Lab chemists and computer scientists are joining forces to find a nerve-agent antidote that will go where today s antidotes can t go the brain. Read more about in the latest issue of our Science & Technology Review magazine https://str.llnl.gov/2019-06/valdez
A new Royal Society report called “iHuman: blurring lines between mind and machine” is for the first time systematically exploring whether it is “right” or not to use neural interfaces – machines implanted in or worn over the body to pick up or stimulate nervous activity in the brain or other parts of the nervous system. It also sets out recommendations to ensure the ethical risks are understood, and to set up a transparent, public-driven but flexible regulatory framework which will allow the UK to lead innovative technology in this field.
Another magical flavonoid!
Researchers have created a compound, that when tested in mice, was able to promote the reconstruction of the myelin sheath surrounding neuronal axons. These findings could pave the way to a new treatment for combating demyelinating conditions such as multiple sclerosis (MS). The findings were published in Glia. “I think we’ll know in about a year if this is the exact right drug to try in human clinical trials,” explained senior study author Larry Sherman, Ph.D., in a recent press release.
“If it’s not, we know from the mouse studies that this approach can work. The question is, can this drug be adapted to bigger human brains?”
What is myelin?
Right now, billions of neurons in your brain are working together to generate a conscious experience — and not just any conscious experience, your experience of the world around you and of yourself within it. How does this happen? According to neuroscientist Anil Seth, we’re all hallucinating all the time; when we agree about our hallucinations, we call it “reality.” Join Seth for a delightfully disorienting talk that may leave you questioning the very nature of your existence.
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A mathematician has shared some of the brain exercises he uses to help people with dementia.
Gareth Rowlands, from St Albans, runs memory workshops at dementia cafes and care homes in Hertfordshire.
He became passionate about helping those with memory loss after he visited a care home which he wife ran in Barnet.
Three dozen adults who were all aged 60 or above were asked to take part a range of cognitive tests for the study.
Researchers led by a team based at the National University of Singapore also took MRI scans of the volunteers.
All of the participants, from Singapore, were also asked about how often they drink green, black or oolong tea, as well as coffee.
Ischemic stroke is a condition in which parts of the brain lose their blood supply, causing nerve damage. Once brain tissue suffers irreparable harm, the patient will experience irreversible disability or death, depending on the extent of neuronal loss. However, glial cells surrounding the neurons are activated by the injury and multiply. Now, scientists have found out how to insert genes into glial cells to convert them into neurons, thus filling in for some of the lost functioning cells to improve motor functions.
There are about 86 billion neurons in the brain, but billions of them can be lost with one moderate-sized stroke. About 800,000 new strokes occur each year in the US alone. The need is to regenerate new brain cells to replace the ones that die, at least partially. This is the only known way to restore motor functions that have been impaired or destroyed by a stroke or other brain injury.
Brain-to-computer interfaces and intelligence boosting chips implanted in the brain could soon make their way out of the realms of science fiction and into reality.
Already, some of the biggest tech giants in the industry like Elon Musk and Facebook are working to create brain-computer interfaces.
CBS Chicago recently spoke to Dr. Moran Cerf, a neuroscientist at Northwestern University, who is currently developing a non-invasive computer chip that when implanted in the brain could give an individual super intelligence.
