One of the most upsetting aspects of age-related memory decline is not being able to remember the face that accompanies the name of a person you just talked with hours earlier. While researchers don’t understand why this dysfunction occurs, a new study conducted at University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) has provided some important new clues. The study was published on September 8 in Aging Cell.
Using aging mice, researchers have identified a new mechanism in neurons that causes memories associated with these social interactions to decline with age. In addition, they were able to reverse this memory loss in the lab.
The researchers report that their findings identified a specific target in the brain that may one day be used to develop therapies that could prevent or reverse memory loss due to typical aging. Aging memory problems are distinct from those caused by diseases like Alzheimer’s or dementia. At this time, there are no medications that can prevent or reverse cognitive decline due to typical aging.
After selling his company, Braintree/Venmo, for $800 million and battling chronic depression for 10 years, Bryan Johnson is now on a mission to help us measure and gather more data about the organ that makes us oh-so human: our brain.
In this episode, Ryan Tanaka and Omar Olivares share an exclusive, behind the scenes look of Kernel’s headquarters near Los Angeles, California. Ryan interviews Bryan Johnson, tries on Kernel’s wearable brain-interface, ‘Flow,’ and learns about the engineering and technology developments needed to make it all happen. CTO, Ryan Field and Director of Applied Neuroscience, Katherine Perdue also share insights about Kernel’s wearable Flow headset.
Disclaimer: Thanks to Kernel for opening their office for us to film in and for supporting our travel and accommodation.
Neura Pod is a series covering topics related to Neuralink, Inc. Topics such as brain-machine interfaces, brain injuries, and artificial intelligence will be explored. Host Ryan Tanaka synthesizes informationopinions, and conducts interviews to easily learn about Neuralink and its future.
Before the first clinical symptoms appear, Alzheimer’s.
Alzheimer’s disease is a disease that attacks the brain, causing a decline in mental ability that worsens over time. It is the most common form of dementia and accounts for 60 to 80 percent of dementia cases. There is no current cure for Alzheimer’s disease, but there are medications that can help ease the symptoms.
The findings also point to possible directions for treatment of the disease.
The results are published Sept. 6 in the journal Neuron.
Almost half the human genome is comprised of transposable elements, long and short stretches of DNA called “jumping genes” for their ability to move from one location of the genome to others. Once called “junk” DNA, these transposable sequences have been shown to play crucial regulatory roles in many biological functions. Once they fulfill these myriad roles, molecular regulators usually silence their expression.
It works by copying what happens in the hippocampus—a seahorse-shaped region deep in the brain that plays a crucial role in memory. The brain structure not only helps us form short-term memories but also appears to direct memories to other regions for long-term storage.
For more than 10 years, Theodore Berger and Dong Song at the University of Southern California and their colleagues have been developing a way to mimic this process. Their idea is to use brain electrodes to understand the electrical patterns of activity that occur when memories are encoded, and then use those same electrodes to fire similar patterns of activity.
https://www.timventura.com — Martin Ciupa discusses the existential risks and unintended consequences of AI superintelligence and the Singularity, along with concerns about AI augmentation through Neuralink. We also explore the philosophical underpinnings of The Singularity and how it fulfills a long-standing human need for transcendence in a technologically advanced society.
Martin Ciupa is a subject matter expert on artificial intelligence. Martin is the CEO of Remoscope Inc, an AI-based Telehealth startup, and an advisor & consultant to Mindmaze, a Unicorn Neurotech company focuses on applying advanced neuroscience to everyday life. Martin has decades of experience in computing and artificial intelligence, PhD studies in AI, and a Master’s Degree in Cybernetics. He joins us today to discuss AI Superintelligence and the Singularity.
We previously touched on Ghosts in the Machine in terms of the human qualities we unintentionally build into AI, so today I wanted to focus on “God In The Machine”, especially in regards to AI Superintelligence and the Singularity. Let’s start with a story in Futurism quoting former Google Exec Mo Gawdat as saying that “AI Researchers are creating God”.
The Singularity has scared more than just this researcher: Stephen Hawking has said that “The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race”. Bill Gates and Elon Musk have also voiced concerns on AI Superintelligence. Gates said, “I am one of those who is concerned about superintelligence. First, machines will do a lot of work for us and they won’t be super smart. That should be positive if we manage it well. A few decades after that, they will be smart enough to be a concern.” – and Elon Musk has said that development of artificial intelligence “is the greatest existential threat to humanity”.
We contrast these views against the optimistic view of AI Superintelligence by proponents like Ray Kurzweil, who has said, The pace of change will be so astonishingly quick that we won’t be able to keep up, unless we enhance our own intelligence by merging with the intelligent machines we are creating. What are your thoughts on the positive aspects of this technology?
Finally, speaking in practical terms, the world we live in is becoming increasingly automated and complex, and moving past the ability of people to manage all of these systems. We explore whether human-level or higher AI at some point simply to help run this machine-driven world we’re creating.
Along the way, they discuss the early days of David’s HedWeb, the Abolitionist Project, the Three Supers of Transhumanism (Superhappiness, Superintelligence, and Superlongevity), philosophy and history of science, the nature of intelligence, field theories of consciousness, anesthesia, empathogens, anti-tolerance drugs, and much more.
Some of the key essays discussed:
Utopian Pharmacology — “Mental Health in the Third Millennium — MDMA and Beyond” — https://mdma.net/
The Biointelligence Explosion — “How recursively self-improving organic robots will modify their own source code and bootstrap our way to full-spectrum superintelligence” — https://www.biointelligence-explosion.com/
Research led by Sanford Burnham Prebys professor Francesca Marassi, Ph.D., is helping to reveal the molecular secrets of macular degeneration, which causes almost 90% of all age-related vision loss.
The study, published recently in the Biophysical Journal, describes the flexible structure of a key blood protein involved in macular degeneration and other age-related diseases, such as Alzheimer’s and atherosclerosis.
“Proteins in the blood are under constant and changing pressure because of the different ways blood flows throughout the body,” says Marassi. “For example, blood flows more slowly through small blood vessels in the eyes compared to larger arteries around the heart. Blood proteins need to be able to respond to these changes, and this study gives us fundamental truths about how they adapt to their environment, which is critical to targeting those proteins for future treatments.”
Researchers demonstrated that the brains of people playing an online game together were synchronized without physical presence.
Online gaming and other types of online social interaction have become increasingly popular during the COVID pandemic. This trend is likely to continue due to increased remote working and investments in social technology.
Previous research has shown that people’s brains activate in a similar and simultaneous way during social interaction. Such inter-brain neural synchronization has been associated with empathy and cooperation in face-to-face situations. However, its role in online, remote interaction has remained unknown.
David Chalmers, Professor of Philosophy and Neural Science at NYU, joins us to discuss his newest book Reality+: Virtual Worlds and the Problems of Philosophy.
Topics discussed in this episode include:
-Virtual reality as genuine reality. –Why VR is compatible with the good life. –Why we can never know whether we’re in a simulation. –Consciousness in virtual realities. –The ethics of simulated beings.
