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Category: neuroscience – Page 330

Researchers from the Tokyo University of Science recently published a study in the journal Artificial Life and Robotics where they explored how machine learning can help detect deception.

Machine learning is a subset of artificial intelligence (AI) that involves the use of algorithms and statistical models to enable computers to learn and improve from experience without being explicitly programmed. In other words, it is a method of teaching computers to perform specific tasks by learning from data, patterns, and examples, rather than relying on pre-defined rules.

Detecting deception can be important in various situations, like questioning crime victims or suspects and interviewing patients with mental health issues. Sometimes, human interviewers might struggle to ask the right questions or spot deception accurately.

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The biological roots of autism continue to perplex researchers, despite a growing body of studies looking at an increasing array of genetic, cellular and microbial data. Recently, scientists have homed in on a new and promising area of focus: the microbiome. This collection of microbes that inhabit the human gut has been shown to play a role in autism, but the mechanics of this link have remained awash in ambiguity.

Taking a fresh computational approach to the problem, a study published today, June 26, in Nature Neuroscience sheds new light on the relationship between the microbiome and . This research—which originated at the Simons Foundation’s Autism Research Initiative (SFARI) and involved an innovative reanalysis of dozens of previously published datasets—aligns with a recent, long-term study of autistic individuals that centered on a microbiome-focused treatment intervention. These findings also underscore the importance of longitudinal studies in elucidating the interplay between the microbiome and complex conditions such as autism.

“We were able to harmonize seemingly disparate data from different studies and find a common language with which to unite them. With this, we were able to identify a microbial signature that distinguishes autistic from neurotypical individuals across many studies,” says Jamie Morton, one of the study’s corresponding authors, who began this work while a postdoctoral researcher at the Simons Foundation and is now an independent consultant. “But the bigger point is that going forward, we need robust long-term studies that look at as many datasets as possible and understand how they change when there is a [therapeutic] intervention.”

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When the scaffold is treated with a steroid called fluocinolone acetonide, which protects against inflammation, the resilience of the cells appears to increase, promoting growth of eye cells. These findings are important in the future development of ocular tissue for transplantation into the patient’s eye.

Scientists have found a way to use nanotechnology to create a 3D ‘scaffold’ to grow cells from the retina-paving the way for potential new ways of treating a common cause of blindness.

Researchers, led by Professor Barbara Pierscionek from Anglia Ruskin University (ARU), have been working on a way to successfully grow retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells that stay healthy and viable for up to 150 days. RPE cells sit just outside the neural part of the retina and, when damaged, can cause vision to deteriorate.

It is the first time this technology, called ‘electrospinning’, has been used to create a scaffold on which the RPE cells could grow, and could revolutionise treatment for one of age-related macular degeneration, one of the world’s most common vision complaints.

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New research provides evidence that training our heart rate can indirectly influence our emotional memory, making us more likely to remember positive experiences. The study has been published in the journal Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback.

The study aimed to explore whether certain brain circuits are responsible for regulating both heart rate and emotion, specifically focusing on the role of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC). Additionally, the researchers were interested in understanding how biofeedback training, which involves providing individuals with real-time physiological feedback and training them to modify their own physiological responses, could impact emotional memory biases.

“There have been many studies showing that people with higher resting HRV tend to experience less negative emotions,” study author Mara Mather told PsyPost. “But most of the research has been correlational and so it is not clear if the individual differences in HRV play any direct role in the emotional differences. Thus, we were interested in whether manipulating HRV could affect people’s emotional biases.”

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Elizabeth Loftus, psychologist and distinguished professor, University of California, Irvine, takes the audience at the Nobel Prize Summit 2023 inside the effect misinformation has on our brains, including the limits of human memory.

About Nobel Prize Summit 2023:

How can we build trust in truth, facts and scientific evidence so that we can create a hopeful future for all?

Misinformation is eroding our trust in science and runs the risk of becoming one of the greatest threats to our society today.

Continue reading “The misinformation effect | Elizabeth Loftus | Nobel Prize Summit 2023” | >

Pseudo or Real?

In this study, the FRS condition typically suppressed the increase in glucose levels in the OGTT compared with that in the HCS condition. This tendency was also observed after comparing glucose levels 1 h after glucose loading (Supplementary Fig. S2 online). The suppressive effect of the FRS condition on glucose elevation was more pronounced in the older age group and the group with high HbA1c. However, it was not evident in the younger age group or the group with low HbA1c. Similarly, this tendency was observed when we divided the participants into two groups: high glucose level and low glucose level by OGTT (Supplementary Fig. S3 online). These converging findings imply that sounds with inaudible HFC are more effective in improving glucose tolerance in individuals at a higher risk of glucose intolerance.

It is well experienced in daily practice that stress has a significant impact on glycemic control in patients with diabetes. Many reports have highlighted stress-induced increases in blood glucose levels in patients with type 2 diabetes22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31. In addition, a large population-based cohort study of Japanese participants reported a 1.22-fold (women) and 1.36-fold (men) increased risk of developing diabetes in individuals with high subjective stress levels compared with those with low levels32. This indicates that stress management influences the pathological transition of patients with diabetes and the prevention of its onset in healthy individuals or potential prediabetics. However, the effects of stress on individuals, both in type and degree, vary so widely33,34,35 that it is practically difficult to study them under experimentally controlled conditions, unlike with pharmacotherapy.

The effects of stress on blood glucose levels are believed to be primarily mediated by neural control from the brainstem and hypothalamus36,37. We considered it important to investigate the possibility that acoustic information acting on the hypothalamus and brainstem may have physiological effects on glucose tolerance, independent of psychological effects, rather than primarily reducing subjective stress, which varies considerably among individuals and is difficult to measure objectively.

Continue reading “Positive effect of inaudible high-frequency components of sounds on glucose tolerance: a quasi-experimental crossover study” | >