Designed by researchers at Northwestern University, Boston College and MIT.
Taking inspiration from the human brain, researchers from MIT have developed a new synaptic transistor capable of higher-level thinking.
Category: neuroscience – Page 255
“I believe we have found one of the brain’s prototypes for building sequences” says Professor Edvard Moser.
Scientists at NTNU’s Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience in Norway have discovered a pattern of activity in the brain that serves as a template for building sequential experiences.
“I believe we have found one of the brain’s prototypes for building sequences,” says Professor Edvard Moser. He describes the activity pattern as “a fundamental algorithm that is intrinsic to the brain and independent of experience.”
The breakthrough discovery was published in Nature.
A supercomputer scheduled to go online in April 2024 will rival the estimated rate of operations in the human brain, according to researchers in Australia. The machine, called DeepSouth, is capable of performing 228 trillion operations per second.
It’s the world’s first supercomputer capable of simulating networks of neurons and synapses (key biological structures that make up our nervous system) at the scale of the human brain.
DeepSouth belongs to an approach known as neuromorphic computing, which aims to mimic the biological processes of the human brain. It will be run from the International Center for Neuromorphic Systems at Western Sydney University.
A study uses MEA analysis, computation, and simulations to demonstrate how BDNF treatment after excitotoxic injury remodels hippocampal networks by promoting inhibitory neuron survival while indirectly strengthening weak excitatory synapses.
Researchers at The Park Center for Mental Health, Australia, have added to the growing body of evidence that cat ownership is a major risk factor for schizophrenia and quantified the risk at more than double. In a paper, “Cat Ownership and Schizophrenia-Related Disorders and Psychotic-Like Experiences: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis,” published in Schizophrenia Bulletin, the team details the connections between youth cat ownership and later-in-life schizophrenia-related diagnosis.
The researchers conducted an extensive study search across various databases and gray literature from January 1, 1980, to May 30, 2023, without geographical or language limitations. They included studies reporting original data on cat ownership and schizophrenia-related outcomes. Out of 1,915 identified studies, 17 were used from 11 different countries.
Cat ownership was associated with an increased risk of schizophrenia-related disorders. The unadjusted pooled odds ratio (OR) was 2.35, and the adjusted estimate was 2.24, indicating an over twofold increase in the odds of developing schizophrenia-related disorders among all individuals exposed to cats.
The interconnectedness of brain and body has tantalizing implications for our ability to both understand and treat illness.
A host of disorders once thought to be nothing to do with the brain are, in fact, tightly coupled to nervous-system activity.
Why are we mentally sharper at certain times of day? A study led by Jonathan Lipton MD, Ph.D., at Boston Children’s Hospital spells out the relationship between circadian rhythms—the body’s natural day/night cycles—and the brain connections known as synapses.
The work is the first to provide a cellular and molecular explanation for natural fluctuations over the day in alertness, cognition, and the ability to learn and remember.
“We have known for more than a century that the time of day influences cognition and memory, but until now the mechanisms have been elusive,” says Lipton, a sleep physician in the Department of Neurology and researcher in the F.M. Kirby Neurobiology Center.
In a year packed with fascinating discoveries, biologists pushed the limits of synthetic life, probed how organisms keep time, and refined theories about consciousness and emotional health.
Germany-based startup Zander Laboratories signed a contract worth €30 million ($32.9 million) to develop neurotechnological prototypes. Zander signed the contract with The German Agency for Innovation…