A one-of-a-kind MRI machine helps researchers see the relationship between the structure of the brain and how it functions.
Category: neuroscience – Page 8
Building Brains: The Molecular Logic of Neural Circuits
Thomas M. Jessel, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, explores the human brain, the sophisticated product of 500 million years of vertebrate evolution, assembled during just nine months of embryonic development. The functions encoded by its trillion nerve cells direct all human behavior. Yet the brain is a biological organ made from the same building blocks as skin, liver and lung. How does the brain acquire its remarkable computational power? Answers lie in the details of its construction — the cellular and molecular mechanisms that drive the formation of thousands of neural circuits, each wired for a specific behavior.
Developing brain cells routinely repair severe DNA damage during migration
Newborn nerve cells must squeeze through crowded, narrow spaces-through dense tissue, past other cells, between fibers-to reach the areas where they form neural circuits in the brain cortex.
In a new study published in Nature, researchers at Kyoto University’s Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences (WPI-iCeMS) and their collaborators report that this journey causes widespread DNA damage in neurons, resulting in double-strand breaks where both strands of the double helix are completely severed. While this is the most severe type of DNA damage-capable of causing mutations and cell death-the team surprisingly found that it is a normal, routine feature of brain cortex formation, and a healthy brain quickly repairs it before harm occurs.
“The developing brain appears to have evolved to tolerate and repair the neuronal damage efficiently,” says Professor Mineko Kengaku, of WPI-iCeMS, who led the study. “But understanding the limits of that tolerance-and what happens when repair is incomplete-brings us closer to understanding a range of neurological conditions.”
Beyond Neuralink: How China’s Bio-Tech Breakthrough Fuels Next-Gen Brain-Computer Interfaces
From ultra-flexible materials redefining brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) to record-shattering global out-licensing deals, China’s biopharmaceutical sector is undergoing a profound qualitative transformation. ShanghaiEye takes you inside the Yunfan Future Factory and the cross-discipline innovation hub hosted by Chia Tai Tianqing (CTTQ)—a subsidiary of top-50 global pharma giant Sino Biopharmaceutical—to explore the cutting-edge ecosystem driving the future of global healthcare.
We examine a breakthrough BCI technology developed in Shanghai: an ultra-flexible photoresist material for neural electrode arrays. Ye Tianyang, CEO and Co-Founder of Yunfan Future, explains how this material—engineered to be 1,000 times softer than the rigid alternatives utilized by Western counterparts like Elon Musk’s Neuralink—exponentially reduces tissue damage and immune rejection. With dozens of human clinical trials already successfully completed worldwide, this innovation highlights the immense strength of Shanghai’s local talent pool and medical device supply chain.
The feature also spotlights the strategic roadmap of China’s pharmaceutical leaders. Eric Tse, CEO of Sino Biopharmaceutical and Chairman of CTTQ, breaks down their vision to build an open, interdisciplinary incubator. This global nexus bridges experts, scholars, and upstream and downstream partners, transforming Shanghai into a premier launchpad for international innovative drugs. Furthermore, Mr. Tse discusses the \.
Studying the Neural Circuit Mechanisms of Cognition Using Rodents
Brody is professor of neuroscience and molecular biology at Princeton University and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. His research focuses is on novel quantitative behaviors that allow exploring high-level cognitive questions using powerful emerging tools for studying neural mechanisms in rodents. Brody’s group uses rats to investigate the neural bases of decision making, working memory, and executive control, using a combination of high-throughput semiautomated behavior as well as computational, electrophysiological, pharmacological and optogenetic methods.
Google Is Mapping the Human Brain… and It Gets Terrifying
Google is using AI to map the human brain, generate synthetic neurons, and speed up one of the most ambitious neuroscience projects ever attempted. But as brain mapping, connectomics, and AI brain decoding move forward, a terrifying question appears: what happens to mental privacy when machines can understand the brain better than we do?
This mini-documentary explores Google’s brain mapping research, synthetic neurons, AI mind decoding, neural privacy, and the future of human thought in the age of artificial intelligence.
CHAPTERS:
00:00 Google’s Brain Mapping Project.
02:00 The Scale of the Human Brain.
04:36 Synthetic Neurons Explained.
06:40 AI Is Already Decoding Thoughts.
10:15 The Rise of Neural Privacy.
14:51 Brain Maps and the Future of AI
17:11 Who Owns Your Mind?
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Ken Hayworth: Brain Preservation is the Logical Lifeboat
Thirteen years ago, I sat down with Ken Hayworth and asked him a question most people spend their whole lives avoiding.
What happens to the self when the body fails?
Ken is president of the Brain Preservation Foundation. He is also a neuroscientist who refuses to flinch. His answer was not comfort. It was logic.
Brain preservation, he argued, is the logical lifeboat that people have access to today.
Here is the part that has stayed with me ever since. Ken imagines our grandchildren looking back at us. They will see that we had the science. They will see that we understood the brain holds our memories, our skills, our personality. And they will ask why we did nothing.
His verdict is brutal. We were not killed by bad technology. We were killed by bad philosophy. We simply could not accept that we are physical machines.
Quantum hyperdimensional computing can work 500 times faster than other methods
Cleveland Clinic researchers are unlocking quantum computing’s full potential through the creation of a new computing paradigm inspired by the human brain. Fabio Cumbo, Ph.D., research associate in the lab of Daniel Blankenberg, Ph.D., associate staff, Computational Life Sciences, is developing the model, called quantum hyperdimensional computing (QHDC).
Cumbo published the first-ever implementation of QHDC in two distinct experiments in npj Unconventional Computing.
Hyperdimensional computing (HDC) is a type of computing based in neuroscience. It follows the idea that a concept in the brain is not stored on one single neuron. For example, when you think of a cat, there is no single neuron in your brain solely responsible for knowing what a cat is. That information is spread across thousands or millions of neurons, so if one neuron fails, you still remember what a cat is.
Brain-inspired chip fuses vision, memory, and processing in real time
Team leader Professor Sumeet Walia said the goal was to remove the delay and energy cost of transferring data between separate systems. “We’ve made real-time decision making a possibility with our invention, because it doesn’t need to process large amounts of irrelevant data and it’s not being slowed down by data transfer to separate processors.”
The device also showed the ability to retain visual information for longer periods without frequent electrical refresh signals, which reduces energy use and improves efficiency.
First author and RMIT PhD researcher Aishani Mazumder said the system draws inspiration from how the brain processes information. “Neuromorphic vision systems are designed to use similar analog processing to the human brain, which can greatly reduce the amount of energy needed to perform complex visual tasks compared with today’s technologies.”