Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog

Category: neuroscience – Page 20

Ozempic can reduce metabolic risks in schizophrenia patients, multicenter study finds

Semaglutide medications like Ozempic and Wegovy can help lower the risk of heart and metabolic diseases in people with schizophrenia spectrum disorders, according to a study published in JAMA Psychiatry.

Glucagon-like peptide–1 receptor agonist (GLP-1RAs) drugs, such as semaglutide, mimic the natural gut hormone GLP-1 that regulates hunger and food intake. By activating GLP-1 receptors in the brain, the drug reduces hunger and slows gastric emptying, helping one feel full longer. It also enhances glucose-dependent insulin secretion, thereby improving blood sugar control.

Researchers in Denmark recruited 73 adults taking antipsychotic medications who were showing early signs of diabetes and had an average BMI of 36, which falls in the category of obesity. The participants, aged 18 to 65 years, were randomly assigned to receive either weekly semaglutide injections or a placebo for 6.5 months.

Astrocyte diversity across space and time charted in new atlas

When it comes to brain function, neurons get a lot of the glory. But healthy brains depend on the cooperation of many kinds of cells. The most abundant of the brain’s non-neuronal cells are astrocytes, star-shaped cells with a lot of responsibilities. Astrocytes help shape neural circuits, participate in information processing, and provide nutrient and metabolic support to neurons. Individual cells can take on new roles throughout their lifetimes, and at any given time, the astrocytes in one part of the brain will look and behave differently than the astrocytes somewhere else.

After an extensive analysis by researchers at MIT, neuroscientists now have an atlas detailing astrocytes’ dynamic diversity. Its maps depict the regional specialization of astrocytes across the brains of both mice and marmosets—two powerful models for neuroscience research—and show how their populations shift as brains develop, mature, and age.

The open-access study, reported in the Nov. 20 issue of the journal Neuron, was led by Guoping Feng, the James W. (1963) and Patricia T. Poitras Professor of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT.

Reconfigurable platform slows lights for on-chip photonic engineering

Integrated circuits are the brains behind modern electronic devices like computers or smart phones. Traditionally, these circuits—also known as chips—rely on electricity to process data. In recent years, scientists have turned their attention to photonic chips, which perform similar tasks using light instead of electricity to improve speed and energy efficiency.

Researchers Use Virus To Trace Psilocybin’s Effects Across the Entire Brain

An international collaboration led by Cornell researchers used a combination of psilocybin and the rabies virus to map how – and where – the psychedelic compound rewires the connections in the brain.

Specifically, they showed psilocybin weakens the cortico-cortical feedback loops that can lock people into negative thinking. Psilocybin also strengthens pathways to subcortical regions that turn sensory perceptions into action, essentially enhancing sensory-motor responses.

The findings published Dec. 5 in Cell. The lead author is postdoctoral researcher Quan Jiang.

New tech called ‘mind captioning’ turns thoughts and mental images into simple text

Although scientists have made progress using brain-activity scans to convert the words we think into text, translating the rich, complex images in our minds into language is still far more difficult, says lead author Tomoyasu Horikawa.

Horikawa calls this approach “mind captioning” because the system turns distinct patterns of human brain activity into short text captions.

Earlier experiments often used the label “mind reading” and focused on easier tasks, such as guessing which object someone was viewing from a short list or matching brain activity to spoken words.

I Don’t Recognize Myself Anymore // Dark Ambient Mix

I am many.

A dark ambient journey through feeling lost, detached, and emotionally numb.
use this mix for late-night thoughts, study, writing, sleep or to to calm down.
→▫️support me on ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/blackridge.

→ download on bandcamp: https://blackridgeofficial.bandcamp.com/track/i-dont-recognize-myself-anymore.
→ get the wallpapers: https://ko-fi.com/s/a9d71bee15

#darkambient #backrooms #sad #liminalspace #sleep.

All audio has been modified, mixed, and mastered by blackridge.

Continue reading “I Don’t Recognize Myself Anymore // Dark Ambient Mix” | >

For those living with dementia, new study suggests shingles vaccine could slow the disease

An unusual public health policy in Wales may have produced the strongest evidence yet that a vaccine can reduce the risk of dementia. In a new study led by Stanford Medicine, researchers analyzing the health records of Welsh older adults discovered that those who received the shingles vaccine were 20% less likely to develop dementia over the next seven years than those who did not receive the vaccine.

The remarkable findings, published April 2 in Nature, support an emerging theory that viruses that affect the nervous system can increase the risk of dementia. If further confirmed, the new findings suggest that a preventive intervention for dementia is already close at hand.

In a follow-up study published Dec. 2 in Cell, the researchers found that the vaccine may also benefit those already diagnosed with dementia by slowing the progress of the disease.

/* */