Lifeboat Foundation

Imagine a world where every conceivable facet of your reality is nothing more than sensory experience devoid of any real meaning; And that your emotions, organs, and even your closest relationships were nothing but pleasurable impulses being transmitted directly into your brain.

This is the hypothesis posited by the Brain in a Vat theory. If an evil scientist (or rich transhumanist, whichever you prefer) were to take your brain, submerge it in a jar or vat of nutrients, in theory, you could be force fed the information you process on a daily basis.

If your neurons were connected to some type of hardware and/or software that could continuously provide the necessary stimuli, you’d be ripe for this process.

Discover the intriguing findings that shed light on the significance of brain shape and its influence on brain activity.

Groundbreaking research conducted by a team of Australian scientists suggests that the shape of our brains may affect us more than we think. Nobody wonders if their brain shape is an important parameter. Most people attribute brain size to behaviors even more.

However, it turns out that shape has a more significant impact on our thoughts and behavior than the connections and signals between neurons.

Continue reading “Brain Shape’s surprising impact on thoughts and behavior, study reveals” »

Severe brain injuries or head traumas in humans can lead to various stages of so-called disorders of consciousness (DoC). These are states in which consciousness is either partly or entirely absent, such as a coma; unresponsive wakefulness syndrome, also known as a vegetative state; and minimally conscious state.

Accurately evaluating patients who have lost consciousness is of crucial importance, as it allows doctors to determine what treatments to administer and how to facilitate the re-emergence of consciousness. Typically, to clinically evaluate consciousness, doctors observe the behavior of patients in response to sensory stimuli, such as sounds or images.

For instance, while patients in a vegetative state are awake but continue to be unresponsive to external stimuli, patients with MCS exhibit some behaviors that indicate that they are conscious. So far, most methods to assess the consciousness level of patients rely on sounds or visual stimuli, yet olfactory stimuli could potentially prove useful too.

In a new landmark study, University of Minnesota research shows surprising links between human cognition and personality—pillars of human individuality that shape who we are and how we interact with the world. Personality influences our actions, emotions and thoughts, defining whether we are extroverted, polite, persistent, curious or anxious.

On the other hand, cognitive ability is the umbrella that reflects our capability for navigating complexity, such as articulating language, grasping intricate mathematics and drawing logical conclusions. Despite the prevailing belief that certain connections exist—for instance, introverted individuals are often perceived as more intelligent—scientists lacked a comprehensive understanding of these intricate connections.

The research, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, synthesizes data from over 1,300 studies from the past century, representing more than 2 million participants from 50 countries and integrating data from academic journals, test manuals, military databases, previously unpublished datasets and even proprietary databases of private companies.

Researchers from Zhejiang University, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Northwest University, and Yunnan University, Aarhus University, and BGI-Research have jointly led a series of significant new studies are published in a special issue of the journal Science, and in papers in Nature Ecology & Evolution and Science Advances.

Co-led by Guojie Zhang from Centre for Evolutionary & Organismal Biology at Zhejiang University, Dong-Dong Wu at Kunming Institute of Zoology, Xiao-Guang Qi at Northwest University, Li Yu at Yunnan University, Mikkel Heide Schierup at Aarhus University, and Yang Zhou at BGI-Research, the Primate Genome Consortium reported a series of publications from its first phase program. The program includes high quality reference genomes from 50 primate species, of which 27 were sequenced for the first time. These studies provide new insights on the speciation process, genomic diversity, social evolution, sex chromosomes, and the evolution of the brain and other biological traits.

The comparative analysis of primate genomes within a phylogenetic context is crucial for understanding the evolution of the human genetic architecture and the inter-species genomic differences associated with primate diversification. Previous studies of primate genomes have focused mainly on primate species closely related to humans and were constrained by the lack of broader phylogenetic coverage.

A chemical reaction with the body’s own sugars turned a gel cocktail into a conducting material inside zebrafish brains, hearts and tail fins.

New research may upend our understanding of the brain, showing that travelling waves of neuronal excitation dominate the activity associated with our thoughts and feelings.

But they’re not the only ones. Multiple companies are working on haptic devices, like gloves or vests, to add a sense of touch to virtual experiences. And now, researchers are aiming to integrate a fourth sense: smell.

How much more real might that peaceful meadow feel if you could smell the wildflowers and the damp Earth around you? How might the scent of an ocean breeze amplify a VR experience that takes place on a boat or a beach?

Scents have a powerful effect on the brain, eliciting emotions, memories, and sometimes even fight-or-flight responses. You may feel nostalgic with the cologne or perfume a favorite grandparent wore, comforted by a whiff of a favorite food, or extra-alert to your surroundings if it smells like something’s burning.

By implanting electrodes into the brains of grasshoppers, scientists were able to harness the insects’ sense of smell for the purpose of explosive detection.