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Category: neuroscience – Page 161

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Personal identity seems so strong. We have the same sense of ourselves throughout our lives, even though everything about our physical bodies and brains is changing constantly. What then causes the continuity of personal identity? Where does transhumanism fit in? Some say personal identity is an illusion, but that seems like cheating. Others credit a nonphysical soul. That seems as though it’s cheating too.

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Natasha Vita-More is a faculty member in design, media arts, and theory at the University of Advancing Technology. She is a strategic designer in the area of human enhancement and life extension. Her interests are located within the ethical uses of science and technology and socio-political implications of revolutionary advances impacting humanity’s future.

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Closer To Truth, hosted by Robert Lawrence Kuhn and directed by Peter Getzels, presents the world’s greatest thinkers exploring humanity’s deepest questions. Discover fundamental issues of existence. Engage new and diverse ways of thinking. Appreciate intense debates. Share your own opinions. Seek your own answers.

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Researchers have developed a new two-photon fluorescence microscope that captures high-speed images of neural activity at cellular resolution. By imaging much faster and with less harm to brain tissue than traditional two-photon microscopy, the new approach could provide a clearer view of how neurons communicate in real time, leading to new insights into brain function and neurological diseases.

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Cornell University research demonstrates that sleep resets the hippocampus, enabling continuous learning and offering new strategies for treating memory-related disorders.

While everyone knows that a good night’s sleep restores energy, a new Cornell University study finds it resets another vital function: memory.

Learning or experiencing new things activates neurons in the hippocampus, a region of the brain vital for memory. Later, while we sleep, those same neurons repeat the same pattern of activity, which is how the brain consolidates those memories that are then stored in a large area called the cortex. But how is it that we can keep learning new things for a lifetime without using up all of our neurons?

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Like a computer system with built-in redundancies, a study has revealed that brains use three different sets of neurons to store a single memory. The finding could one day help soften painful memories in people who’ve suffered trauma.

By imaging the brains of mice, researchers at the University of Basel’s Biozentrum, were able to watch what happens when a new memory is formed. What they found was that the rodent brains called three different sets of neurons into action to record the memory. The first are known as early-born neurons and are the earliest to develop as a fetus is growing. At the other end of the spectrum are the late-born neurons, which show up late in embryonic development. Between these are neurons that form somewhere right in the middle of growth in the womb.

The imaging study revealed that when the new memory is stored in the early-born neurons, it is initially hard to retrieve, but it becomes stronger as time goes on.

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ABOVE: Researchers recapitulate electrical gradients in vitro to help guide stem cell differentiation for neural regeneration. ©istock, Cappan.

The dance of development is electric. Bioelectrical gradients choreograph embryonic growth, signaling to stem cells what cell types they should become, where they should travel, who their neighbors should be, and what structures they should form.1 The intensity and location of these signals serve as an electrical scaffold to map out anatomical features and guide development. Bioelectricity also shapes tissue regeneration.2 Tapping into these mechanisms is of special interest to researchers who grapple with the challenge of regenerating injured nerves.3

One such curious team from Stanford University and the University of Arizona recently reported a new approach using electrically conductive hydrogels to induce differentiation of human mesenchymal stem cells into neurons and oligodendrocytes in vitro.4 Their findings, published in the Journal of Materials Chemistry B, provide important proof of principle for future studies of biocompatible materials to electrically augment transplanted and endogenous cells after injury.

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Robert J. Sternberg has devoted much of his career to the study of various conceptions of human intelligence. Starting with his Triarchic Theory of Human Intelligence (Sternberg, 1985), he has expanded on his view of human ability and success. Successful intelligence is defined as that set of mental abilities used to achieve one’s goals in life, given a socio-cultural context, through adaptation to, selection of, and shaping of environments. Successful intelligence involves three aspects that are interrelated but largely distinct: analytical, creative, and practical thinking (Sternberg, 1998). Practical Intelligence is the ability to size up a situation well, to be able to determine how to achieve goals, to display awareness to the world around you, and to display interest in the world at large (Sternberg, 1990; Sternberg et al., 2000; Wagner, 2000). Prof. Sternberg is working on several projects that examine the interrelation of his various conceptions of ability in applied settings.

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