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Category: neuroscience – Page 307

Summary: Our ability to process sentences relies on the dynamic nature of working memory, where information is stored and integrated with our future intentions.

New research reveals that visual memories adapt according to our future use of that information. These findings challenge conventional theories arguing that our working memory’s neural codes remain unchanged over time.

Instead, the study reveals that our brains dynamically reformat these memories to better align with potential future actions based on these recollections.

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Summary: Researchers successfully mapped the neural activity of the C. elegans worm, correlating it to its behaviors such as movement and feeding.

Using novel technologies and methodologies, they developed a comprehensive atlas that showcases how most of the worm’s neurons encode its various actions.

This study provides an intricate look into how an animal’s nervous system controls behavior. The team’s findings, data, and models are available on the “WormWideWeb.”

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Researchers from The University of Queensland applied an algorithm from a video game to study the dynamics of molecules in living brain cells.

Dr. Tristan Wallis and Professor Frederic Meunier from UQ’s Queensland Brain Institute came up with the idea while in lockdown during the COVID-19.

First identified in 2019 in Wuhan, China, COVID-19, or Coronavirus disease 2019, (which was originally called “2019 novel coronavirus” or 2019-nCoV) is an infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). It has spread globally, resulting in the 2019–22 coronavirus pandemic.

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Brain age was estimated using an algorithm that combined multiple measures of brain structure obtained through MRI scans when the participants were 45 years old. This algorithm quantified the difference between estimated brain age and the participants’ chronological age, referred to as brain age gap estimate.

If the estimated brain age is higher than the chronological age, it suggests that the brain’s structural characteristics are more similar to those of an older individual. Conversely, if the estimated brain age is lower than the chronological age, the brain’s structural characteristics resemble those of a younger individual.

Lay-Yee and his colleagues also adjusted their analyses for various potential confounding factors. These included socio-demographic factors like sex and socio-economic status, as well as family factors (teen-aged mother, single parent, change in residence, maltreatment) and child-behavioral factors (self-control, worry/fearfulness).

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Scientists have used advanced imaging techniques to identify brain activity and regions linked to cognitive motor dissociation (CMD), or ‘hidden consciousness’. CMD is a state in which a person appears comatose and unresponsive while inwardly showing signs of conscious brain activity.

The findings, reported by a team from Columbia University in the US, may help doctors more easily identify CMD in the future, and better tailor treatments for people who can understand what’s being said to them but can’t respond to it.

CMD happens in around 15–25 percent of people with brain injuries from head trauma, brain hemorrhage, or cardiac arrest. In these patients, something breaks between the instructions coming from the brain and the muscles needed to carry those instructions out.

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