Anil Seth wants to understand how minds work. As a neuroscientist at the University of Sussex in England, Seth has seen firsthand how neurons do what they do — but he knows that the puzzle of consciousness spills over from neuroscience into other branches of science, and even into philosophy.
Warning: This video may potentially trigger seizures for people with photosensitive epilepsy. Viewer discretion is advised.
The mouse study even offers a possible explanation as to why: Childhood infections may cause the body to over-express genes that code for microglia, the central nervous system’s primary immune cells. That, in turn, can affect brain development, which could be at play in some traits commonly associated with autism, such as difficulty communicating verbally or recognizing familiar faces.
So the researchers experimented with drugs that target microglia, and found that they not only prevented those social issues in adult mice — they might have reversed them.
Among boys genetically predisposed to autism, a severe childhood infection could make that diagnosis more likely.
Recent research in mice turned to the blood-brain barrier for clues as to why Alzheimer’s disease occurs and how to stop it.
Our minds rarely stay still when left alone. Such trains of thought, however, may unfold in vastly different ways. Here, we combined electrophysiological recording with thought sampling to assess four types of thoughts: task-unrelated, freely moving, deliberately constrained, and automatically constrained. Parietal P3 was larger for task-related relative to task-unrelated thoughts, whereas frontal P3 was increased for deliberately constrained compared with unconstrained thoughts. Enhanced frontal alpha power was observed during freely moving thoughts compared with non-freely moving thoughts. Alpha-power variability was increased for task-unrelated, freely moving, and unconstrained thoughts. Our findings indicate these thought types have distinct electrophysiological signatures, suggesting that they capture the heterogeneity of our ongoing thoughts.
Humans spend much of their lives engaging with their internal train of thoughts. Traditionally, research focused on whether or not these thoughts are related to ongoing tasks, and has identified reliable and distinct behavioral and neural correlates of task-unrelated and task-related thought. A recent theoretical framework highlighted a different aspect of thinking—how it dynamically moves between topics. However, the neural correlates of such thought dynamics are unknown. The current study aimed to determine the electrophysiological signatures of these dynamics by recording electroencephalogram (EEG) while participants performed an attention task and periodically answered thought-sampling questions about whether their thoughts were 1) task-unrelated, 2) freely moving, 3) deliberately constrained, and 4) automatically constrained.
Quantum physics is directly linked to consciousness: Observations not just change what is measured, they create it… Here’s the next episode of my new documentary Consciousness: Evolution of the Mind (2021), Part II: CONSCIOUSNESS & INFORMATION
*Subscribe to our YT channel to watch the rest of documentary (to be released in parts): https://youtube.com/c/EcstadelicMedia.
**Watch the documentary in its entirety on Vimeo ($0.99/rent; $1.99/buy): https://vimeo.com/ondemand/339083
***Join Consciousness: Evolution of the Mind public forum for news and discussions (Facebook group of 6K+ members): https://www.facebook.com/groups/consciousness.evolution.mind.
Innovator, philanthropist, humanitarian — khaliya — discussing radical solutions for the global mental health crisis.
Khaliya (https://www.khaliya.net/) is a Columbia University-trained public health specialist and Harvard University-trained specialist in Global Mental Health and Refugee Trauma. She is also a Venture Partner for Gender Equity Diversity Investments (www.gedi.vc), a new female-led VC firm targeting high growth investments that deliver top-quartile returns and measurable impact towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals with a preliminary focus on health.
Formerly an aid worker in over 32 countries and a former Peace Corps Volunteer for the US State Department, she has won numerous awards for her international service. Khaliya was the youngest member of the WEF’s Futures Council on the Future of Health and Healthcare and her opinion pieces have run in the New York Times (International and Domestic Editions) as well as WiredUK.
A future with human brain-chip interfaces is not very far as Samsung has a published a Perspective paper titled “Neuromorphic electronics based on copying and pasting the brain”, which talks about a new way to copy th…
An inexpensive anti-seizure medication markedly improves learning and memory and other cognitive functions in Alzheimer’s patients who have epileptic activity in their brains, according to a study published in the Sept. 27th issue of JAMA Neurology.
“This is a drug that’s used for epilepsy,” says Keith Vossel, MD, MSc, director of the Mary S. Easton Center for Alzheimer’s Disease Research at UCLA, and the principal investigator on the clinical trial. “We used it in this study for Alzheimer’s patients who had evidence of silent epileptic activity, which is seizure-like brain activity without the associated physical convulsions.”
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the leading cause of dementia worldwide. Early symptoms include short-term memory loss, decline in problem solving, word-finding difficulties, and trouble with spatial navigation. Among Alzheimer’s patients, an estimated 10–22% develop seizures, while an additional 22–54% exhibit silent epileptic activity.
A large, UK-based study of genetics and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has been suspended, following criticism that it failed to properly consult the autism community about the goals of the research. Concerns about the study include fears that its data could potentially be misused by other researchers seeking to ‘cure’ or eradicate ASD.
Study aimed at collecting DNA from 10,000 people with autism and their families has drawn criticism for failing to consult the autism community.
