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Category: neuroscience – Page 661

Scientists discover how molecule becomes anticancer weapon

Years of toil in the laboratory have revealed how a marine bacterium makes a potent anti-cancer molecule.

The anti-cancer molecule salinosporamide A, also called Marizomb, is in Phase III clinical trials to treat glioblastoma, a . Scientists now for the first time understand the -driven process that activates the molecule.

Researchers at UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography found that an enzyme called SalC assembles what the team calls the salinosporamide anti-cancer “warhead.” Scripps graduate student Katherine Bauman is the lead author of a paper that explains the assembly process in the March 21 issue of Nature Chemical Biology.

Looking at a Human Face Triggers Activity in Our Brains Unlike Any Other Object

It may not feel like it, but our eyes are constantly making rapid, tiny movements called saccades, taking in new information as we focus our gaze on various things in the world. As we do so, our brains receive the input – and depending on what the object of our gaze is, it turns out the brain activity triggered can be quite unique.

“While we typically do not perceive our own eye movements, the abrupt change in visual input with each saccade has substantial consequences at the neuronal level,” researchers explain in a new study led by first author and cognitive neuroscientist Tobias Staudigl from Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich in Germany.

In an experiment, Staudigl and fellow researchers worked with 13 epilepsy patients, who had electrodes implanted in their brains to monitor their condition. This kind of intervention can be helpful for brain scientists, so they often turn to such patients with electrodes already implanted, in case they’d be willing to volunteer their time.

Meta’s Yann LeCun strives for human-level AI

What is the next step toward bridging the gap between natural and artificial intelligence? Scientists and researchers are divided on the answer. Yann LeCun, Chief AI Scientist at Meta and the recipient of the 2018 Turing Award, is betting on self-supervised learning, machine learning models that can be trained without the need for human-labeled examples.

LeCun has been thinking and talking about self-supervised and unsupervised learning for years. But as his research and the fields of AI and neuroscience have progressed, his vision has converged around several promising concepts and trends.

In a recent event held by Meta AI, LeCun discussed possible paths toward human-level AI, challenges that remain and the impact of advances in AI.

Mutation protecting against Alzheimer’s edited into human cells

Treating brain diseases is also always difficult because of something called the “blood-brain barrier.” This wall of cells is designed to prevent toxins and pathogens from getting from the blood into the brain — but it also makes it hard to get treatments into the brain.

People with the Icelandic mutation are five times more likely to reach their 85 birthday without an Alzheimer’s diagnosis.

The Icelandic variant: Scientists have identified a couple of differences between the brains of people with Alzheimer’s and those of healthy people.

Assume that animals have feelings too, say cognitive biologists

We should assume that animals can have feelings too. From an ethical point of view this should inform our dealings with animals, researchers from Leiden University and Utrecht University argue in an opinion article that was published in the scientific journal Affective Science on Thursday 10 March.

Some of the leading behavioral scientists in the world have hypothesized that many can have emotions. But whether also have feelings is the subject of much debate, and some behavioral scientists believe they do not. This is incorrect, say cognitive psychologist Mariska Kret (Leiden University) and behavioral biologists Jorg Massen (Utrecht University) and Frans de Waal (Emory University and endowed professor in Utrecht). Based on observations, there is a good chance that animals can also have feelings; it is just very difficult to investigate this.

Bacteria in the Nose Can Sneak Into the Brain — May Increase Risk of Alzheimer’s Disease

New research from Griffith University has shown that a bacterium commonly present in the nose can sneak into the brain and set off a cascade of events that may lead to Alzheimer’s disease.

Associate Professor Jenny Ekberg and colleagues from the Clem Jones Centre for Neurobiology and Stem Cell Research at Menzies Health Institute Queensland and Griffith Institute for Drug Discovery, in collaboration with Queensland University of Technology, have discovered that the bacterium Chlamydia pneumoniae can invade the brain via the nerves of the nasal cavity.

A Surprise Finding About Mouse Vision Could Change Our View of Cognition

Being able to tell the difference between a photo of something and the actual thing itself – picture-to-object equivalence, in science speak – is a useful test for better understanding the visual and cognitive function of other primates, birds, and even rats.

But how far does this ability to interpret a flat image extend in the animal kingdom?

A new study has found mice might also have the capacity, as they demonstrated the ability to link a 2D image of an object with the actual 3D object itself, using the hippocampus part of their brains in the same way that humans do.

Cognitive distortions linked to safetyism beliefs, support for trigger warnings, and the belief that words are harmful

𝐂𝐨𝐠𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐚𝐟𝐞𝐭𝐲𝐢𝐬𝐦 𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐟𝐬, 𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐦𝐟𝐮𝐥

𝘾𝙤𝙜𝙣𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙫𝙚 𝙙𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙚𝙧𝙧𝙤𝙧𝙨 𝙞𝙣 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙤… See more.

A new correlational study, published in Personality and Individual Differences, found empirical support for these claims by finding an association between frequency of cognitive distortions and stronger safetyism-inspired beliefs.