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Archive for the ‘neuroscience’ category: Page 403

Sep 8, 2021

High Fat Diets Break the Body Clock — This May Be the Underlying Cause of Obesity

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, food, neuroscience

Thus, the researchers propose that disturbance in the DVC’s timekeeping leads to obesity, rather than being the result of excessive body weight.


When rats are fed a high fat diet, this disturbs the body clock in their brain that normally controls satiety, leading to over-eating and obesity. That’s according to new research published in The Journal of Physiology.

The number of people with obesity has nearly tripled worldwide since 1975.[1] In England alone, 28% of adults are obese and another 36% are overweight.[2] Obesity can lead to several other diseases such as Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and some types of cancer.[3]

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Sep 7, 2021

What God, Quantum Mechanics and Consciousness Have in Common

Posted by in categories: computing, neuroscience, quantum physics

Theories that try to explain these big metaphysical mysteries fall short, making agnosticism the only sensible stance.

Sep 7, 2021

Multiplexed ion beam imaging (MIBI) for characterization of the tumor microenvironment across tumor types

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, health, neuroscience

Circa 23 March 2020


The ways in which a neoplastic cell arises and evades the immune system is the result of a departure from the systems biology that governs health. Understanding this biology requires methods that can resolve the heterogeneity of cell types, determine their states, whether they are activated (e.g., HLA-DR high) or suppressed (e.g., PD-1 high), and map their relationships or distances to one another. MIBI provides single cell resolution and sensitivity to phenotypically characterize the complex tissue environments including the TME. Executed similarly to IHC yet with the capability to profile 40+ markers simultaneously, MIBI is broadly applicable to a wide range of analyses performed in anatomic pathology including cell classification, spatial characterization, and assessment of marker expression. The MIBIscope produces data (multilayer TIFF files) that can be accessed by many analysis platforms currently available, such as those found in commercial software packages such as Fiji, Halo, and VisioPharm or freely available bioinformatic packages developed with open-source programming languages (e.g., R, Python).

All tumor types were stained, imaged, and analyzed using a single staining panel and standardized protocol. The workflow is flexible such that slides can be stained in batches and stored until imaged on the MIBIscope. Stained slides are typically stored under vacuum but protection from light is not necessary as the labels are stable metal isotopes rather than light-sensitive fluorophores. Once imaged it is possible to reimage the tissue as only a modest depth of the tissue is sputtered and analyzed during a single acquisition [16]. One limitation of the current project performed with an earlier version of the MIBIScope is the relatively small FOV size (500 μm by 500 μm) needed for images with 0.5 µm resolution. The current MIBIScope enables FOVs of 800 μm by 800 μm to be imaged in 70 min at fine resolution (650 nm). The resolution can be controlled at the instrument and acquisition at a slightly lower resolution than used in this study (1 μm) can be performed in 17 min. The 800 μm FOV captures 82% of a 1 mm TMA core. FOVs across cores of a TMA can be selected and then imaged in a single run. For whole sections it is possible to acquire adjacent images and stitch the images together using techniques commonly performed with other imaging technologies [22]. The need for tiling is particularly acute for imaging brain sections where multiple FOVs are collected to generate a larger image. Together with researchers at Stanford University, we are currently developing tiling methods to map large regions of brain tissue which will be described in a future publication. Because MIBI is still an early technology, the underlying methods for each stage of the processing pipeline are constantly evolving and improving, not just for accuracy but for generality. While the methods themselves are evolving, the pipeline tasks, at a high level, such as mass calibration, filtering, etc., are defined and have been automated through the MIBI/O software, and, as importantly, allows for appropriate user input when necessary. As more data becomes available, and the user base of MIBI grows, data processing should become more standardized.

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Sep 7, 2021

A brain with ‘multiple demand’ is what drives human reasoning, scientists say

Posted by in category: neuroscience

Reasoning is an ability that is unique to human cognition. However, despite our advances in neuroimaging techniques, we cannot clearly map the neural regions involved in human reasoning. In a new study, researchers from Korea came up with a new approach to understand the foundations of both inductive and deductive reasoning and identify the major brain areas responsible, paving the way for uncovering the mechanisms of various other cognitive processes.

One of the factors that make us uniquely “human” is our ability to reason, i.e., to cognitively analyze situations, predict possible outcomes, and make decisions accordingly. Broadly speaking, human can be classified as “inductive,” which involves making predictions based on existing knowledge, and “deductive,” in which definitive conclusions are reached from given premises. However, despite the cutting-edge technology we have at our disposal, neuroscientists are yet to pinpoint where this ability stems from.

Scientists typically use a global approach called “meta-analysis,” a combining results of previous studies to derive conclusions. However, in this field have not adequately accounted for the complex folded geometry of the cortical surface (the surface of the two hemispheres).

Sep 5, 2021

Gut Bacteria Influence Brain Development

Posted by in category: neuroscience

Summary: An overgrowth in the gastrointestinal tract of the bacteria Klebsiella in preterm babies was associated with an increased presence of certain immune cells and the development of neurological damage. The findings suggest a link between microbiota and brain development.

Source: University of Vienna.

Extremely premature infants are at high risk for brain damage. Researchers at the University of Vienna and the Medical University of Vienna have now found possible targets for the early treatment of such damage outside the brain: Bacteria in the gut of premature infants may play a key role.

Sep 5, 2021

Jeff Hawkins (Thousand Brains Theory)

Posted by in categories: electronics, neuroscience

The ultimate goal of neuroscience is to learn how the human brain gives rise to human intelligence and what it means to be intelligent. Understanding how the brain works is considered one of humanity’s greatest challenges.

Jeff Hawkins thinks that the reality we perceive is a kind of simulation, a hallucination, a confabulation. He thinks that our brains are a model reality based on thousands of information streams originating from the sensors in our body. Critically — Hawkins doesn’t think there is just one model but rather; thousands.

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Sep 5, 2021

Large-Scale Simulations Of The Brain May Need To Wait For Quantum Computers

Posted by in categories: computing, neuroscience, quantum physics

And, we have Quantum Computers of course, and they’ll be radically more advanced by 2025.


Why quantum computers, if successfully built, might be what neuroscientists need to carry out large multi-scale simulations of the brain. In fact, it will likely be impossible to do so without them, or some computationally equivalent technology.

Sep 4, 2021

A single head injury could lead to dementia later in life

Posted by in category: neuroscience

Sep 3, 2021

The hard problem of consciousness is already beginning to dissolve

Posted by in category: neuroscience

Science can solve the great mystery of consciousness – how physical matter gives rise to conscious experience – we just have to use the right approach, says neuroscientist Anil Seth.

Sep 3, 2021

The real Stranger Things secret government projects — including LSD mind control experiments and claims of child kidnappings

Posted by in categories: government, neuroscience

Circa 2019


STRANGER Things has attracted a global audience of over 20million viewers who love the show for its eerie plot lines involving secret government experiments and monsters from other dimensions.

But the alleged real-life stories that inspired the Netflix show — which was confirmed for a forth series on Monday - are more terrifying than anything in the fictional town of Hawkins, where the series is set.

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