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Category: neuroscience – Page 75

The speed of the human brain’s ability to process information has been investigated in a new study, and according to scientists, we’re not as mentally quick as we might like to think.

In fact, research suggests our brains process information at a speed of just 10 bits per second. But how is this possible, in comparison to the trillions of operations computers can perform every second?

Research suggests this is the result of how we internally process thoughts in single file, making for a slow, congested queue.

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A study published in Cell Reports Medicine reveals that bowel movement frequency significantly influences physiology and long-term health, with the best outcomes linked with passing stools once or twice a day.

Previous research has suggested associations between constipation and diarrhea with higher risks of infections and neurodegenerative conditions, respectively.

But since these findings were observed in sick patients, it remained unclear whether irregular bathroom visits were the cause or result of their conditions.

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DOI: Abstract We are living in a historical period in respect to the deterioration in public health, as we experience the rise of the catastrophic obesity epidemic and mental health crisis in recent decades, despite the great efforts from the scientific and medical community to seek health solutions and to try to find cures to the enormous human suffering and economic costs resulting by this collapse in public health. This trend has reached such a critical level that it jeopardizes society when over 40% of the population is obese in the United States, suffering grave medical health conditions, even as the expenditure on public health is rising exponentially to over 20% of gross domestic product. This should point to a monumental failure in our fundamental understanding of basic human biology and health. This article suggests that our current Western reductionist scientific paradigm in both biology and medicine has proved impotent and failed us completely. Therefore, the current cultural health crises require a more holistic approach to human biology and health in terms of chronobiological trends. The emerging neuroscience of brain energy metabolism will be considered as a holistic model for understanding how solar cycles affect our civilization and drive our sex and growth hormones and neurotransmitters that shape both our physical and mental health.

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Children with hereditary deafness regained their hearing thanks to a type of gene therapy, a new study published on Wednesday found.

In a clinical trial, co-led by investigators from Mass Eye and Ear, a specialty hospital in Boston, six children who had a form of genetic deafness called DFNB9 were examined.

This deafness is caused by mutations of the OTOF gene. This mutation fails to produce a protein known as otoferlin, which is necessary for the transmission of sound signals from the ear to the brain, according to the researchers.

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A recent study from Stanford’s Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute has shed light on the interplay between two key brain chemicals, dopamine and serotonin, revealing their opposing roles in shaping our decisions and learning processes. Published in Nature, the research demonstrates for the first time that dopamine and serotonin operate as a “gas and brake” system, jointly influencing how we learn from rewards. The findings have broad implications, from understanding everyday decision-making to developing treatments for neurological and psychiatric conditions such as addiction, depression, and Parkinson’s disease.

Dopamine and serotonin are crucial to many aspects of human behavior, including reward processing and decision-making. Both neurotransmitters are also implicated in a variety of mental health disorders. While previous research has established their individual roles—dopamine is linked to reward prediction and seeking, while serotonin promotes long-term thinking and patience—the precise nature of their interaction has remained unclear.

Two competing theories have sought to explain their dynamic: the “synergy hypothesis,” which posits that dopamine focuses on immediate rewards and serotonin on long-term benefits, and the “opponency hypothesis,” suggesting the two act in opposition, with dopamine encouraging impulsive action and serotonin promoting restraint. The Stanford researchers aimed to directly test these theories using advanced experimental methods.

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MIT physicists and colleagues have for the first time measured the geometry, or shape, of electrons in solids at the quantum level. Scientists have long known how to measure the energies and velocities of electrons in crystalline materials, but until now, those systems’ quantum geometry could only be inferred theoretically, or sometimes not at all.

The work, reported in the November 25 issue of Nature Physics, “opens new avenues for understanding and manipulating the quantum properties of materials,” says Riccardo Comin, MIT’s Class of 1947 Career Development Associate Professor of Physics and leader of the work.

“We’ve essentially developed a blueprint for obtaining some completely new information that couldn’t be obtained before,” says Comin, who is also affiliated with MIT’s Materials Research Laboratory and the Research Laboratory of Electronics.

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Penn Engineers have modified lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) — the revolutionary technology behind the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines — to not only cross the blood-brain barrier (BBB) but also to target specific types of cells, including neurons. This breakthrough marks a significant step toward potential next-generation treatments for neurological diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

In a new paper in Nano Letters, the researchers demonstrate how peptides — short strings of amino acids — can serve as precise targeting molecules, enabling LNPs to deliver mRNA specifically to the endothelial cells that line the blood vessels of the brain, as well as neurons.

This represents an important advance in delivering mRNA to the cell types that would be key in treating neurodegenerative diseases; any such treatments will need to ensure that mRNA arrives at the correct location. Previous work by the same researchers proved that LNPs can cross the BBB and deliver mRNA to the brain, but did not attempt to control which cells the LNPs targeted.

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