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Category: neuroscience – Page 154
NAQI: Northeastern University scientists have discovered that a protein in the human brain could potentially be used to grow new neurons in the lab and enhance brain processes affected by aging or neurodegenerative diseases
In their study, published in Mechanobiology in Medicine, the researchers discovered that the protein responsible for binding neural stem cells in the human brain, neuro-cadherin, also plays a key role in stimulating their differentiation.
Neural stem cells are early-stage, unspecialized cells that have the ability to differentiate, or develop, into various types of neurons and non-neuronal cells of the central nervous system.
Technology use by older adults linked to reduced dementia risk
As the first generation that interacted with digital technology reaches an age where dementia risks emerge, scientists have asked the question: Is there a correlation between digital technology use and an increased risk of dementia? With the phrases “brain rot” and “brain drain” circulating on social media, it would appear that most people would assume the answer is yes.
However, a new study in Nature Human Behavior by neuroscientists at Baylor University and the University of Texas at Austin Dell Medical School reveals the opposite—digital technologies are actually associated with reduced cognitive decline.
The study, “A meta-analysis of technology use and cognitive aging,” was sparked by the ongoing concern about the passive activity of digital technologies and their relation to accelerating risks of dementia. Study co-authors are Jared F. Benge, Ph.D., clinical neuropsychologist and associate professor of neurology at Dell Medical School and UT Health Austin’s Comprehensive Memory Center within the Mulva Clinic for the Neurosciences, and Michael K. Scullin, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology and neuroscience at Baylor.
Human Brains Take Longer to Wire Up Than Simian Ones
Human brains make synaptic connections throughout much of childhood, and the brain’s plasticity enables humans to slowly wire them based upon experiences, contrary to how chimpanzees develop. Humans and chimpanzees share 98.8% of the same genes, but scientists have been looking for what drives the unique cognitive and social skills of humans.
A new study, which was published today in Genome Research, that examined brain samples from humans, chimpanzees, and macaques, collected from birth up to the end of their life span, has found some key differences between the expression of genes that control the development and function of synapses, which are the connections between neurons through which information flows.
