Summary: Researchers reveal how neurons set up and sustain the vital infrastructure that allows for seamless neurotransmission.
Source: picower institute for learning and memory.
The nervous system works because neurons communicate across connections called synapses. They “talk” when calcium ions flow through channels into “active zones” that are loaded with vesicles carrying molecular messages.
Neuroscientist and physician Matthew Schrag found suspect images in dozens of papers involving Alzheimer’s disease, including Western blots (projected in green) measuring a protein linked to cognitive decline in rats.
The Neuro-Network.
𝐁𝐋𝐎𝐓𝐒 𝐎𝐍 𝐀 𝐅𝐈𝐄𝐋𝐃?
𝘼 𝙣𝙚𝙪𝙧𝙤𝙨𝙘𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚 𝙞𝙢𝙖𝙜𝙚 𝙨𝙡𝙚𝙪𝙩𝙝 𝙛𝙞𝙣𝙙𝙨 𝙨𝙞𝙜𝙣𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙛𝙖𝙗𝙧𝙞𝙘𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙞𝙣 𝙨𝙘𝙤𝙧𝙚𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝘼𝙡𝙯𝙝𝙚𝙞𝙢𝙚𝙧’𝙨 𝙖𝙧𝙩𝙞𝙘𝙡𝙚𝙨, 𝙩𝙝𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙖 𝙧𝙚𝙞𝙜𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙤𝙧𝙮
A neuroscience image sleuth finds signs of fabrication in scores of Alzheimer’s articles, threatening a reigning theory of the disease.
To understand the architecture of human language, it is critical to examine diverse languages; however, most cognitive neuroscience research has focused on only a handful of primarily Indo-European languages. Here we report an investigation of the fronto-temporo-parietal language network across 45 languages and establish the robustness to cross-linguistic variation of its topography and key functional properties, including left-lateralization, strong functional integration among its brain regions and functional selectivity for language processing. fMRI reveals similar topography, selectivity and inter-connectedness of language brain areas across 45 languages. These properties may allow the language system to handle the shared features of languages, shaped by biological and cultural evolution.
This network had mostly been studied in English speakers.
Japanese, Italian, Ukrainian, Swahili, Tagalog and dozens of other spoken languages cause the same “universal language network” to light up in the brains of native speakers. This hub of language processing has been studied extensively in English speakers, but now neuroscientists have confirmed that the exact same network is activated in speakers of 45 different languages representing 12 distinct language families.
“This study is very foundational, extending some findings from English to a broad range of languages,” senior author Evelina Fedorenko, an associate professor of neuroscience at MIT and a member of MIT’s McGovern Institute for Brain Research, said in a statement (opens in new tab).
I’ve been researching the relationship between brain neurons and nodes in neural networks. Repeatedly it is claimed neurons can do complex information processing that vastly exceeds that of a simple activation function in a neural network.
The resources I’ve read so far suggest nothing fancy is happening with a neuron. The neuron sums the incoming signals from synapses, and then fires when the sum passes a threshold. This is identical to the simple perceptron, the precursor to today’s fancy neural networks. If there is more to a neuron’s operation that this, I am missing it due to lack of familiarity with the neuroscience terminology. I’ve also perused this stack exchange, and haven’t found anything.
If someone could point to a detailed resource that explains the different complex ways a neuron processes the incoming information, in particular what makes a neuron a more sophisticated information processor than a perceptron, I would be grateful.
From its very inception quantum mechanics troubled physicists. It seemed to challenge our conception of reality and lead to apparent contradictions. One of the founders of quantum mechanics, Ernst Heisenberg, questioned whether the theory offered a description of reality at all. Others, like Niels Bohr, claimed that somehow human consciousness played a role in the theory. In this interview, Carlo Rovelli explains Heisenberg’s anti-realist motivations, clarifies the role of the “observer” in quantum mechanics, and articulates his relational interpretation of the theory, according to which reality is a network of interactions.
Carlo Rovelli will debate Sabine Hossenfelder and Eric Weinsten in the FREE IAI Live event, ‘Quantum Physics and the End of Reality’ on July 25th. Learn more here.
The founders of quantum mechanics were very uncomfortable with its results – famously Einstein thought it an incomplete theory and quipped “God doesn’t play dice”, and Schrödinger abandoned physics altogether for biology. What was so radically different about quantum mechanics than classical physics that caused such discomfort to its own creators?
Summary: Researchers discovered a specific neurotransmitter that helps assign either positive or negative emotions to memories.
Source: Salk Institute.
Researchers at the Salk Institute and colleagues have discovered the molecule in the brain responsible for associating good or bad feelings with a memory.