Some thoughts triggered by the death of the mathematician John Conway.
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Category: neuroscience – Page 694
The human genome contains billions of pieces of information and around 22000 genes, but not all of it is, strictly speaking, human. Eight percent of our DNA consists of remnants of ancient viruses, and another 40 percent is made up of repetitive strings of genetic letters that is also thought to have a viral origin. Those extensive viral regions are much more than evolutionary relics: They may be deeply involved with a wide range of diseases including multiple sclerosis, hemophilia, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), along with certain types of dementia and cancer.
For many years, biologists had little understanding of how that connection worked—so little that they came to refer to the viral part of our DNA as dark matter within the genome. “They just meant they didn’t know what it was or what it did,” explains Molly Gale Hammell, an associate professor at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. It became evident that the virus-related sections of the genetic code do not participate in the normal construction and regulation of the body. But in that case, how do they contribute to disease?
Eight percent of our DNA consists of remnants of ancient viruses, and another 40 percent is made up of repetitive strings of genetic letters that is also thought to have a viral origin.
For companies and governments, the stakes couldn’t be higher. The first to develop and patent 6G will be the biggest winners in what some call the next industrial revolution. Though still at least a decade away from becoming reality, 6G — which could be up to 100 times faster than the peak speed of 5G — could deliver the kind of technology that’s long been the stuff of science fiction, from real-time holograms to flying taxis and internet-connected human bodies and brains.
Most of the world is yet to experience the benefits of a 5G network, but the geopolitical race for the next big thing in telecommunications technology is already heating up. For companies and governments, the stakes couldn’t be higher.
Summary: Mouse study reveals sound appears to alter connectivity in auditory processing areas earlier in development than previously thought; even before the ear canal opens.
Source: Johns Hopkins University
By altering the NOVA1 gene, researchers were able to “Neanderthal-izes” a brain organoid model. Study reveals there is only a one gene difference between the modern human brain and that of our extinct ancestors.
Traumatic and stressful events in childhood can affect the brain into adulthood, scientists have shown, identifying for the first time specific alterations to key brain structures in the amygdala and the hippocampus.
Previous studies have shown that AgRP neurons in the arcuate nucleus (ARC) respond to energy deficits and play a key role in the control of feeding behavior and metabolism. Here, we demonstrate that chronic unpredictable stress, an animal model of depression, decreases spontaneous firing rates, increases firing irregularity and alters the firing properties of AgRP neurons in both male and female mice. These changes are associated with enhanced inhibitory synaptic transmission and reduced intrinsic neuronal excitability. Chemogenetic inhibition of AgRP neurons increases susceptibility to subthreshold unpredictable stress. Conversely, chemogenetic activation of AgRP neurons completely reverses anhedonic and despair behaviors induced by chronic unpredictable stress.
What if our bodies kept evolving? And are there body parts that will disappear one day?
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Our backs hurt, ankles break and feet are busted! Not to mention having a baby is dangerous and our eyes are built backwards. There is a lot that doesn’t work in our bodies, so today we are going to explain the perfectly evolved human. Evolutionary biologists have been battling this scenario for years so we explain it all. Including the need for ostrich feet, bipedal bodies, bilateral symmetry, rewiring neurons in the eye and having dog ears! Let us know if you would want this body!?
References:
Metazoa: Animal Life and the Birth of the Mind — by Peter Godfrey Smith.
https://leakeyfoundation.org/2015why-walk-on-two-legs/#:~:te…duced%20in, stable%2C%20rigid%20base%20for%20propulsion.
https://www.earthdate.org/node/131
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30772945/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31163155/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30482358/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29787621/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28406563/
A neurscience/neurogenesis link.
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Natural compounds found in apples and other fruits may help stimulate the production of new brain cells, which may have implications for learning and memory, according to a new study in mice published in Stem Cell Reports.
Cell-Intrinsic Learning And Memory Storage Dynamics — Dr. David Glanzman Ph.D., Professor, in the Department Integrative Biology and Physiology, at UCLA College of the Life Sciences.
Dr. David Glanzman is Professor, in the Department Integrative Biology and Physiology, at UCLA College of the Life Sciences, Professor in the Department of Neurobiology in the David Geffen School of Medicine, and Member, Brain Research Institute.
Dr. Glanzman has a B.A. in Psychology from Indiana University Bloomington and a Ph.D. in Psychology from Stanford University.
Dr. Glanzman is interested in the cell biology of learning and memory in simple organisms.
In Dr. Glanzman’s lab research they use two animals, the marine snail Aplysia californica, and the zebrafish (Danio rerio).