New longitudinal research shows that Alzheimer’s disease blood biomarkers rise up to 95 percent faster in people with obesity than in those without.
Category: neuroscience – Page 27
How Gen Z is fighting back against digital brain rot
“Brain rot is not really rotting our brains,” says Earl Miller, a cognitive neuroscientist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “It’s constantly creating an environment that our brains are not equipped to deal with—that’s the real problem.
From analog hobbies to tech curfews, these Gen Zers are experimenting with science-backed ways to help their brains feel a little less foggy.
Environmental stiffness regulates neuronal maturation
When thinking, the human brain performs a true masterpiece of information processing: around 100 billion neurons communicate with each other via approximately 100 trillion connections. An international team of researchers has discovered that the mechanical properties of the developing brain influence both synapse formation and the emergence of electrical signals. The findings could open up new approaches to understanding neurodevelopmental disorders.
In the brain, highly specific connections called synapses link nerve cells and transmit electrical signals in a targeted manner. Despite decades of research, how synapses form during brain development is still not fully understood. Now, an international research team has discovered that the mechanical properties of the brain play a significant role in this developmental process. In a study recently published in Nature Communications, the scientists showed how the ability of neurons to detect stiffness is related to molecular mechanisms that regulate neuronal development.
The developing brain is generally very soft, like cream cheese, but its stiffness varies across regions. In African clawed frog (Xenopus laevis) embryos, the researchers found that softer regions exhibit higher synapse densities, while stiffer regions show lower densities.
Scientists Discover a Way to ‘Recharge’ Aging Human Cells
New research shows how human cells can be effectively ‘recharged’ by replacing their internal batteries – microscopic power stations called mitochondria – and the discovery could have wide-ranging benefits across healthcare and medical treatments.
The stacks of mitochondria in most of our cells naturally decline in numbers, slow down, and wear out with age. Once they start operating below peak capacity, they can contribute to multiple diseases everywhere from the heart to the brain.
In this latest study, researchers from Texas A&M University used special flower-shaped particles called nanoflowers to scavenge damaging oxygen molecules, triggering genes that increase the number of mitochondria in human stem cells.
Study probes ‘covert consciousness’
Ricardo Iriart last saw his wife conscious four years ago. Every day since, he has visited Ángeles, often spending hours talking to her in hopes that she could hear him.
Over the last year, he’s gotten a new understanding of his wife’s condition, participating in cutting-edge research into “covert consciousness.” It’s an emerging field of study that probes what patients with disorders of consciousness can comprehend, even when they can’t respond.
Earlier this year, the University of Pittsburgh became the first research institution in the U.S. to use an Austrian device called the mindBeagle in a clinical trial of covert consciousness.
Electrotherapy using injectable nanoparticles offers hope for glioblastoma treatment
Electrotherapy using injectable nanoparticles delivered directly into the tumor could pave the way for new treatment options for glioblastoma, according to a new study from Lund University in Sweden.
Glioblastoma is the most common and most aggressive form of brain tumor among adults. Even with intensive treatment, the average survival period is 15 months. The tumor has a high genetic variation with multiple mutations, which often makes it resistant to radiation therapy, chemotherapy and many targeted drugs. The prognosis for glioblastoma has not improved over the past few decades despite extensive research.
Switching risk and protective alleles improves Alzheimer’s-disease-like signatures and disruptions in mice
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by the progressive degradation of brain cells, as well as an associated decline in memory and other mental functions. Earlier research found that different forms (i.e., alleles) of a gene known as apolipoprotein E (APOE) are associated with an increased or decreased risk of developing AD.
The APOE gene can be mutated into different variants (i.e., alleles), including APOE2, APOE3 and APOE4. Past studies have linked the presence of two APOE4 alleles to a higher risk of developing AD, while two APOE2 alleles were linked to a significantly lower risk of AD.
Researchers at the University of Kentucky and other institutes genetically engineered a type of mouse that carries a genetic “switch” that can be activated with a drug and that converts the harmful APOE4 allele into the protective APOE2 allele.
Natural language found more complex than it strictly needs to be—and for good reason
Human languages are complex phenomena. Around 7,000 languages are spoken worldwide, some with only a handful of remaining speakers, while others, such as Chinese, English, Spanish and Hindi, are spoken by billions. Despite their profound differences, they all share a common function: they convey information by combining individual words into phrases—groups of related words—which are then assembled into sentences. Each of these units has its own meaning, which in combination ultimately form a comprehensible whole.
“This is actually a very complex structure. Since the natural world tends toward maximizing efficiency and conserving resources, it’s perfectly reasonable to ask why the brain encodes linguistic information in such an apparently complicated way instead of digitally, like a computer,” explains Michael Hahn.
Hahn, Professor of Computational Linguistics at Saarland University, has been examining this question together with his colleague Richard Futrell from the University of California, Irvine. The paper is published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour.
Debate on Mind-Brain Relation: Searle vs Eccles
John Searle and Sir John Eccles discuss the relationship between the mind and the brain. This is from a 1984 program called Voices. The host was Ted Honderich.
#philosophy #consciousness #philosophyofmind #johnsearle #eccles #science #materialism #debate
Switch Turns Brain’s Defenses Into Protectors Against Alzheimer’s
Specific immune cells in the brain may play a crucial role in preventing the onset of Alzheimer’s disease, according to a new study – a discovery that could lead to new therapies that try to coax cells into this protective state.
Earlier studies have shown that immune cells in the brain called microglia can effectively tackle the symptoms of Alzheimer’s, but also make them worse through inflammation.
Here, an international team of scientists took a detailed look at how microglia switch between those two helpful and harmful modes.