Lifeboat Foundation

The inside of a person’s mouth can say a lot about their overall health. Studies have established links between poor oral health and conditions like heart disease, high blood pressure and pneumonia. Now, a new study shows there’s a connection to the brain. Researchers in the U.K. found certain bacteria in the mouth may cause deadly brain abscesses.

Scientists have developed a wireless, battery-free implant capable of monitoring dopamine signals in the brain in real-time in small animal models, an advance that could aid in understanding the role neurochemicals play in neurological disorders.

The device, detailed in a study published in ACS Nano, activates or inhibits specific neurons in the brain using light, a technique known as optogenetic stimulation. It also records dopamine activity in freely behaving subjects without the need for bulky or prohibitive sensing equipment, said John Rogers, Ph.D., the Louis Simpson and Kimberly Querrey Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Biomedical Engineering and Neurological Surgery, and a co-author of the study.

“This device allows neuroscientists to monitor and modulate brain activity in real-time and in a programmable fashion, in mice—a very important class of animal model for neuroscience studies,” Rogers said.

Dr. Ryan Raut talks to us about some of his recent work on brain states and brain networks, linking them through synchronized traveling waves:
https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/sciadv.abf2709
https://www.pnas.org/content/117/34/20890.short.

This video is part of the SNAC Chat series organized by Mac Shine, Joe Lizier, Ben Fulcher, and Oliver Cliff (The University of Sydney).

Continue reading “Ryan Raut: Linking Brain States and Brain Networks through Traveling Waves” »

Mexico City.- At just eight years old, Adhara Perez is the girl who exceeded the IQ of Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking with 162. She dreams of being an astronaut one day, but she came to think that this would be impossible.

When she was three years old, the little girl from the slums of Tlahuac, in Mexico City, was diagnosed with Asperger (autism spectrum). “I made a mockery at school”, she said.

Her classmates called her “weird” and the teachers came to think that she would not have much future in the academy. Nallely Sanchez, mother of the child, did not realize the situation and did not want her daughter to suffer.

A study by the HSE Centre for Language and Brain has confirmed the role of the corpus callosum in language lateralization, the distribution of language processing functions between the brain’s hemispheres. The authors came up with an innovative language task for their study subjects and applied advanced neuroimaging methods to the data collected. A paper on their findings has been published in PLoS ONE.

Functional asymmetry between the two cerebral hemispheres in performing higher-level cognitive functions is a major characteristic of the human brain. For example, the left hemisphere plays a leading role in language processing in most people. However, between 10% and 15% of the human population also use the right hemisphere to varying degrees for the same task.

Traditionally, language lateralization to the right hemisphere was explained by handedness, as it is mainly found in left-handed and ambidextrous (using both hands equally well) individuals. But recent research has demonstrated a genetic difference in the way language is processed by left-handed and ambidextrous people. In addition to this, some right-handed people also involve their right hemisphere in language functions.

It’s a hidden, lifelong process that’s tied to cancer, heart disease and dementia, but there’s plenty you can do to fix the damage In the past few years, a new buzzword has entered conversations about illness and disease. Doctors are increasingly talking about “inflammation” – a term which describes the automatic response – or flaring up – of the body when it tries to fight infections, toxins and trauma.

The lens is inserted into the eye of the patient to detect the biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease.

The KIMM (Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials) has developed South Korea’s first smart lens technology to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease in its early stages. The KIMM research team has worked on this project in collaboration with Yonsei University.

ChrisChrisW/iStock.

Continue reading “Korea’s smart lens technology could detect Alzheimer’s at early stages” »

Summary: Researchers have developed a novel neurofeedback technique based on Pavlovian conditioning that detects when a person’s mind is wandering.

Source: ATR Brain Information Communication Research Laboratory Group

Everyone knows the feeling. You are trying to concentrate on driving or studying, or paying attention in a boring meeting, but suddenly, you realize that you are thinking about something irrelevant to the task at hand.

Real-world science may show that the brain-controlling zombie Fungi from The Last Of Us franchise may actually be a threat to humanity.