A study from Emory University School of Medicine suggests that a single 20-minute session of noninvasive deep brain stimulation, paired with mindful breathing, may strengthen the brain’s response to reward and reduce anxiety. Changes in reward-related brain activity remained detectable for approximately one week after the session.
Category: neuroscience – Page 33
Curiosity has its own neural signal: Brain separates valuable information from water rewards in mice
Often, humans and other animals seek information that can help them complete tasks and attain desired rewards. In some cases, however, they seek information driven simply by curiosity and a desire to obtain knowledge for its own sake, even if it does not lead to external rewards.
Researchers at Columbia University, Harvard Medical School and Johns Hopkins University recently created a new experimental paradigm for studying the neural processes associated with curiosity and the desire for knowledge in mice. This paradigm, outlined in a paper in Nature Neuroscience, allowed them to gain new insights into how the brain represents the value of information regardless of physical rewards.
“We wanted to understand the neural basis of our desire for knowledge—why we read books, explore, and have such a strong drive to find things out,” Jennifer J. Bussell, first author of the paper, told Medical Xpress. “Earlier experiments had suggested that the brain responds to information as if it is a reward, to such an extent that even the exact same neurons in the brain’s reward centers respond to predictions of juice and information.”
Cell biochemistry beyond membranes: Condensate physics reveals general rules for chemical responses
Basic biology courses teach that cells contain organelles—such as the nucleus, mitochondria and Golgi apparatus—set apart by lipid membranes to get things done. Recent cell biology research has revealed another organizational principle at work in cells across all orders of biology.
“Proteins and nucleic acids spontaneously organize themselves into blobs called condensates,” said Eric Dufresne, professor of physics in the College of Arts and Sciences and of materials science and engineering at Cornell Duffield College of Engineering, who is working to understand how condensates work.
Droplet-like condensates form and dissolve as cells need them, bringing selected proteins, RNA and other molecules together to coordinate biochemical reactions, said Takumi Matsuzawa, a postdoctoral researcher in physics. “Their timely formation and dissolution are essential for normal cellular function, and disruptions to this process have been linked to neurodegenerative diseases,” including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
Youth-associated protein helps restore healthy function in immune cells in the aging brain
Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have identified a role for the youth-associated protein TIMP2 in supporting the healthy function of microglia, the brain’s resident immune cells.
In a study published Aug. 12 in Nature Communications, they found that loss of TIMP2 caused microglia to develop several features associated with aging and neurodegeneration. Conversely, restoring TIMP2 in the blood of aged mice improved the ability of microglia to clear debris and reduced molecular markers associated with inflammation and other maladaptive states.
The findings provide new insight into how youth-associated factors may influence the aging brain and suggest that TIMP2 may help maintain healthy immune function in the brain as organisms age.
We’re Not Ready for Biocomputing
A computer that runs on living human neurons is currently playing Doom. It’s called CL1, built by Cortical Labs from brain cells grown in a lab. There’s no one at the controls, and yet something is clearly learning. What’s actually running this thing is the strange part, and it’s the reason I had to make this video.
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Unlocking spontaneous cognition in the age of data science
Spontaneous brain activity is experimentally unconstrained. Embracing this freedom unlocks rich opportunities beyond task-based and naturalistic paradigms, the traditional Herculean pillars of constrained cognition. Emerging data-driven approaches can extract cognitively meaningful and translationally relevant insights from spontaneous brain activity: across profoundly altered states, across the human lifespan and across species.
Multidisciplinary research priorities for artificial intelligence in mental health: a call to action
The use of artificial intelligence (AI) is anticipated to transform mental health care. However, the rapid research growth in this field has outpaced coordinated frameworks, leaving research efforts fragmented, standards inconsistent, and safeguards for safety and ethics largely absent. This Position Paper outlines a coordinated roadmap to guide the responsible evaluation and implementation of AI in mental health, structured across four overarching priority domains that define near-term actions and longer-term strategic goals.
This shoe is made entirely from mushroom ‘brains’
95 percent of all shoes end up in a landfill. Fungi footwear may offer a solution.
Electric fields offer new hope against aggressive brain cancer
More than a decade ago, Dr. Matthew Hebb was treating patients with Parkinson’s disease using deep brain stimulation by implanting tiny electrodes into the brain and delivering electrical signals to control tremors. He wondered if the same basic technology could be used against brain cancer.
Hebb, a neurosurgery professor at Western University’s Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, took tumor samples removed during surgery back to his laboratory, implanted electrodes and stimulated the cancer cells. The tumors responded.
That unexpected observation set in motion years of research into what is now called Intratumoral Modulation Therapy, or IMT—an original approach that uses low-amplitude electric fields to disrupt the growth of glioblastoma, one of the most aggressive and difficult-to-treat brain cancers.
Deep Brain Stimulation Synchronizes Neuron Firing to Rewire the Brain
Using live brain tissue, researchers showed that electrical stimulation activates gene expression that leads to increased neuron firing in humans.