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Category: neuroscience – Page 743

Psilocybin induces rapid and persistent growth of neural connections in the brain’s frontal cortex, study finds

Harvard scientists have found that a single dose of psilocybin given to mice induces a rapid and long-lasting increase in connections between pyramidal neurons in the medial frontal cortex, an area of the brain known to be involved in control and decision-making. Their new findings are published in the journal Neuron.

Psilocybin — the active component in so-called “magic” mushrooms — has been shown to have profound and long-lasting effects on personality and mood. Preliminary studies have provided hope that psilocybin could help to relieve depression symptoms and treat other mental disorders. But the mechanisms behind these effects remain unclear.

A team of researchers at Yale University were interested in examining whether the lasting therapeutic effects of psilocybin might be caused in part by the substance’s ability to enhance neuroplasticity in the brain.

Where You Live Can Greatly Affect Your Heart and Brain Health

Something to consider.

“The whole idea of lifestyle choices as something everyone can tap into is misleading, when in fact that choice is constrained by what is available to people,” he said. “This is where policy solutions or investments into these neighborhoods to make up for historical disinvestment becomes so important.”

Summary: The neighborhood you live in could have an impact on your brain and cardiovascular health, a new study reports.

Source: American Heart Association

Liz Harris won’t let anything stop her from walking. Three mornings a week, she descends three flights of stairs and heads to Anacostia Park. It’s a 10-minute walk just to get there. If none of her friends are available, she walks alone. But they worry about her when she does.

“The community is known for crime, and you don’t feel comfortable walking alone,” said Harris, 72, who lives in southeastern Washington, D.C.’s Ward 8. But that’s not her only concern. Unleashed dogs in the park make her wary. The streets along the way are uneven and in disrepair. Heavy traffic can contribute to poor air quality.

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Researchers image an entire mouse brain for the first time

Now just need to go to rat monkey human.

Researchers at the University of Chicago and the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory have imaged an entire mouse brain across five orders of magnitude of resolution, a step which researchers say will better connect existing imaging approaches and uncover new details about the structure of the brain.

The advance, which was published on June 9 in NeuroImage, will allow scientists to connect biomarkers at the microscopic and macroscopic level. It leveraged existing advanced X-ray microscopy techniques at the Advanced Photon Source (APS), a DOE Office of Science User Facility at Argonne, to bridge the gap between MRI and electron microscopy imaging, providing a viable pipeline for multiscale whole brain imaging within the same brain.

“Argonne had this extremely powerful X-ray microscope, and it hadn’t been used for brain mapping yet, so we decided to try it out.” — Assistant Professor Bobby Kasthuri

Tapping into the Brain to Help a Paralyzed Man Speak

He has not been able to speak since 2003, when he was paralyzed at age 20 by a severe stroke after a terrible car crash.

Now, in a scientific milestone, researchers have tapped into the speech areas of his brain — allowing him to produce comprehensible words and sentences simply by trying to say them. When the man, known by his nickname, Pancho, tries to speak, electrodes implanted in his brain transmit signals to a computer that displays his intended words on the screen.

His first recognizable sentence, researchers said, was, “My family is outside.”

Howard Leonhardt — Founder, Leonhardt Ventures — Bioelectrics & Biologics For Regeneration & Healing

Investing in the convergence of bioelectrics & biologics for regeneration & healing — howard J. leonhardt, founder, leonhardt ventures.

Howard Leonhardt is the Founder of Leonhardt Ventures, the world’s first Innovation Accelerator focused on the convergence of bioelectrics & biologics for organ regeneration and tissue healing.

Howard is an accomplished inventor and serial entrepreneur, with 21 U.S. patents, over 100 patent claims for products for treating cardiovascular disease, and has over 40 new patent claims pending. His TALENT (Taheri-Leonhardt) stent graft, developed in the early 1990′s, holds a leading world market share for repairing aortic aneurysms without surgery.

Howard’s inventions to date have been involved in treated over 500000 patients in 60 countries.

Howard is co-leader of Startup California and Founder and Chairman of The California Stock Exchange TM (Cal-X) preparing to be the first social good impact stock exchange currently operating the Cal-X 30 Social Good Impact fund. He founded Cal-X Crowdfund Connect, a crowdfunding campaign management company, and Cal-X Stars Business Accelerator, Inc., a business incubator and accelerator focused on cardiovascular life sciences and social good impact innovations.

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Dr. Charles Brenner Ph.D. — City of Hope — NAD Coenzymes, Metabolic Stress, And Novel Interventions

NAD Coenzymes, Metabolic Stress, And Novel Preventative And Therapeutic Interventions — Dr. Charles Brenner, Ph.D., City of Hope.

Dr. Charles Brenner Ph.D. is the Alfred E Mann Family Foundation Chair in Diabetes and Cancer Metabolism, and Professor and Chair of the Department of Diabetes & Cancer Metabolism, at the City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center (https://www.cityofhope.org/faculty/charles-brenner).

With his Ph.D. in Cancer Biology from Stanford University, Dr. Brenner’s laboratory focuses on disturbances in nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD), the central catalyst of metabolism, in diseases and conditions of metabolic stress (https://www.cityofhope.org/charles-brenner-lab).

Among his most significant discoveries, Dr. Brenner identified nicotinamide riboside (NR) as a vitamin precursor of NAD, as well as a quantitative metabolomic technology that allowed him to discover that the NAD system is disturbed by many diseases and conditions of metabolic stress, including diabetes and cancer.

Specifically, Dr. Brenner and colleagues have found that in animal models of fatty liver, type 2 diabetes, diabetic and chemotherapeutic neuropathy, central brain injury, heart failure, postpartum and coronavirus infection, the NAD system is disturbed and that in these models, provision of nicotinamide riboside is highly protective.

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Consciousness and the Laws of Physics

We have a much better understanding of physics than we do of consciousness. I consider ways in which intrinsically mental aspects of fundamental ontology might induce modifications of the known laws of physics, or whether they could be relevant to accounting for consciousness if no such modifications exist. I suggest that our current knowledge of physics should make us skeptical of hypothetical modifications of the known rules, and that without such modifications it’s hard to imagine how intrinsically mental aspects could play a useful explanatory role. Draft version of a paper submitted to Journal of Consciousness Studies, special issue responding to Philip Goff’s Galileo’s Error: Foundations for a New Science of Consciousness.

Plasma Dilution Potential Benefits & Real Cases Part III | Dr Dobri Kiprov Interview Series

Interested in living longer? You are probably going to get TPE at some point. The Conboys are looking for funding for human trials to produce a product in 3–4 years. Here we have infor on what it is and how it works plus actual human results to date (starting at 10 minutes).

In Part III, Dr Kiprov, discusses the history of moving from the Conboy’s experiments in the lab to the process used in the clinic and reasons for the choices made. He also covers the benefits that he has seen with plasma exchange in the clinic.

Part I Video Link https://youtu.be/jpJlgSzRdyo.
Part II Video Link https://youtu.be/P0j96lU9_-g.

Dr Dobri Kiprov is internationally recognized as a pioneer and a leading expert in the field of Therapeutic Apheresis. He is Chief of the Division of Immunotherapy at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco, California and Medical Director of Apheresis Care Group (ACG).

Dr Kiprov has been working with the Drs Conboy for many years on plasma exchange and recently they published a joint paper based on their experience in the clinic and the laboratory.

Continue reading “Plasma Dilution Potential Benefits & Real Cases Part III | Dr Dobri Kiprov Interview Series” | >

“Neuroprosthesis” Restores Words to Man with Paralysis

Researchers at UC San Francisco have successfully developed a “speech neuroprosthesis” that has enabled a man with severe paralysis to communicate in sentences, translating signals from his brain to the vocal tract directly into words that appear as text on a screen.

The achievement, which was developed in collaboration with the first participant of a clinical research trial, builds on more than a decade of effort by UCSF neurosurgeon Edward Chang, MD, to develop a technology that allows people with paralysis to communicate even if they are unable to speak on their own. The study appears July 15 in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Compound Derived From Turmeric Essential Oil Has Neuroprotective Properties

Summary: Aromatic turmerone, a compound derived from turmeric essential oil, and its derivatives directly affect dopamine neurons to generate neuroprotective properties in tissue culture models of Parkinson’s disease.

Source: Kumamoto University.

Researchers from Kumamoto University, Japan have found that a component derived from turmeric essential oil, aromatic turmerone (ar-turmerone), and its derivatives act directly on dopaminergic nerves to create a neuroprotective effect on tissue cultures of a Parkinson’s disease model.