Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
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Category: neuroscience – Page 353

Humans split away from our closest animal relatives, chimpanzees, and formed our own branch on the evolutionary tree about seven million years ago. In the time since—brief, from an evolutionary perspective—our ancestors evolved the traits that make us human, including a much bigger brain than chimpanzees and bodies that are better suited to walking on two feet. These physical differences are underpinned by subtle changes at the level of our DNA. However, it can be hard to tell which of the many small genetic differences between us and chimps have been significant to our evolution.

New research from Whitehead Institute Member Jonathan Weissman; University of California, San Francisco Assistant Professor Alex Pollen; Weissman lab postdoc Richard She; Pollen lab graduate student Tyler Fair; and colleagues uses cutting edge tools developed in the Weissman lab to narrow in on the key differences in how humans and chimps rely on certain genes. Their findings, published in the journal Cell on June 20, may provide unique clues into how humans and chimps have evolved, including how humans became able to grow comparatively large brains.

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It found that consciousness may emerge from a grid-like interconnection of neurons at the back of the head.

Launched in 2019, the $20 million project, COGITATE, sought to explore an age-old question: how does consciousness arise? The “outlandish” project threw the field into a tizzy for its audacity. But it set up a fair fight: the teams collaborated on specific experiment designs, published them online, and pre-registered predicted results based on each of their championed theories.

Human brain scan data was then collected from six theory-neutral labs around the world, with the results judged by three experts with no money in the game to see how well the measured results matched predicted ones.

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Having undergone two aneurysm surgeries, Sandi Rodoni thought she understood everything about the procedure. But when it came time for her third surgery, the Watsonville, California, resident was treated to a virtual reality trip inside her own brain.

Stanford Medicine is using a new software system that combines imaging from MRIs, CT scans and angiograms to create a three-dimensional model that physicians and patients can see and manipulate — just like a virtual reality game.

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In response to Bernardo Kastrup’s scathing criticisms of materialist explanations of the states of consciousness induced by psychedelics, David Nutt argues that we don’t need to adopt an untestable metaphysical worldview to explain the subjective richness of psychedelic experiences.In response to Bernardo Kastrup’s scathing criticisms of materialist explanations of the states of consciousness induced by psychedelics, David Nutt argues that we don’t need to adopt an untestable metaphysical worldview to explain the subjective richness of psychedelic experiences.

Let’s start with where we agree. It doesn’t make intuitive sense that alterations in (increased) complexity of brain waves could explain the whole range of subjective experiences that are reported under the influence of psychedelics. I agree they probably don’t in a direct sense — it seems to me much more likely that they are correlated because they both derive from a common change in another system or systems. Despite Bernardo’s criticisms and scepticism, I think we can plausibly develop theories as a result of neuroscience and neuroimaging research coupled with simultaneous acquisition of subjective effects that help explain the altered state of consciousness produced by psychedelics.

Where those might be is the question — and I will come back to it later — but at this point I think it is reasonable to suggest that the primary visual hallucinations (the Christmas tree lights) probably reflect a psychiatry-induced disruption of the layer 5 neurons in the visual cortex. This would degrade the ability of the complex cortical network that creates vision by integrating retinal inputs. Physiological studies of the neuronal workings of non-human visual systems predict that simple geometric shapes, colours and movement are the primary processes that are extracted from retinal inputs and from which more complex visual schema are then created. Psychedelics disrupt these higher-level constructions so allow the user to “see” the primary workings of the visual system that are not normally accessible to consciousness.

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New research published in Scientific Reports suggests that breathing has a crucial role in coordinating brain activity in the prefrontal brain network during wakefulness. The findings provide new insights into the relationship between respiration and cognitive processing, and could have important implications for meditative practices that involve controlled breathing.

Previous studies have indicated that respiration can have significant effects on brain activity and cognitive processes. For example, changes in breathing patterns have been linked to alterations in attention, arousal, and emotional states. The respiratory system also shares neural pathways and connections with brain regions involved in cognition.

For their new study, the researchers focused on a specific structure called the nucleus reuniens (Reu), which acts as a link between the prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus. The researchers wanted to investigate how the synchronization of neural activity, particularly in the gamma rhythm frequency range, is organized in this network.

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I believe that homelessness is often seen in America or other parts of the world as bad but with Finland they have found a housing first approach which has stopped nearly all homelessness there. I believe also regenerative medicine and lots of transhumanistic approaches to medicine would help end their aging and even repair their body if needed. Also if we research the brain we can finally discover and repair genes throughout the body essentially bringing them back near perfect and beyond. Along with ethical approaches towards a more cultural relativistic approach to all humans could show everyone how to coexist. It is still a problem of aging though which is still curable and in extreme cases will be eventually solved in the future. I think with a more comprehensive understanding of all transhumansistic medicine it would be possible to save all lives so no one is left behind.

OK, so the Finns are more generous and just shell out a lot more to help the homeless, right? Actually not. The Finns are simply smarter.

Instead of abandoning the homeless, they housed them. And that led to an insight: people tend to function better when they’re not living on the street or under a bridge. Who would have guessed?

It turns out that, given a place to live, Finland’s homeless were better able to deal with addictions and other problems, not to mention handling job applications. So, more than a decade after the launch of the “Housing First” policy, 80 per cent of Finland’s homeless are doing well, still living in the housing they’d been provided with — but now paying the rent on their own.

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Is the Executive Director of the Innovative Genomics Institute (https://innovativegenomics.org/people/brad-ringeisen/), an organization founded by Nobel Prize winner Dr. Jennifer Doudna, on the University of California, Berkeley campus, whose mission is to bridge revolutionary gene editing tool development to affordable and accessible solutions in human health and climate.

Dr. Ringeisen is a physical chemist with a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a Bachelor of Science in chemistry from Wake Forest University, a pioneer in the field of live cell printing, and an experienced administrator of scientific research and product development.

Before joining the IGI, Dr. Ringeisen was Director of the Biological Technologies Office at DARPA, where he managed a division working at the cutting edges of biology, physical sciences and engineering. Programs in his office included research in genome editing, epigenetics, neurotechnology, food security and biomanufacturing, as well as diagnostics and therapeutics development.

Prior to DARPA, Dr. Ringeisen ran his own research group at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory as the head of the Bioenergy and Biofabrication Section where he oversaw diverse research programs including the development and application of laser-assisted printing approaches to biology, development of organs-on-a-chip, microbial energy harvesting and extracellular electron transfer as well as microbial discovery and microbiome characterization.

Dr. Ringeisen now uses his amazing expertise to guide IGI’s scientific and development strategy, but his duties also include promoting entrepreneurship, working with biotech investors and companies to ensure commercial translation of technologies, donor outreach and development, scientific project development and team building, communication with campus leadership, personnel management and mentoring, program management, and reporting and engagement with both Governance and Scientific Advisory Boards.

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