans throughout its development, providing a comprehensive blueprint of its cellular diversity and functions. They found that aging is an organized process, not merely random deterioration. Each cell type follows its own aging path, with many activating cell-specific protective gene expression pathways, and with some cell types aging faster than others. Even within the same cell type, the rate of aging can vary.

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Summary: A new study reveals that the epigenetic state of neurons determines their role in memory formation. Neurons with open chromatin states are more likely to be recruited into memory traces, showing higher electrical activity during learning.

Researchers demonstrated that manipulating these epigenetic states in mice can enhance or impair learning. This discovery shifts the focus from synaptic plasticity to nuclear processes, offering potential new avenues for treating cognitive disorders.

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There is also chaotic computation.

The study “Chaotic neural dynamics facilitate probabilistic computations through sampling,” published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), explores how the brain’s inherent chaos aids in processing information.

RIKEN researchers have developed a model to explain how the brain computes probabilities using chaotic dynamics.

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July 17, 2024 – The changes can begin in middle age, but they’re not usually noticeable until decades later. By age 60 and beyond, the changes can pick up speed and may become obvious.

“As we get older, our brain actually starts to shrink and lose mass,” said Marc Milstein, PhD, a Los Angeles brain health researcher. The start of that shrinkage, as well as the path it takes, can vary, said Milstein, who wrote The Age-Proof Brain.

“Starting at 40, our overall brain volume can start shrinking about 5% every 10 years,” he said. “Our brain has connections where our memories are stored, and as we age, we lose some of these connections. That can make it challenging to remember and to learn new information.”

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Discussion at the Moving Naturalism Forward workshop, October 2012. Participants include Sean Carroll, Jerry Coyne, Richard Dawkins, Terrence Deacon, Simon DeDeo, Daniel Dennett, Owen Flangan, Rebecca Goldstein, Janna Levin, David Poeppel, Massimo Pigliucci, Nicholas Pritzker, Alex Rosenberg, Don Ross, and Steven Weinberg.

Visit https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/.… for more information.

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Keith Frankish is an Honorary Reader at the University of Sheffield, UK, a Visiting Research Fellow with The Open University, UK, and an Adjunct Professor with the Brain and Mind Programme at the University of Crete. He specializes in philosophy of mind, philosophy of psychology, and philosophy of cognitive science. His books include Illusionism: As a Theory of Consciousness, Consciousness: the Basics, and Consciousness.

/ friction.
/ discord.
/ frictionphilo.

00:00 — Introduction.
01:29 — René Descartes.
08:40 — Illusionism vs. eliminativism.
12:50 — Behaviorism.
15:22 — Perceptions vs. qualia.
17:35 — Color perception.
24:15 — Illusion for whom?
30:39 — Explaining the illusion.
43:44 — Identity theorist response?
50:13 — Diet qualia.
52:06 — Demonstratives and recognitional concepts.
56:53 — Physicalism and illusionism.
1:00:29 — Conceivability and possibility.
1:10:50 — Weakening acquaintance.
1:14:20 — Functionalism.
1:19:17 — Daniel Dennett.
1:23:03 — Mary’s room.
1:29:35 — Conclusion.

Possibilities by Jay Someday / jaysomeday

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The idea of the brain as a computer is everywhere. So much so we have forgotten it is a model and not the reality. It’s a metaphor that has lead some to believe that in the future they’ll be uploaded to the digital ether and thereby achieve immortality. It’s also a metaphor that garners billions of dollars in research funding every year. Yet researchers argue that when we dig down into our grey matter our biology is anything but algorithmic. And increasingly, critics contend that the model of the brain as computer is sending scientists (and their resources) nowhere fast. Is our attraction to the idea of the brain as computer an accident of current human technology? Can we find a better metaphor that might lead to a new paradigm?

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If there’s one phrase the June 2024 U.S. presidential debate may entirely eliminate from the English vocabulary it’s that age is a meaningless number. Often attributed to boxer Muhammad Ali, who grudgingly retired at age 39, this centuries-old idea has had far-reaching consequences in global politics, as life expectancy more than doubled since the start of the 20th century, and presidents’ ages shifted upwards. We say “age is what we make of it” to ourselves and to policymakers, and think it’s a harmless way to dignify the aged. But how true is it? And if it isn’t true, why would we lie?

For centuries, we have confused our narrative of what aging should be with what its ruthless biology is. Yet pretending that biological age does not matter is at best myopic, and at worst, it’s a dangerous story to our governments, families, and economies. In just 11 years — between 2018 and 2029 — U.S. spending on Social Security and Medicare will more than double, from $1.3 trillion to $2.7 trillion per year. As we age, our odds of getting sick and dying by basically anything go up exponentially. If smoking increases our chances of getting cancer by a factor of 15, aging does so 100-fold. At age 65, less than 5% of people are diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Beyond age 85, nearly half the population has some form of dementia. Biological aging is the biggest risk factor for most chronic diseases; it’s a neglected factor in global pandemics; and it even plays a role in rare diseases.

This explains why in hospitals, if there’s one marker next to a patient’s name, it’s their age. How many birthday candles we have blown out is an archaic surrogate marker of biological aging. Yet it’s the best we have. Chronological age is so telling of overall health that physicians everywhere rely on it for life-or-death decisions, from evaluating the risks of cancer screening to rationing hospital beds.

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