Twenty years into the Psychedelic Renaissance, neuroscientists still struggle to understand how psychedelics work and how to rectify misconceptions about these drugs.
Category: neuroscience – Page 82
Behind the Science: How a ‘speech gene’ could help treat Huntington’s
Stanford Medicine researchers found cells that keep a speech-linked protein called FOXP2 from clumping; its tricks could break apart clumps of proteins that cause devastating brain diseases.
Saturday Citations: Yet another solution for universal expansion; computing with brain organoids
This week, researchers reported the discovery of four Late Bronze Age stone megastructures likely used for trapping herds of wild animals. Physicists have proven that a central law of thermodynamics does not apply to atomic-scale objects that are linked via quantum correlation. And two Australian Ph.D. students coded a software solution for the James Webb Space Telescope’s Aperture Masking Interferometer, which has been producing blurry images.
Additionally, researchers are networking tiny human brain organoids into a computing substrate; evolutionary biologists have proposed that environmental lead exposure may have influenced early human brain evolution; and physicists have provided a predictive model to explain accelerating universal expansion without dark matter:
Algorithm maps genetic connection between Alzheimer’s and specific neurons
The number of people living with dementia worldwide was estimated at 57 million in 2021 with nearly 10 million new cases recorded each year. In the U.S., dementia impacts more than 6 million lives, and the number of new cases is expected to double over the next few decades, according to a 2025 study. Despite advancements in the field, a full understanding of disease-causing mechanisms is still lacking.
To address this gap, Rice University researchers and collaborators at Boston University have developed a computational tool that can help identify which specific types of cells in the body are genetically linked to complex human traits and diseases, including in forms of dementia such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
Known as “Single-cell Expression Integration System for Mapping genetically implicated Cell types,” or seismic, the tool helped the team hone in on genetic vulnerabilities in memory-making brain cells that link them to Alzheimer’s ⎯ the first to establish an association based on a genetic link between the disease and these specific neurons. The algorithm outperforms existing tools for identifying cell types that are potentially relevant in complex diseases and is applicable in disease contexts beyond dementia.
When we dream, does our brain wake up?
An international consortium of researchers has created the largest-ever database compiling records of brain activity during sleep and dream reports. One of the first analyses of the database confirmed that dreams do not occur only during REM sleep, but also during deeper and calmer NREM stages. In these cases, brain activity resembles wakefulness more than deep sleep, as if the brain were “partially awake.”
One third of a healthy adult’s life is spent sleeping, and a significant portion of that time is spent dreaming. Throughout the night, during any sleep stage, subjective conscious experiences, what we call dreams, can repeatedly occur.
Interest in dreams dates back thousands of years, from ancient Egypt to ancient Mesopotamia and ancient Greece, and spans many cultures and traditions.
Parkinson’s Discovery Suggests We May Have an FDA-Approved Treatment Already
Researchers have discovered how a surface protein on brain cells, called Aplp1, can play a role in spreading material responsible for Parkinson’s disease from cell to cell in the brain.
Promisingly, an FDA-approved cancer drug that targets another protein – Lag3 – which interacts with Aplp1 – was found to block this process in mice. This suggests a potential treatment for Parkinson’s may already exist.
In a paper published last year, an international team of scientists detailed how the two proteins work together to help toxic clumps of alpha-synuclein protein get into brain cells.
Hippocampus: What’s Its Function?
It converts short-term memories into long-term memories by organizing, storing and retrieving memories within your brain. Your also helps you learn more about your environment (spatial memory), so you’re aware of what’s around you, as well as remembering what words to say (verbal memory).
You have a on the left and right side of your brain, located within the temporal lobe.
The is part of your limbic system. This is a group of brain structures that regulate your smells, emotions, memories and autonomic behaviors (such as heart rate, breathing, sweating, etc.).
