Summary: Researchers used AI to select and generate images for studying brain’s visual processing. Functional MRI (fMRI) recorded heightened brain activity in response to these images, surpassing control images.
The approach enabled tuning visual models to individual responses, enhancing the study of brain’s reaction to visual stimuli. This method, offering an unbiased, systematic view of visual processing, could revolutionize neuroscience and therapeutic approaches.
Consciousness is probably the most perplexing mystery in all of science, and right now there is no consensus among neuroscientists about how the brain produc…
In a new study using brain scans of former NFL athletes, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers say they found high levels of a repair protein present long after a traumatic brain injury such as a concussion takes place. The repair protein, known as 18 kDa translocator protein (TSPO), is known to be present in the brain at high levels in the immediate aftermath of brain injury as part of the inflammatory response and to facilitate repair. The new findings, published Oct. 30 in JAMA Network Open, suggest that brain injury and repair processes persist for years after players end collision sports careers, and lead to long-term cognitive problems such as memory loss.
“The findings show that participating in repeated collision sports like football may have a direct link to long-term inflammation in the brain,” says Jennifer Coughlin, M.D., associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Ongoing studies like the current one, she says, add details about how the brain heals — or doesn’t — and how repeated brain injuries, even mild ones that players routinely shake off, may over time affect cognitive abilities.
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Summary: Researchers have discovered new insights into persistent aggression in female fruit flies, challenging existing theories.
A new study shows that certain neural cells sustain aggressive behavior for up to 10 minutes, suggesting factors beyond recurrent neural connections are at play.
These findings could aid understanding of human aggression and related neurological conditions, highlighting the need for revised models of aggression in the brain.
Summary: New research reveals the cerebellum’s significant role in the evolution of human cognitive functions. The study mapped the genetic development of cerebellar cells in humans, mice, and opossums, uncovering both ancestral and unique cellular characteristics.
Key findings include the increased proportion of specific Purkinje cells in humans, potentially linked to higher cognitive functions, and the identification of over 1,000 genes with varying activity profiles across species, some related to neurodevelopmental disorders.
UCLA department of integrative biology and physiology.
Luskin Endowment for Leadership Symposium.
Pushing the boundaries: neuroscience, cognition, and life.
Michael Levin: Memory and intelligent problem-solving by unconventionalcollective intelligences in anatomical morphospace.
A speech prosthetic developed by a collaborative team of Duke neuroscientists, neurosurgeons, and engineers can translate a person’s brain signals into what they’re trying to say.
Appearing Nov. 6 in the journal Nature Communications, the new technology might one day help people unable to talk due to neurological disorders regain the ability to communicate through a brain-computer interface.
“There are many patients who suffer from debilitating motor disorders, like ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) or locked-in syndrome, that can impair their ability to speak,” said Gregory Cogan, Ph.D., a professor of neurology at Duke University’s School of Medicine and one of the lead researchers involved in the project. “But the current tools available to allow them to communicate are generally very slow and cumbersome.”
