The interconnectedness of brain and body has tantalizing implications for our ability to both understand and treat illness.
A host of disorders once thought to be nothing to do with the brain are, in fact, tightly coupled to nervous-system activity.
Category: neuroscience – Page 368
Timing is everything: How circadian rhythms influence our brains
Why are we mentally sharper at certain times of day? A study led by Jonathan Lipton MD, Ph.D., at Boston Children’s Hospital spells out the relationship between circadian rhythms—the body’s natural day/night cycles—and the brain connections known as synapses.
The work is the first to provide a cellular and molecular explanation for natural fluctuations over the day in alertness, cognition, and the ability to learn and remember.
“We have known for more than a century that the time of day influences cognition and memory, but until now the mechanisms have been elusive,” says Lipton, a sleep physician in the Department of Neurology and researcher in the F.M. Kirby Neurobiology Center.
Alex Rosenberg: Scientism, Naturalism, and Conscious Thought
In this episode of the Smarter Not Harder Podcast, our guest Alex Rosenberg joins our host Boomer Anderson to give one-cent solutions to life’s $64,000 questions that include:\
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What are the definitions of scientism and naturalism?\
Is there such a thing as free will, and if so, what implications does it have on the search for purpose in life?\
What is nice nihilism?\
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Alex Rosenberg is an American philosopher and novelist. He is the R. Taylor Cole Professor of Philosophy at Duke University, and is well known for contributions in the philosophy of biology, as well as the philosophy of economics. He has also written several books, including \.
Brain Autopsies Suggest a New Culprit Behind Alzheimer’s Disease
Analysis of human brain tissue reveals differences in how immune cells behave in brains with Alzheimer’s disease compared to healthy brains, indicating a potential new treatment target.
University of Washington-led research, published in August, discovered microglia in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease were in a pre-inflammatory state more frequently, making them less likely to be protective.
Microglia are immune cells that help keep our brains healthy by clearing waste and preserving normal brain function.
Breathing Is The Key to Memory Consolidation During Sleep
The study found a direct correlation between specific brain rhythms during sleep and the process of memory consolidation.
Summary: Researchers unveiled a critical link between breathing and memory consolidation during sleep. In an extensive study involving EEG and breathing analysis, they discovered that specific sleep-related brain rhythms are directly influenced by our breathing patterns.
These findings highlight the importance of respiration in reinforcing learned information while we sleep. This work could have significant implications for addressing age-related memory issues and sleep disorders.
Why Can No One Think Rationally Anymore?
George Mack is a writer, marketer and an entrepreneur. Thinking for yourself is one of the most important skills you can develop. However it’s hard. It’s a difficult task to overcome the boring, negative, irrational trends around you. Which is why you need some new tools in your mental models box. Expect to learn what the Keynsian Beauty Contest is, why memes are so influential in society today, which behaviours appear positive but actually harm you in disguise, what the forgetting paradox is, what the most useful emotional state is, why “ignorance is bliss” is a putdown in 2023 and much more…