Archive for the ‘neuroscience’ category: Page 426
Jun 14, 2022
The Human Brain Runs Way Hotter Than We Ever Realized, Scientists Find
Posted by Dan Kummer in categories: computing, neuroscience, sex
From the engine in your car to the components in your laptop, mechanical systems tend to heat up when they’re working harder. Now new research has revealed that the same can be said of the brain – and it runs hotter than was previously thought.
Some parts of the deep brain can get up to 40 °C (104 °F), a new study shows, though this varies by sex, time of day, and various other factors. Compare that with the average oral temperature in human bodies, which is typically under 37 °C (98.6 °F).
This isn’t a sign of malfunctioning though, researchers think, and may actually be evidence that the brain is operating healthily. Unusual heat signatures could potentially be used in the future to look for signs of brain damage or disorder.
Jun 14, 2022
New tiny and flexible neural probes can explore your spinal cord
Posted by Gemechu Taye in category: neuroscience
Jun 13, 2022
Collapsing a leading theory for the quantum origin of consciousness
Posted by Jose Ruben Rodriguez Fuentes in categories: neuroscience, quantum physics
The origin of consciousness is one of the greatest mysteries of science. One proposed solution, first suggested by Nobel Laureate and Oxford mathematician Roger Penrose and anesthesiologist Stuart Hammeroff, at Arizona State University, in Tucson, attributes consciousness to quantum computations in the brain. This in turn hinges on the notion that gravity could play a role in how quantum effects disappear, or “collapse.” But a series of experiments in a lab deep under the Gran Sasso mountains, in Italy, has failed to find evidence in support of a gravity-related quantum collapse model, undermining the feasibility of this explanation for consciousness. The result is reported in the journal Physics of Life Reviews.
“How consciousness arises in the brain is a huge puzzle,” says Catalina Curceanu, a member of the physics think tank, the Foundational Questions Institute, FQXi, and the lead physicist on the experiments at INFN in Frascati, Italy. “There are many competing ideas, but very few can be experimentally tested.”
Quantum physics famously tells us that cats can be alive and dead at the same time, at least in theory. Yet in practice we never see felines locked in such an unfortunate limbo state. One popular explanation for why not is because the “wavefunction” of a system–its quantum character allowing it to be in two contradictory states simultaneously–is more likely to “collapse” or be destroyed if it is more massive, leaving it in one defined state, either dead or alive, say, but not both at the same time. This model of collapse, related to gravity acting on heavy objects like cats, was invoked by Penrose and Hammeroff when developing their model of consciousness, ‘Orch OR theory’ (the Orchestrated Objective Reduction theory), in the 1990s.
Jun 12, 2022
APIs create ‘digital empathy’
Posted by Shubham Ghosh Roy in categories: computing, internet, neuroscience
APIs have catalyzed the evolution of the internet and could evolve into the brain-computer interface-driven metaverse reality on the horizon.
Jun 12, 2022
An already-approved drug could help repair the brain after a stroke
Posted by Genevieve Klien in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience
Gabapentin, which is currently used to control seizures and manage nerve pain, might help nerve cells regrow in the brain.
Jun 12, 2022
Questioning the ethics of computer chips that use lab-grown human neurons
Posted by Gemechu Taye in categories: computing, ethics, neuroscience
Jun 12, 2022
Cartographers of the Brain: Mapping the Connectome
Posted by Dan Breeden in categories: chemistry, mapping, neuroscience
Scientists are attempting to map the wiring of the nearly 100 billion neurons in the human brain. Are we close to uncovering the mysteries of the mind or are we only at the beginning of a new frontier?
PARTICIPANTS: Deanna Barch, Jeff Lichtman, Nim Tottenham, David Van Essen.
MODERATOR: John Hockenberry.
Original program date: JUNE 4, 2017
Continue reading “Cartographers of the Brain: Mapping the Connectome” »
Jun 12, 2022
How To Live Forever with BioViva’s Liz Parrish! The LONGEVITY revolution has begun!
Posted by Montie Adkins in categories: biotech/medical, life extension, neuroscience
Liz mentions combinatorial gene therapy for aging near the end which is something you hear the likes of George Church mention they are working on.
Liz Parrish is the founder of @BioViva Science, a company dedicated to curing biological aging, a disease that is at the root cause of all other chronic diseases from heart disease to Alzheimer’s. Watch this video to understand how much more control we have over our lifespan and health!
Jun 11, 2022
Posture Assessed in Health Exam Detects Cognitive Decline
Posted by Genevieve Klien in categories: biotech/medical, health, neuroscience
Summary: An older person’s posture may give clues to hidden cognitive decline, a new study reports.
Source: Shinshu University.
A mass survey of citizens aged 50 to 89 years examined whether cognitive decline could be detected by sagittal spinal balance measurement based on a radiological approach. Doctors from Shinshu University observed associations of sagittal vertical axis (SVA) anteriorization and higher age with lower cognitive function.