Prosthetics moved by thoughts. Targeted treatments for aggressive brain cancer. Soldiers with enhanced vision or bionic ears.
These powerful technologies sound like science fiction, but they’re becoming possible thanks to nanoparticles.
And, as with any great power, there comes great responsibility.
Summary: Researchers have uncovered genes essential for learning, memory, aggression, and other complex behaviors originated around 650 million years ago.
The study utilized computational methods to trace the evolutionary history of these genes involved in the production, modulation, and reception of monoamines like serotonin, dopamine, and adrenaline. This discovery suggests that this new method of modulating neuronal circuits could have played a role in the Cambrian Explosion, contributing to the diversification of life.
The finding offers new research avenues to understand the origins of complex behaviors and their relation to diverse processes like reward, addiction, aggression, feeding, and sleep.
A team of nearly 100 scientists recently mapped the cell-type taxonomy in the macaque cortex and revealed the relationship between cell-type composition and various primate brain regions by using the self-developed spatial transcriptome sequencing technology Stereo-seq and snRNA-seq technology, which provides a molecular and cellular basis for further investigation into neural circuits.
The study was published in Cell.
Primates have a vast number of neurons that form complex and intricate neural circuits supporting advanced cognition and behavior. Disruptions in these cells and circuits can lead to various brain disorders. Understanding the composition and spatial distribution of cells in the brain, as well as the relationships between them, is a fundamental question in neuroscience, comparable to the periodic table in chemistry, the world map in geographic discoveries, or the DNA base sequence discovered through human genome sequencing.
To enjoy the scent of morning coffee and freshly baked cookies or to perceive the warning smell of something burning, the brain needs two types of cells, neurons and astrocytes, to work closely with each other. Research has shown a great deal of the changes that occur in neurons during olfactory, or smell, perception, but what are the astrocyte responses and how they contribute to the sensory experience remains unclear.
Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine and collaborating institutions report in the journal Science the responses of astrocytes to olfactory stimulation, revealing a new mechanism that is required to maintain astrocyte-neuron communication and process olfactory sensation.
“Previous studies have shown that under natural conditions in a living animal, olfactory stimulation of the brain activates neurons first, which changes the genes these neurons express to be able to mediate the olfactory sensation,” said first author Dr. Debosmita Sardar, a postdoctoral associate in Dr. Benjamin Deneen’s lab at Baylor. “In this study, we investigated what occurred to astrocytes following neural activity during olfactory stimulation and uncovered changes that had not been described before.”
For a long time, neuroscientists believed that the neurons you are born with are the neurons you have for the rest of your life, and any neuron lost will not be replaced. Recent research has shown that specific brain regions contain neural stem cells that can generate new neurons. In this talk, Dr Daniel Berg of the University of Aberdeen will discuss what we know about these stem cells and what we can do to activate them to generate more neurons.
Watch this presentation on LabRoots at: http://www.labroots.com/webcast/keynote-speaker-regulation-a…ippocampus.
In the adult central nervous system (CNS) small populations of neurons are formed in the adult olfactory bulb and dentate gyrus of the hippocampus. In the adult hippocampus, newly born neurons originate from stem cells that exist in the subgranular zone of the dentate gyrus. Progeny of these putative stem cells differentiate into neurons in the granular layer within a month of the cells’ birth, and this late neurogenesis continues throughout the adult life of all mammals. Environmental stimulation can differentially effect the proliferation, migration and differentiation of these cells in vivo. These environmentally induced changes in the structural organization of the hippocampus, result in changes in electrophysiological responses in the hippocampus, as well as in hippocampal related behaviors. We are studying the cellular, molecular, as well as environmental influences that regulate neurogenesis in the adult brain. We have recently identified several molecules that work coordinately to regulate proliferation, survival and differentiation of these adult derived stem cells. In addition, we have demonstrated that specific types of activity can influence the behavior of these newly born cells. Finally, we have developed several methods to monitor the in vivo maturation of neurogenesis in vivo, which has provided insight to the functional importance of neurogenesis to behavior. A consensus model of the function of adult neurogenesis is emerging.
Ah, Doom. Who knows where we’d be today if it weren’t for the innovation that made you the granddaddy of first-person shooters? Probably one of the things that’s helping to keep id Software’s iconic game alive after all these years is the fact that it can be ported to just about anything. It’s even possible to play Doom inside Doom itself.
As you can imagine, many people have attempted to see what crazy methods they can to play this legendary FPS. Now, some scientists are doing something a little different. Namely, they want to see if it’s possible to grow their own neurons that can be taught to play games. And yes, they want to see if they will be able to control Doom.
A video from the YouTube channel The Thought Emporium goes into detail about the hypothesis. The basic idea is to be able to hook up some lab-grown rat neurons to a computer that will be able to play Doom, at least in a rudimentary fashion.
Fedorenko didn’t know it at the time, but those first studies would set in motion a whirlwind that would alter the course of her research. Her team’s findings would ignite media attention, prompting even more people to send along their brain scans. What started as a single case study has now snowballed into the Interesting Brains Project.
By the end of this fall, the project will likely have scanned more than 40 people with atypical brains. In many cases, participants are missing entire brain regions, and like Elyse, they didn’t find out until they were adults.
That may be a tribute to the brain’s flexibility — its ability to change and adapt — including its redundancies, Fedorenko says. Like backup generators, some brain areas can kick into gear if others get injured. A close look at cases like Elyse’s could help scientists better understand how our brains cope with damage and why some kinds are worse than others.
Summary: Researchers have innovated a method to produce lab-grown mini brains, known as human brain organoids, free of animal cells, promising a more accurate study and treatment of neurodegenerative conditions.
Previously, brain organoids were grown using a substance derived from mouse sarcomas called Matrigel, leading to inconsistencies due to its undefined composition and variability. The new method uses an engineered extracellular matrix free of animal components, improving the neurogenesis of brain organoids.
This breakthrough allows for more accurate replication of human brain conditions and could open doors for personalized treatment of neurodegenerative diseases such as ALS and Alzheimer’s.
The signal, produced by neurons, helps the barrier form and maintain its protective properties.
