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Category: neuroscience – Page 483

Watch: Scientists create fascinating “brain movies” using neuroimaging data

Have you ever imagined listening to the brain’s activity as it unfolds in real-time? Researchers from Columbia University have pioneered a technique that transforms complex neuroimaging data into a captivating audiovisual experience, akin to watching a movie with a musical soundtrack. This novel approach allows scientists to ‘see’ and ‘hear’ the brain’s intricate workings, offering fresh insights into its behavior during various tasks.

The details of their work have been published in the journal PLOS One.

The motivation behind this study stems from a growing challenge in neuroscience: the vast amount of data generated by advanced brain imaging techniques. Technologies like functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and wide-field optical mapping (WFOM) capture the dynamic, multi-dimensional activities of the brain, revealing patterns of neurons firing and blood flow changes.

Brain Activity Now Watchable and Listenable

Summary: Researchers developed an innovated a technique to convert complex neuroimaging data into audiovisual formats. By transforming brain activity and blood flow data from behaviors like running or grooming in mice into synchronized piano and violin sounds, accompanied by video, they offer an intuitive approach to explore the brain’s intricate workings.

This method not only makes it easier to identify patterns in large datasets but also enhances the understanding of the dynamic relationship between neuronal activity and behavior. The toolkit represents a significant step forward in neuroscientific research, enabling scientists to intuitively screen and interpret vast amounts of brain data.

A Boost in Dopamine During Adolescence Permanently Amplifies Impulsivity and Aggression

Drugs blocking dopamine transporters may be harmful for healthy teens but helpful for those with pathological dopamine hypofunction.

In a breakthrough finding researchers at Columbia University Irving Medical Center identified a sensitive developmental period during adolescence that impacts adult impulsivity, aggression, and dopamine function in mice.

As organisms grow from embryo to adult, they pass through sensitive time periods where developmental trajectories are influenced by environmental factors. These windows of plasticity often allow organisms to adapt to their surroundings through evolutionarily selected mechanisms.

NASA Sponsored Researcher Suggests It Might Be Possible to Change the Laws of Physics

In an extremely cosmic–brain take, University of Rochester astrophysics professor Adam Frank suggests that a civilization could advance so much that it could eventually tinker with the fundamental laws of physics.

It’s a mind-bending proposition that ventures far beyond the conventional framework of scientific understanding, a reminder that perhaps we should dare to think outside the box — especially as we continue our search for extraterrestrial civilizations.

If a civilization were to be able to change the laws of physics, “the very nature of energy itself, with established rules like energy conservation, would be subject to revision within the scope of engineering,” Frank, who is part of the NASA-sponsored Categorizing Atmospheric Technosignatures program, wrote in an essay for Big Think.

Traumatic Brain Injury Forges New Neural Pathways

Tufts University School of Medicine researchers developed imaging technology that records neuronal activity throughout the brain during the first weeks of recovery. They discovered that a head injury serious enough to affect brain function, such as that caused by a car accident or sudden fall, leads to changes in the brain beyond the site of impact. In an animal model of traumatic brain injury, the researchers found that both hemispheres work together to forge new neural pathways in an attempt to replicate those that were lost.

Their findings are published in Cerebral Cortex in an article titled, “Traumatic brain injury disrupts state-dependent functional cortical connectivity in a mouse model.”

“Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is the leading cause of death in young people and can cause cognitive and motor dysfunction and disruptions in functional connectivity between brain regions,” wrote the researchers. “In human TBI patients and rodent models of TBI, functional connectivity is decreased after injury. Recovery of connectivity after TBI is associated with improved cognition and memory, suggesting an important link between connectivity and functional outcome. We examined widespread alterations in functional connectivity following TBI using simultaneous widefield mesoscale GCaMP7c calcium imaging and electrocorticography (ECoG) in mice injured using the controlled cortical impact (CCI) model of TBI.”

It’s not all about neurons: A new avenue for treating neurodegeneration, injury

While supporting actors are often overlooked, without their contribution, a story’s main characters would lose context and resort to isolated monologues.

The same is true for neurons — the top-billing stars of cognition — when firing in the brain. Without cells called glia, which form the bulk of brain matter, neurons would stop communicating with each other, as seen in neurodegeneration. These supporting glial cells play countless critical roles in the nervous system such as maintaining the chemical environment of neurons and modulating their activity.

Although neurons still rightfully garner A-lister attention when it comes to developing brain therapies, Jeffrey Goldberg, MD, PhD, professor and chair of ophthalmology and the Blumenkranz Smead Professor, believes a young, underexplored class of therapies called gliotherapeutics, which target and harness glia, will ultimately provide important new directions for treatment.

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