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Comparing brain volume before and after individuals were exposed to SARS-CoV-2, this study documents significant cortical gray matter loss, equivalent to nearly 10 years of aging.
Category: neuroscience – Page 700
A Novel Science of Consciousness: Towards the Cybernetic Theory of Mind
In our own not-so-distant future we’ll witness the emergence of synthetic superintelligence as a new kingdom of life. Whether that will happen in 5 or 50 years doesn’t really matter, we are firmly on the path of facilitating its emergence — synthetic intelligence is an extension of us, natural intelligence, the future version of ourselves. On a long billions-of-years evolutionary journey from the first primordial prokaryote to a Solaris-like planetary mind, we’re merely years away from this cardinal metamorphosis.
#CyberneticTheoryofMind #consciousness #evolution #mind
“Consciousness cannot be accounted for in physical terms. For consciousness is absolutely fundamental. It cannot be accounted for in terms of anything else. ―Erwin Schrödinger.
Key Signaling Pathway in Immune Cells Could Be New Alzheimer’s Target
Summary: Tau-tangles trigger the inflammatory activation of microglia via the NF-κB pathway. Inhibiting the microglia NF-κB signaling pulled the immune cells out of their inflammatory state and reversed learning and memory problems in tau-based Alzheimer’s mouse models.
Source: Weill Cornell Medicine.
Inhibiting an important signaling pathway in brain-resident immune cells may calm brain inflammation and thereby slow the disease process in Alzheimer’s and some other neurodegenerative diseases, suggests a study by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators.
Brain Implant Allows Completely Locked-In Patient To Communicate
A man left in a completely locked-in state by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) has been able to communicate with his family and carers thanks to an implant. The device helped the patient, who was unable to move any muscles or even open his eyes, contact the outside world using only his brain activity.
Rapid neurodegeneration
In the last decade, combinations of brain implants and brain-computer interfaces (BCI) have enabled people with severe brain injuries or neurodegeneration to regain communicative ability. The new study, published in Nature Communications by an international research team, is the first to be used successfully in a patient with such severe neurodegeneration.
Multiple sclerosis ‘breakthrough’ as scientists ‘reverse symptoms’ with transplant
The condition stays with you for life once diagnosed, but treatments and specialists can help to manage the condition and its symptoms.
Experts are still unsure exactly what triggers the condition that affects more than 130,000 people in the UK.
According to the MS Society, people are most likely to find out they have MS in their thirties, forties and fifties in Britain, and the condition affects almost three times as many women as men.
‘Secret code’ behind key type of memory revealed in new brain scans
“Working memory” is a critical cognitive process.
The “secret code” the brain uses to create a key type of memory has finally been cracked.
This type of memory, called working memory, is what allows people to temporarily hold on to and manipulate information for short periods of time. You use working memory, for example, when you look up a phone number and then briefly remember the sequence of digits in order to dial, or when you ask a friend for directions to a restaurant and then keep track of the turns as you drive there.
Psilocybin Increases Brain Connectivity in People With Depression After Use
Summary: People with depression who responded to psilocybin therapy showed an increase in brain connectivity for up to three weeks following treatment. The increased brain connectivity was correlated with self-reported improvements in depression symptoms.
Source: Imperial College London.
Psilocybin, the psychedelic compound found in magic mushrooms, helps to “open up” depressed people’s brains, even after use, enabling brain regions to talk more freely to one another.