Lifeboat Foundation

We’ve all experienced brain fog and the drowsiness that comes with getting too little sleep. But what exactly happens in our brain during sleep that prepares us for another day in the morning? To understand how the brain disposes of so-called “metabolic waste”, teams of researchers are working on a study with $2.8 million funding from the U.S. Army who is looking to combat sleep disorders among the military. The scientists’ ultimate aim is to develop a “sleeping cap” that would analyze how fluids within the brain may be flushing out toxic, memory-impairing proteins while you sleep. The sleeping cap that the researchers aim to create would be lightweight and portable, with the ability to both track and stimulate the flow of the cerebrospinal fluid. In this way, the researchers hope to be able to treat sleeping disorders as they happen. all experienced brain fog and the drowsiness that comes with getting too little sleep. But what exactly happens in our brain during sleep that prepares us for another day in the morning? To understand how the brain disposes of so-called “metabolic waste”, teams of researchers are working on a study with a $2.8 million funding from the U.S. Army who is looking to combat sleep disorders among the military. The scientists’ ultimate aim is to develop a “sleeping cap” that would analyze how fluids within the brain may be flushing out toxic, memory-impairing proteins while you sleep.

The structural integrity of the brain’s white matter as measured with an advanced MRI technique is lower in cognitively normal people who carry a genetic mutation associated with Alzheimer’s disease than it is in non-carriers, according to a study in Radiology. Researchers said the findings show the promise of widely available imaging techniques in helping to understand early structural changes in the brain before symptoms of dementia become apparent.

People who carry the autosomal dominant Alzheimer disease (ADAD) mutation have a higher risk of Alzheimer’s disease, a type of dementia that affects about one in nine people in the United States. The mutation is linked to a buildup of abnormal protein called amyloid-beta in the brain that affects both the gray matter and the signal-carrying white matter.

“It’s thought that the amyloid deposition in the gray matter could disrupt its function, and as a result the white matter won’t function correctly or could even atrophy,” said study lead author Jeffrey W. Prescott, M.D., Ph.D., neuroradiologist at the MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland.

Continue reading “Brain’s White Matter Integrity Disrupted in People With Alzheimer’s Gene Mutation” »

Findings from study believed to be largest of its kind contradict smaller studies showing treatment’s promise.

Regular doses of the hormone oxytocin do not appear to overcome deficits in social functioning among children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), suggests a study funded by the National Institutes of Health. The findings contradict earlier reports that indicated the hormone could alleviate the difficulties in social functioning characteristic of ASD. Oxytocin is associated with empathy and social bonding. The study was conducted by Linmarie Sikich, M.D., of Duke University, and colleagues. It appears in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Funding was provided by NIH’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences.

Continue reading “Oxytocin does not improve social functioning in children with autism spectrum disorder, NIH-funded study suggests” »

“Lower levels of DHA are associated with inflammation, cardiovascular and brain disorders, such as depression, which are all linked to migraine risk.”

Professor Nyholt said LPE(20:4) was a chemical compound that blocked the production of an anti-inflammatory molecule called anandamide.

Summary: Researchers have identified causal genetic links to three blood metabolite levels that increase migraine risks.

Continue reading “Migraines Caused by Alterations in Metabolite Levels” »

Human Brain atlas.

From robotic hands to brain-like computers, the Human Brain Project has produced some intriguing results.

Continue reading “The Human Brain Project: six achievements of Europe’s largest neuroscience programme” »

Aspirin is a blood thinner & can help head off heart attacks and strokes by preventing clots from forming in the blood vessels that lead to the heart or brain.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force’s proposed changes to recommendations for using low-dose aspirin to prevent a first heart attack or stroke closely align with guidelines from the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association.

Endocrine disrupting chemicals cause adverse effects in animals. But limited scientific information exists on potential health problems in humans. Because people are typically exposed to multiple at the same time, assessing public health effects is difficult.

Many chemicals, both natural and man-made, may mimic or interfere with the body’s hormones, known as the endocrine system. Called endocrine disruptors, these chemicals are linked with developmental, reproductive, brain, immune, and other problems.

Continue reading “Endocrine Disruptors” »

New research, published in the journal Patterns and led by the University of Glasgow’s School of Psychology and Neuroscience, uses 3D modeling to analyze the way Deep Neural Networks—part of the broader family of machine learning—process information, to visualize how their information processing matches that of humans.

It is hoped this new work will pave the way for the creation of more dependable AI technology that will process information like humans and make errors that we can understand and predict.

One of the challenges still facing AI development is how to better understand the process of machine thinking, and whether it matches how humans process information, in order to ensure accuracy. Deep Neural Networks are often presented as the current best model of human decision-making behavior, achieving or even exceeding human performance in some tasks. However, even deceptively simple visual discrimination tasks can reveal clear inconsistencies and errors from the AI models, when compared to humans.

O.o! Circa 2019

The real issue raised is not about brain transplants or sci-fi fantasies of reanimation of corpses. It is about how we define life and death.

Continue reading “The recent ‘brain reanimation’ experiment on pigs is fascinating but not for the reason you think” »