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Category: neuroscience – Page 81

Summary: A new international study reveals that schizophrenia manifests differently in the brain, reflecting the wide range of symptoms among patients. Researchers analyzed imaging data from over 6,000 individuals and found that while some brain structures vary significantly, others remain highly uniform.

Brain folding patterns in the mid-frontal region were consistently similar across patients, suggesting a less flexible developmental process in early childhood. These findings highlight the need for precision medicine approaches tailored to each patient’s neurobiological profile.

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Summary: A new study reveals how prenatal infections followed by early-life stress—known as “two-hit stress”—can lead to brain dysfunction and psychiatric-like behaviors. Researchers found that affected mice showed abnormal cerebellar activity, increased microglial turnover, and impaired brain-wide connectivity.

Notably, microglia replacement therapy successfully reversed these effects, offering a potential new approach for mental health treatments. The findings suggest that sex differences may influence stress resilience, highlighting the need for personalized treatments for psychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders.

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From connectome to computation:
predicting neural function with machine learning.

Janne Lappalainen.
University of Tubingen & Tubingen AI Center.

Presentation and Q&A
At the Carboncopies Foundation February 2025 workshop:

The brain emulation challenge: functionalizing brain data, ground-truthing and the role of artificial data in advancing neuroscience.

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*This video was recorded at Foresight’s Whole Brain Emulation Workshop 2023.*
https://foresight.org/whole-brain-emulation-workshop-2023/

*Niccolò Zanichelli, Università degli Studi di Parma*
What can AI do for Whole Brain Emulation.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/niccol%C3%B2-zanichelli-99a7881a3/

WBE is a potential technology to generate software intelligence that is human-aligned simply by being based directly on human brains. Generally past discussions have assumed a fairly long timeline to WBE, while past AGI timelines had broad uncertainty. There were also concerns that the neuroscience of WBE might boost AGI capability development without helping safety, although no consensus did develop. Recently many people have updated their AGI timelines towards earlier development, raising safety concerns. That has led some people to consider whether WBE development could be significantly speeded up, producing a differential technology development re-ordering of technology arrival that might lessen the risk of unaligned AGI by the presence of aligned software intelligence.

Whether this is a viable strategy depends on.
(1) AGI timelines not being ultra-short.
(2) whether WBE development can be speeded up significantly by a concerted effort, (3) this speedup doesn’t introduce other risks or ethical concerns.

The goals of this workshop is to try to.
(A) review the current state of the art in WBE related technology.
(B) outline plausible development paths and necessary steps for full WBE
© determine whether there is potential for speeding up WBE development.
(D) whether there are strategic, risk or ethical issues speaking against this.

This two-day event invites leading researchers, entrepreneurs, and funders to drive progress. Explore new opportunities, form lasting collaborations, and join us in driving cooperation toward shared long-term goals. Including mentorship hours, breakouts, and speaker & sponsor gathering.

Continue reading “Niccolò Zanichelli | What can AI do for Whole Brain Emulation @ Whole Brain Emulation Workshop 2023” | >

Dr. Philip Shiu.
EON Systems.

Presentation and Q&A
At the Carboncopies Foundation February 2025 workshop:

The brain emulation challenge: functionalizing brain data, ground-truthing and the role of artificial data in advancing neuroscience.

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Constantly worrying about events beyond your control significantly harms your physical health.

S stress-response system activated, leading to chronic stress. Over time, such stress can weaken the immune system, making us more susceptible to infections and illnesses. + Additionally, chronic stress is linked to cardiovascular issues, including hypertension and an increased risk of heart disease.

S prolonged exposure to stress hormones like cortisol can also lead to digestive problems, muscle tension, and headaches. + Moreover, the mental strain from focusing on uncontrollable factors can lead to unhealthy coping mechanisms, such as overeating or substance abuse, further impacting physical well-being.

S out there. It gets better. +

Get help: https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/find-help

Stress affects all systems of the body including the musculoskeletal, respiratory, cardiovascular, endocrine, gastrointestinal, nervous, and reproductive systems.

Continue reading “Stress effects on the body” | >

Aging depletes the brain’s protective sugar shield, weakening defenses and fueling cognitive decline, but restoring key sugars may reverse these effects.

What if a critical piece of the puzzle of brain aging has been hiding in plain sight? While neuroscience has traditionally focused on proteins and DNA

DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, is a molecule composed of two long strands of nucleotides that coil around each other to form a double helix. It is the hereditary material in humans and almost all other organisms that carries genetic instructions for development, functioning, growth, and reproduction. Nearly every cell in a person’s body has the same DNA. Most DNA is located in the cell nucleus (where it is called nuclear DNA), but a small amount of DNA can also be found in the mitochondria (where it is called mitochondrial DNA or mtDNA).

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Imagine that malignant brain tumors are not the unbridled chaos of unchecked growth we think they are, but they are actually communicating with brain cells in very specific ways. That’s what Stanford neuroscientist Michelle Monje MD, PhD, discovered about certain types of brain cancer (called gliomas), including a deadly childhood form called DIPG. It turns out that these tumors can form connections with the brain’s circuitry (just like brain cells do) in order to fuel their own growth. But it’s not just cancers that start in the brain that are doing this. Monje and Stanford researcher Julien Sage, PhD, discovered that a type of cancer that starts in the lungs also engages in this form of hijacking when it spreads to the brain. This is important because we now have significant insight into the process of tumor growth. And these findings help us better understand how we might be able to treat or stop these cancers altogether. For more information, read “Dangerous infiltrators” in Stanford Medicine magazine: https://stan.md/4gZHRh7

#Cancer #Neuroscience #BrainCancer #Glioma #CancerResearch #StanfordMedicine #TumorGrowth #CancerBreakthrough #MedicalResearch #BrainHealth #Oncology.
Stanford Medicine advances human health through world-class biomedical research, education and patient care. Bringing together the resources of Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford Health Care and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, Stanford Medicine is committed to training future leaders in biomedicine and translating the latest discoveries into new ways to prevent, diagnose and treat disease.

The Stanford Medicine YouTube channel is a curated collection of contributions from our School of Medicine departments, divisions, students, and the community. Our diverse content includes coverage of events, presentations, lectures, and associated stories about the people of Stanford Medicine.

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