Summary: Study reveals a skin-to-brain neural circuit that responds to rewarding forms of social touch. Researchers say the findings could provide an avenue for harnessing the power of touch to assist in treating social and emotional disorders.
Source: Columbia University.
A parent’s reassuring touch. A friend’s warm hug. A lover’s enticing embrace. These are among the tactile joys in our lives.
Part 1: the future of medicine: nanobots part 2: a new era in mental health: nanobots part 3: the healing power of nanobots part 4: the genetic and data-connected revolution: nanobots part 5: the end of plastic surgery: nanobots part 6: the fertility revolution: nanobots part 7: the job-specific human: nanobots part 8: the end of education as we know it: nanobots part 9: the rise of programmable matter: nanobots part 10: the next generation of humans: nanobots.
Nanotechnology is a rapidly evolving field with the potential to revolutionize medicine in the future. One of the most promising applications of nanotechnology is the use of nanobots in medicine. Nanobots are microscopic robots that can be programmed to perform specialized activities such as disease diagnosis and treatment. They can be used to diagnose and treat a wide range of conditions, including mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety, as well as physical injuries and illnesses.
One of the most interesting potential applications of nanobots in medicine is the treatment of mental illnesses. Mental illnesses are among the most common and devastating diseases of our time. They can be programmed to constantly map the brain and correct faults as they develop. Alzheimer’s disease may theoretically be treated if a person was implanted with nanobots at birth.
Octopuses have fascinated scientists and the public with their remarkable intelligence, from using tools to engaging in creative play, problem-solving, and even escaping from aquariums. Now, their cognitive abilities may provide significant insight into understanding the evolution of complex life and cognition, including the human brain.
An international team of researchers from Dartmouth College and the Max Delbrück Center (MDC) in Germany has published a study in the journal Science Advances.
<em>Science Advances</em> is a peer-reviewed, open-access scientific journal that is published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). It was launched in 2015 and covers a wide range of topics in the natural sciences, including biology, chemistry, earth and environmental sciences, materials science, and physics.
AMISHI JHA: Where is your attention right now? The human brain’s attention system is actually the success story of what makes us unique as human beings. Because attention fuels our ability to think, to feel, and connect, what we pay attention to is our life. For a long time, through our evolutionary history, the brain started to suffer from a very big problem which is that there’s far more information out in the environment than could be fully processed.
Attention ended up becoming a very useful solution because it allows us to prioritize information, but there are qualities of the human experience that disable attention. Given how powerful attention is, we need to really respect where we place this precious brain resource. The mind is no different than the body. The mind needs to be exercised daily to optimize our psychological well-being. Knowing this, I became very interested in understanding if we might be able to train attention.
Summary: Close and supportive parental relationships can help mitigate the genetic and environmental risk of developing alcohol use disorder for at-risk teens.
Source: state university of new york.
For teens at elevated risk of developing alcohol use disorder (AUD), close relationships with parents can help mitigate their genetic and environmental vulnerability, a new study suggests.
Fur is a distinguishing trait of mammals although baldness is an attractive variety of mammalian oddities. Check out how humans lost their fur despite still having the gene responsible for it.
For most people, the idea of brain augmentation remains in the realms of science fiction. However, for scientists across the globe, it is fast becoming reality—with the possibility of humans with “super-intelligence” edging ever closer.
In laboratory experiments on rats, researchers have already been able to transfer memories from one brain to another. Future projects include the development of telepathic communication and the creation of “cyborgs,” where humans have advanced abilities thanks to technological interventions.
Scientists Mikhail Lebedev, Ioan Opris and Manuel Casanova have now published a comprehensive collection of research into brain augmentation, and their efforts have won a major European science research prize—the Frontiers Spotlight Award. This $100,000 prize is for the winners to set up a conference that highlights emerging research in their field.
Anders Sandberg is “not technically a philosopher,” he tells IEEE Spectrum, although it is his job to think deeply about technological utopias and dystopias, the future of AI, and the possible consequences of human enhancement via genetic tweaks or implanted devices. In fact, he has a PhD in computational neuroscience. So who better to consult regarding the ethics of neurotech and brain enhancement?
Sandberg works as a senior research fellow at Oxford’s Future of Humanity Institute (which is helmed by Nick Bostrom, a leading AI scholar and author of the book Superintelligence that explores the AI threat). In a wide-ranging phone interview with Spectrum, Sandberg discussed today’s state-of-the-art neurotech, whether it will ever see widespread adoption, and how it could reshape society.
Scientists have worked out why common anti-depressants cause around half of users to feel emotionally “blunted.” In a study published today in Neuropsychopharmacology, they show that the drugs affect reinforcement learning, an important behavioral process that allows people to learn from their environment.
According to the NHS, more than 8.3 million patients in England received an antidepressant drug in 2021/22. A widely used class of antidepressants, particularly for persistent or severe cases, is selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). These drugs target serotonin, a chemical that carries messages between nerve cells in the brain and has been dubbed the “pleasure chemical.”
One of the widely reported side effects of SSRIs is “blunting,” where patients report feeling emotionally dull and no longer finding things as pleasurable as they used to. Between 40% and 60% of patients taking SSRIs are believed to experience this side effect.