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Archive for the ‘neuroscience’ category: Page 469

Feb 16, 2022

Your brain might be a quantum computer that hallucinates math

Posted by in categories: computing, mathematics, neuroscience, quantum physics

You’re not bad at math. Like pearls before swine, your beautiful brain is just far too complex for such basic things. property= description.

Feb 15, 2022

Stretchable Mesh Nanoelectronics for 3D Single‐Cell Chronic Electrophysiology from Developing Brain Organoids

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, cyborgs, evolution, neuroscience

There is a cyborg organoid platform developed by integrating “tissue-like” stretchable mesh nanoelectronics with 2D stem cell sheets. Leveraging the 2D-to-3D reconfiguration during organoid development, 2D stem cell sheets fold and embed stretchable mesh nanoelectronics with electrodes throughout the entire 3D organoid. The embedded electronics can then enable continuous electrical recording.

Scientists design stretchable mesh nanoelectronics, mimicking the mechanical and structural properties of brain organoids to build cyborg human brain organoids.

Using the 3D embedded stretchable electrodes, achieved reliable long-term electrical recording of the same hiPSC-derived neural tissue at single-cell, millisecond spatiotemporal resolution for 6 months, revealing the evolution of the tissue-wide single-cell electrophysiology over hiPSC-derived neuron development. Applying this technology to brain organoids at early developmental stages, they traced the gradually emerging single-cell action potentials and network activities.

Continue reading “Stretchable Mesh Nanoelectronics for 3D Single‐Cell Chronic Electrophysiology from Developing Brain Organoids” »

Feb 15, 2022

First gene therapy for Tay-Sachs disease successfully given to two children

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience

About 1 in 300 people in the general population carry the Tay-Sachs disease gene. Ray Kachatorian/Stone via Getty ImagesTwo babies have received the first-ever gene therapy for Tay-Sachs disease after over 14 years of development. Tay-Sachs is a severe neurological disease caused by a deficiency in an enzyme called HexA. This enzyme breaks down a fatlike substance that normally exists in very small, harmless amounts in the brain. Without HexA, however, this fatlike substance can accumulate to toxic levels that damage and kill neurons.

Feb 14, 2022

In the Process of Solving a Decades-Long Mystery, Scientists Discover Where Schizophrenia May Originate in the Brain

Posted by in category: neuroscience

Researchers studying a protein that is strongly linked to the psychiatric disorder are the first to determine the protein’s function, tracing it to a structure in the hippocampus called the dentate gyrus.

In the process of solving a decades-long mystery about a particular protein, scientists have identified a specific location in the brain where schizophrenia may originate.

The news: Despite the identification of many genes that show some link to schizophrenia, identifying a part of the brain that is likely responsible for the disorder with a high level of certainty has proven to be extremely difficult — until now.

Feb 13, 2022

We Just Got Closer to Finding a Link Between Alzheimer’s And Circadian Rhythms

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience

Long before Alzheimer’s disease is diagnosed, once-trusty proteins start to knot together in the brain in a process that may be hastened by poor sleep.

Now, scientists have uncovered a possible mechanism linking disruptions in circadian rhythms and the build-up of proteins associated with Alzheimer’s disease, by studying the rhythmic operation of immune cells and finding the molecular ‘timers’ that control them.

Circadian rhythms are the daily rhythms of bodily functions which are tied to our natural body clock, respond to light exposure, and govern our sleep-wake cycles.

Feb 12, 2022

Out of a total of 23 monkeys implanted with Elon Musk’s Neuralink brain chips at the University of California Davis between 2017 and 2020, at least 15 reportedly died

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, computing, Elon Musk, neuroscience

Via Business Insider and the New York Post, the news comes from the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, an animal-rights group that viewed over 700 pages of documents, veterinary records, and necropsy reports through a public records request at the university.

-Wren Graves.

Feb 12, 2022

How Remote Workers Are Secretly Juggling Two Full-Time Jobs

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, business, employment, neuroscience

Work remotely, work more jobs.


With the pandemic’s turbocharged acceleration of remote work options, many employees have sought to capitalize on the lack of personal supervision by secretly working two (or more) full-time jobs at once. But while there’s more money to be made, the strategy brings with it significant tradeoffs, namely mental health.

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Feb 11, 2022

This bizarre looking helmet can create better brain scans

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, engineering, mathematics, neuroscience

It may look like a bizarre bike helmet, or a piece of equipment found in Doc Brown’s lab in Back to the Future, yet this gadget made of plastic and copper wire is a technological breakthrough with the potential to revolutionize medical imaging. Despite its playful look, the device is actually a metamaterial, packing in a ton of physics, engineering, and mathematical know-how.

It was developed by Xin Zhang, a College of Engineering professor of mechanical engineering, and her team of scientists at BU’s Photonics Center. They’re experts in , a type of engineered structure created from small unit cells that might be unspectacular alone, but when grouped together in a precise way, get new superpowers not found in nature. Metamaterials, for instance, can bend, absorb, or manipulate waves—such as electromagnetic waves, , or radio waves. Each unit cell, also called a resonator, is typically arranged in a in rows and columns; they can be designed in different sizes and shapes, and placed at different orientations, depending on which waves they’re designed to influence.

Metamaterials can have many novel functions. Zhang, who is also a professor of electrical and computer engineering, , and and engineering, has designed an acoustic metamaterial that blocks sound without stopping airflow (imagine quieter jet engines and air conditioners) and a magnetic metamaterial that can improve the quality of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines used for medical diagnosis.

Feb 11, 2022

New Map of Meaning in the Brain Changes Ideas About Memory

Posted by in category: neuroscience

Researchers have mapped hundreds of semantic categories to the tiny bits of the cortex that represent them in our thoughts and perceptions. What they discovered might change our view of memory.

Feb 11, 2022

Researchers introduce into human cells a genetic mutation that protects against Alzheimer’s disease

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, biotech/medical, genetics, neuroscience

𝐌𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐗𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬:

The Neuro-Network.

𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐡𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐜𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐬 𝐚 𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐜 𝐦𝐮𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭 𝐀𝐥𝐳𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐫’𝐬 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞

Continue reading “Researchers introduce into human cells a genetic mutation that protects against Alzheimer’s disease” »