Brain haemorrhage and brain cancer are major causes of death and disability worldwide. The brain is.
Category: neuroscience – Page 401
Perhaps, human consciousness can be fully understood one day.
Researchers from Johns Hopkins and Cambridge universities have created the first-ever map of the wiring patterns of every neuron in the fruit fly larval brain.
Neurons in an organism’s nervous system, including the brain, are linked to one another by synapses.
University of Cambridge.
The meticulously created connectome, which took 12 years to complete, depicts the locations of all 3,016 neurons in the fruit fly larval brain (Drosophila melanogaster). The 548,000 synapses that connect those brain cells allow the cells to communicate chemically with one another, which in turn causes electrical signals to be sent through the wiring of the cells.
A series of three neuroimaging studies identified a pattern of neural activation involving specific brain regions that differentiates drug users from non-users with 82% accuracy. Researchers named the pattern the Neurobiological Craving Signature (NCS). Their findings have been published in Nature Neuroscience.
Craving is a strong desire to use drugs or eat. It has long been considered a key factor driving substance abuse and overeating. It is one of the criteria used for diagnosing substance use disorders. Craving is often induced by exposure to certain stimuli. In the case of overeating, these include the smell or sight of food. In the case of drugs, craving can be induced by one being in places or situations he/she associates with taking drugs or being offered drugs. This is called cue-induced craving.
Earlier studies of craving have successfully relied on self-reported craving, but recent research has focused on discovering its biological basis. Human neuroimaging studies have identified neural circuits related to the risk of substance abuse. Some brain circuits have been found to be involved in different substance use disorders and risky behaviors. These include specific parts of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), ventral striatal/nucleus accumbens (VS/NAc) and insula regions of the brain. These regions also appear to play a role in weight gain and obesity.
Thank you for watching my video about Elon Musks Neuralink! If you liked it, please consider subscribing! Have a great day. #neuralink #elonmusk.
Neuralink is a neurotechnology company founded by Elon Musk in 2016 with the goal of.
merging the human brain with artificial intelligence. The company aims to develop a.
brain-machine interface that will enable humans to communicate with computers and other.
devices directly through their thoughts. Neuralink’s ultimate vision is to create a symbiotic.
relationship between humans and AI, where the brain and the computer work together to.
enhance human capabilities. While there is a huge potential in this field, it could also turn out.
to be extremely dangerous. Here’s why.
Researchers have completed the most advanced brain map to date, that of an insect, a landmark achievement in neuroscience that brings scientists closer to true understanding of the mechanism of thought.
“It’s been 50 years and this is the first brain connectome. It’s a flag in the sand that we can do this.” —
The international team led by Johns Hopkins University and the University of Cambridge produced a breathtakingly detailed diagram tracing every neural connection in the brain of a larval fruit fly, an archetypal scientific model with brains comparable to humans.
A new paper in Nature Communications illuminates how a previously poorly understood enzyme works in the cell. Many diseases are tied to chronic cellular stress, and UMBC’s Aaron T. Smith and colleagues discovered that this enzyme plays an important role in the cellular stress response. Better understanding how this enzyme functions and is controlled could lead to the discovery of new therapeutic targets for these diseases.
The enzyme is named ATE1, and it belongs to a family of enzymes called arginyl-tRNA transferases. These enzymes add arginine (an amino acid) to proteins, which often flags the proteins for destruction in the cell. Destroying proteins that are misfolded, often as a result of cellular stress, is important to prevent those proteins from wreaking havoc with cellular function. An accumulation of malfunctioning proteins can cause serious problems in the body, leading to diseases like Alzheimer’s or cancer, so being able to get rid of these proteins efficiently is key to long-term health.
The new paper demonstrates that ATE1 binds to clusters of iron and sulfur ions, and that the enzyme’s activity increases two-to three-fold when it is bound to one of these iron-sulfur clusters. What’s more, when the researchers blocked cells’ ability to produce the clusters, ATE1 activity decreased dramatically. They also found that ATE1 is highly sensitive to oxygen, which they believe relates to its role in moderating the cell’s stress response through a process known as oxidative stress.
Scientists created a map of an entire larval fruit fly brain that shows all 548,000 synapses in the organ.
The future of computing includes biology says an international team of scientists.
The time has come to create a new kind of computer, say researchers from John Hopkins University together with Dr. Brett Kagan, chief scientist at Cortical Labs in Melbourne, who recently led development of the DishBrain project, in which human cells in a petri dish learned to play Pong.
In an article published on February 27 in the journal Frontiers in Science, the team outlines how biological computers could surpass today’s electronic computers for certain applications while using a small fraction of the electricity required by today’s computers and server farms.
Individuals with newly-diagnosed atrial fibrillation (AFib), or an irregular heart rhythm, may have a modestly elevated risk of developing dementia, a new study indicates.
Summary: A newly constructed brain map shows every single neuron and how they are wired together in the brains of fruit fly larvae.
Source: UK Research and Innovation.
Researchers have built the first ever map showing every single neuron and how they’re wired together in the brain of the fruit fly larva.