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Category: neuroscience – Page 45

The Future of Neuroscience Is Growing and Reviving Human Brains

Further Reading.
Thumbnail image credit: Not alive, but not dead… FEATURED SCIENCE ARTICLE.
Brain background: Nexorg.
Brain organoid images: Elke Gabriel.

Not alive, but not dead: disembodied human brains used for drug testing.
https://www.science.org/content/artic…
Restoration of brain circulation and cellular functions hours.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30996…

Vascularizing organoids-on-chip for perfused and personalized models.
https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/artic…

Startup Testing Drugs on Freshly Extracted Human Brains That Are Kept On Life Support.
https://futurism.com/health-medicine/.…

Cerebral organoids transplantation repairs infarcted cortex and restores impaired function after stroke https://www.nature.com/articles/s4153…

World First: Patient Receives High-Risk Therapy to Make Cells Young Again

An eagerly awaited and controversial clinical trial to ‘wind back the clock’ on aging cells in the eye and restore them to a more youthful state has officially begun.

This week, the United States biotechnology company Life Biosciences, Inc. announced that it had dosed its first patient with an experimental therapy designed to reverse age-related vision loss.

The ambitious idea is to turn back aging by activating three genes in retinal ganglion cells, which connect the brain to the eyes.

Brain-computer interface enables independent, accurate communication for man living with ALS

A new study demonstrates that a person with severe paralysis caused by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) can use a brain-computer interface (BCI) at home to communicate, work and interact with the digital world—without the need for researcher support. Published in Nature Medicine, the results mark a significant step toward delivering practical assistive technology for people with severe speech and motor impairments.

The BCI system was developed at UC Davis, in collaboration with colleagues at Brown University and Mass General Brigham Neuroscience Institute. It is equipped with advanced decoding algorithms that translate neural signals into text (speech BCI) and enable cursor control (movement BCI). It allows full interaction with a personal computer.

The brain-computer interface is designed to restore communication and computer control by decoding neural activity linked to attempted speech and movement. Although recent advances have achieved high accuracy in research settings, real-world adoption has been limited by two key challenges: independent at-home use and reliable long-term performance.

Clinician–scientists identify brain network linked to deadliest childhood brain cancer

A human brain network associated with survival in children with diffuse midline glioma (DMG), the deadliest childhood brain cancer, has been identified by UCL clinician-scientists, raising the possibility of entirely new treatment approaches. The researchers found that DMG tumors seem to exploit the brain’s existing neural circuitry to drive tumor growth and progression. Tumors that were more strongly connected to this network were associated with significantly shorter patient survival.

The study, published in Nature, builds on pioneering work in the field of cancer neuroscience, which shows that brain tumors, including DMG, dynamically interact with the otherwise healthy brain.

The study was led by Dr. Jai Sidpra and Dr. Valentina Lind, medical students enrolled in the MBPhD Program within the UCL Division of Medicine and senior author Professor Darren Hargrave’s group at the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health.

Scientists Mapped Every Neuron in a Fruit Fly and the Brain Wasn’t Running the Show

Scientists have created the first complete brain-to-body wiring map of a fruit fly, revealing that complex behavior may arise from distributed neural teamwork rather than a central controller. A large international research team led by labs at Harvard Medical School and Princeton University has r

Slow breathing can influence brain activity and decision behavior

A new study from the German Institute of Human Nutrition Potsdam–Rehbruecke (DIfE) and Charité—Universitätsmedizin Berlin shows for the first time that targeted control of human breathing rhythm can influence decision behavior by modulating heart and brain function. The research team led by Prof. Soyoung Q. Park was able to demonstrate that prolonged exhalation increases heart rate variability and the brain’s reward sensitivity, thus enabling us to make bolder decisions. The study was published in the journal Neuron.

Accelerated breathing and a rapid heart rate often lead to quick decision-making. Judgments under these circumstances can lead to more cautious decisions to minimize potential loss—whether it is making investments under time pressure, during a critical employee meeting or while quickly selecting a meal. In contrast, slow breathing and a calmer heart could presumably lead to assessing the situation more positively and making bolder decisions.

New studies suggest consciousness exists in organisms without brains

How does a physical system such as the brain produce the ineffable phenomenon of conscious experience? Philosopher David Chalmers famously named this the “Hard Problem of Consciousness” in 1995. Proponents argue that, while cognitive functions such as categorisation or information integration might be explained mechanistically in the central nervous system, the origins of subjective experience resist such explanation. Detractors suggest that the Hard Problem is merely a collection of lesser puzzles that have yet to be solved through greater material understanding of the brain.

The heart of this controversy may lie in its core premise: that consciousness arises from a neuronal system organized around a brain. The deep entrenchment of this preconception isn’t surprising, given that our own consciousness is the only one we have access to. But this “brain-centrism” pervades the cognitive sciences, shaping our understanding of other beings and approaches to research. It’s one of several kinds of scientific chauvinism that currently limit the field of enquiry and hamper our scientific approach to other kinds of minds.

Brain circuit needed to incorporate new information may be linked to schizophrenia

One of the symptoms of schizophrenia is difficulty incorporating new information about the world. This can lead people with schizophrenia to struggle with making decisions and, eventually, to lose touch with reality.

MIT neuroscientists have now identified a gene mutation that appears to give rise to this type of difficulty. In a study of mice, the researchers found that the mutated gene impairs the function of a brain circuit that is responsible for updating beliefs based on new input.

This mutation, in a gene called grin2a, was originally identified in a large-scale screen of patients with schizophrenia. The new study suggests that drugs targeting this brain circuit could help with some of the cognitive impairments seen in people with schizophrenia.

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