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Tweaking it may delay development of the disease | Science & technology.

These chips might be the future of neuromorphic computing.

Honey could be the next material used to create brain-like computer chips. Its proven practicality marks another step toward creating efficient, renewable processors for neuromorphic computing systems, using biodegradable products.

Research engineers from WSU’s School of Engineering and Computer Science, Feng Zhao and Brandon Sueoka, first processed honey into a solid. Then they jammed it between two electrodes, using a structure design similar to that of a human synapse. They’re known as ‘memristors,’ and are proficient at learning and retaining information just like human neurons.

Continue reading “Honey might be the key to cooler, more efficient, biodegradable chips” »

Summary: Researchers have released a whole-brain projectome consisting of over 6,000 single neurons in the mouse prefrontal cortex.

Source: Chinese Academy of Science.

In a study published in Nature Neuroscience, scientists at the Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology (CEBSIT) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, along with their collaborators, reported the first release of a whole-brain projectome comprising over 6,000 single neurons in the mouse prefrontal cortex (PFC), making it the largest database of a whole-brain, single-neuron mouse projectome to date.

The lethargy that many Alzheimer’s patients experience is caused not by a lack of sleep, but rather by the degeneration of a type of neuron that keeps us awake, according to a study that also confirms the tau protein is behind that neurodegeneration.

The study’s findings contradict the common notion that Alzheimer’s patients sleep during the day to make up for a bad night of sleep and point toward potential therapies to help these patients feel more awake.

The data came from study participants who were patients at UC San Francisco’s Memory and Aging Center and volunteered to have their sleep monitored with electroencephalogram (EEG) and donate their brains after they died.

The Neuro-Network.

𝐍𝐞𝐮𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐬 𝐀𝐫𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐟𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐞𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐁𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐃𝐚𝐦𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐈𝐬 𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐁𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐭𝐲

𝙁𝙤𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙡𝙙’𝙨 𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙣𝙚𝙪𝙧𝙤𝙨𝙘𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙨, 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙚𝙘𝙧𝙚𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙪𝙣𝙡𝙤𝙘𝙠𝙞𝙣… See more.

Continue reading “Neuroscientists Are Confident the Secret to Reversing Brain Damage Is Restoring Brain Plasticity” »

Scientists who “accidentally” made the first ever recording of a dying brain saw startling results.

Scientists — who “accidentally” made the first ever recording of a dying brain — saw startling results.

Recent advances in multi-electrode array technology have made it possible to monitor large neuronal ensembles at cellular resolution in animal models. In humans, however, current approaches restrict recordings to a few neurons per penetrating electrode or combine the signals of thousands of neurons in local field potential (LFP) recordings. Here we describe a new probe variant and set of techniques that enable simultaneous recording from over 200 well-isolated cortical singl… See more.

Neuropixels probes were used to simultaneously record from more than 200 cortical neurons in human participants during neurosurgical procedures. The approach could reveal insights underlying human cognition and pathology.

In efforts to construct a map of neural connections in the brain, researchers at the Flatiron Institute’s Center for Computational Neuroscience are turning to a… See more.

Watch: building the ultimate brain map on simons foundation.

Further study of newly-sequenced portions of the genome could also help scientists better understand how humans evolved particular traits, such as the bigger brains that sent them down a genetically distinct path from their great ape ancestors.

“The things that make our frontal cortex bigger come from the genes that map in these repetitive regions,” said Evan Eichler, a professor in the department of genome sciences at the University of Washington School of Medicine and also part of the research collaborative.

Advances in genomic sequencing technology could drive a renaissance of medical breakthroughs, the researchers say.