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Category: neuroscience – Page 203

For decades, neuroscientists have been trying to understand how we manage to make the best possible decisions. Due to technical limitations, researchers have so far had to rely on experiments in which monkeys perform tasks on computer screens while the activity of their brain cells is measured.

The animals are trained to sit still in a chair and are therefore restricted in their natural freedom of movement. Since it is now possible to wirelessly record the activity of several individual nerve cells, decision-making in scenarios with natural movement sequences can be investigated.

For the study, a team of researchers from Germany and the U.S. trained two rhesus monkeys to explore an experimental room with two button-controlled food boxes. Each time the monkeys pressed a button on one of the boxes, they had the chance to receive food pellets.

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A recent study conducted at Tel Aviv University has devised a large mechanical system that operates under dynamical rules akin to those found in quantum systems. The dynamics of quantum systems, composed of microscopic particles like atoms or electrons, are notoriously difficult, if not impossible, to observe directly.

However, this new system allows researchers to visualize occurring in specialized “topological” materials through the movement of a system of coupled pendula.

The research is a collaboration between Dr. Izhar Neder of the Soreq Nuclear Research Center, Chaviva Sirote-Katz of the Department of Biomedical Engineering, Dr. Meital Geva and Prof. Yair Shokef of the School of Mechanical Engineering, and Prof. Yoav Lahini and Prof. Roni Ilan of the School of Physics and Astronomy at Tel Aviv University and was recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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Bioresorbable neural implants offer a promising solution to the challenges of secondary surgeries required for the removal of implanted devices. Here, the authors introduce a fully bioresorbable flexible hybrid opto-electronic system for simultaneous electrophysiological recording and optogenetic stimulation.

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science images
This year, Rockefeller scientists plumbed the depths of wound repair and tackled how songbirds solve problems; they used microchips to grow mini-lungs and proposed an environmental trigger for multiple sclerosis. Efforts to combat COVID, Hepatitis B, and other infections bore fruit, and countless papers shed light on basic research, answering questions that have long baffled biologists. Here are some of the intriguing discoveries that came out of Rockefeller in 2023.

Old sperm, new mutations

As the male reproductive system ages, it becomes more and more susceptible to mutations. New research from the laboratory of Li Zhao explored this phenomenon in fruit flies, by focusing on how mutations arise during the formation of sperm. The team found that, while mutations are common in the testes of both young and old flies, the repair mechanisms that remove those mutations and maintain genomic integrity during spermatogenesis become less efficient in older individuals, leading to the accumulation and persistence of more mutations in older flies.

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Thrombolytic therapy administered longer after the onset of ischemic stroke than current recommendations did not demonstrate improved clinical outcomes as compared to placebo, according to a recent trial published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Minjee Kim, MD, associate professor in the Ken and Ruth Davee Department of Neurology’s Division of Neurocritical Care, was a co-author of the study.

Ischemic stroke occurs when a blood vessel supplying blood to the brain is blocked or reduced, and accounts for nearly 90% of all strokes, according to statistics from the American Stroke Association.

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The eyes have been called the window to the brain. It turns out they also serve as an immunological barrier that protects the organ from pathogens and even tumors, Yale researchers have found.

In a new study, researchers showed that vaccines injected into the eyes of mice can help disable the herpes virus, a major cause of brain encephalitis. To their surprise, the vaccine activates an immune response through lymphatic vessels along the optic nerve.

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Transplanting Whole Human Eyes To Restore Vision In Patients Who Are Blind Or Visually Impaired — Dr. Calvin Roberts, MD — Program Manager, Transplantation of Human Eye Allografts (THEA), Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H)

Dr. Calvin Roberts, M.D. is Program Manager at the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) where manages for the Transplantation of Human Eye Allografts (THEA — https://arpa-h.gov/research-and-fundi…) program, which aims to transplant whole human eyes to restore vision in patients who are blind or visually impaired by reconnecting the nerves, muscles and blood vessels of whole donor eyes to the brain.

Dr. Roberts joined ARPA-H in September 2023 from Lighthouse Guild International, where is the president and chief executive officer. Lighthouse Guild is a not-for-profit organization that provides programs and services to people who are blind or visually impaired.

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New Haven, Conn. — Contrary to popular belief, brain cells use a mix of analog and digital coding at the same time to communicate efficiently, according to a study by Yale School of Medicine researchers published this week in Nature.

This finding partially overturns a longstanding belief that each of the brain’s 100 billion neurons communicate strictly by a digital code. Analog systems represent signals continuously, while digital systems represent signals in the timing of pulses. Traditionally, many human-designed circuits operate exclusively in analog or in digital modes.

“This study reveals that the brain is very sophisticated in its operation, using a code that is more efficient than previously appreciated,” said David McCormick, professor in the Department of Neurobiology and senior author of the study. “This has widespread implications, not only for our basic understanding of how the brain operates, but also in our understanding of neuronal dysfunction.”

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