Scientific investigations of dreaming have been hampered by the delay between a dream and when people report on their dream, and by a change in state from sleep to wake. To overcome this problem, Konkoly et al. show that individuals in REM sleep can perceive and answer an experimenter’s questions, allowing for real-time communication about a dream.
Although the definitive causes of Alzheimer’s diseases aren’t yet fully understood, one of the leading suspects is the accumulation of abnormal proteins in the brain that impinges on the activity of the neurons. Scientists at Northwestern University have explored this phenomenon in a group of elderly individuals with excellent memory, known as SuperAgers, and found them to be far more resistant to the troublesome buildup of some of these proteins, shedding further light on how the disease may take hold.
A lot of the research into the progression of Alzheimer’s focus on a pair of proteins called amyloid and tau. Clumps of amyloid are thought to build up and develop into plaques that impact on memory and cognitive function, while tau takes the form of tangles that interfere with the way nutrients are taken up by the neurons, eventually leading to the death of the cell.
The Northwestern University researchers carried out experiments to study the prevalence of these proteins in SuperAgers, a group of subjects over the age of 80 with the memory capacity of someone 20 to 30 years younger than them. These subjects are assessed annually as part of ongoing research at Northwestern’s Mesulam Center for Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer’s Disease.
Muffling expression of an autism-linked gene in a key song-related area of the brain renders young zebra finches unable to learn songs from older birds.
Summary: FOXO3, a gene linked to longevity in humans, protects neural stem cells from the negative effects of stress.
Source: Weill Cornell Medicine
Dwight E. Bergles, Ph.D., a leading neuroscientist at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, is the winner of the prestigious Barancik Prize for Innovation in MS Research. Bergles has pioneered the study of immature cells in the brain that can regenerate myelin-making cells after myelin is destroyed in MS. These cells, oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs), hold the key to finding ways to promote myelin repair and restore function for people living with multiple sclerosis.
Study reveals those with frontotemporal dementia have greater white matter hyperintensity than those with other forms of dementia. The amount of white matter hyperintensity was associated with the severity of FTD symptoms.
Chronic increases of the cytokine IL-17a circulating in the blood of mice reduced microglia activity in one region of the hippocampus, an area of the brain critical for memory and learning.
Reverse Age
Posted in biotech/medical, cryonics, genetics, life extension, neuroscience
A study from the University of Wisconsin-Madison published on September 14 in Science revealed that when a plant is injured, they release a nervous system-like signal throughout their body, similar to the pain response found in humans and other animals.
When a human is injured, sensory cells in our bodies alert our nervous system to release the neurotransmitter glutamate. This stimulates a part of our brain to release adrenaline, which kicks our fight-or-flight response into gear. Plants don’t have nervous systems but video captured by the scientists behind this new study of injured plants shows that they do have their own version of fight-or-flight when they come under attack.
The footage captured by the study’s scientists shows a caterpillar eating away at a plant and the plant’s subsequent response. Because they lack a nervous system, plants don’t have neurotransmitters, but they do still have glutamate. In the video, a plant is bitten by a caterpillar and releases glutamate at the bite site. This activates a calcium wave to rush through the plant’s entire body, which then triggers the plant to release their own stress hormone.