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The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is believed to be involved in many cognitive processes, including linking goals to actions and tracking decision-relevant contextual information. ACC neurons robustly encode expected outcomes, but how this relates to putative functions of ACC remains unknown. Here, we approach this question from the perspective of population codes by analyzing neural spiking data in the ventral and dorsal banks of the ACC in two male monkeys trained to perform a stimulus-motor mapping task to earn rewards or avoid losses. We found that neural populations favor a low dimensional representational geometry that emphasizes the valence of potential outcomes while also facilitating the independent, abstract representation of multiple task-relevant variables. Valence encoding persisted throughout the trial, and realized outcomes were primarily encoded in a relative sense, such that cue valence acted as a context for outcome encoding. This suggests that the population coding we observe could be a mechanism that allows feedback to be interpreted in a context-dependent manner. Together, our results point to a prominent role for ACC in context setting and relative interpretation of outcomes, facilitated by abstract, or untangled, representations of task variables.

SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The ability to interpret events in light of the current context is a critical facet of higher-order cognition. The ACC is suggested to be important for tracking contextual information, whereas alternate views hold that its function is more related to the motor system and linking goals to appropriate actions. We evaluated these possibilities by analyzing geometric properties of neural population activity in monkey ACC when contexts were determined by the valence of potential outcomes and found that this information was represented as a dominant, abstract concept. Ensuing outcomes were then coded relative to these contexts, suggesting an important role for these representations in context-dependent evaluation. Such mechanisms may be critical for the abstract reasoning and generalization characteristic of biological intelligence.

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However, underlying this scientific skepticism was also an ideological shift. Reductionism can be thought of as the antithesis or critique of the concepts of a premodern worldview. The rejection of the self was motivated by a hidden agenda to rid science of any ideas that remotely felt supernatural or religious. Since the self seemed intertwined with the idea of a soul, scientific pushback on ideological grounds was inevitable, and from that point on, findings from neuroscience and psychology were interpreted through a reductionist lens. The fact that scientists could not identify a localized region that precisely corresponded to the self seemed to verify the belief that it is an “illusion,” though to most people that statement has little meaning, if any.

This reductionist ideology recently found an ally in what is called “nondual” Eastern philosophy. According to this quasi-mystical doctrine, embracing the idea that we aren’t our thoughts or ego can lead to a more compassionate world — one free of self-blame and blame toward others. If none of us are in control of our actions or thoughts, then punishment is pointless and immoral. By not placing undue importance on the self, individuals might find themselves more attuned to the interconnected nature of existence, shifting toward a holistic worldview where “we’re all in this together.”

However, there’s a dark side to this denial of the self, and it’s extremely troubling to those who think about this stuff deeply. If we have no self and no control over our thoughts and actions, then we are slaves to a billiard ball universe, trapped in a nihilistic nightmare in which we cannot change our fate or the fate of humanity. For those who take the hardline reductionist stance seriously, this can lead to cognitive dissonance, and in rarer cases, crippling depression or psychosis.

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In a breakthrough in cancer therapeutics, a team of researchers at the Magzoub Biophysics Lab at NYU Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) has made a significant advance in light-based therapies—biocompatible and biodegradable tumor-targeting nanospheres that combine tumor detection and monitoring with potent, light-triggered cancer therapy to dramatically increase the efficacy of existing light-based approaches.

Non-invasive, light-based therapies, (PDT) and (PTT) have the potential to be safe and effective alternatives to conventional treatments, which are beset by a number of issues, including a range of side-effects and post-treatment complications.

However, to date, the development of effective light-based technologies for cancer has been hindered by poor solubility, low stability, and lack of specificity, among other challenges. Nanocarriers designed to deliver PDT and PTT more effectively have also proven to have significant limitations.

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Sarilumab„ allowed for more-rapid tapering of prednisone in a randomized trial.

When patients with polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) have recurrent symptoms repeatedly during tapering of steroids, rheumatologists sometimes add agents such as methotrexate to decrease cumulative steroid exposure. Sarilumab (Kevzara; an interleukin-6 receptor antagonist) recently was FDA-approved in the U.S. for this purpose, based on results of this clinical trial.

Researchers identified 118 patients with PMR who had received at least 8 weeks of prednisone (≥10 mg daily) during their treatment course and had at least one symptom flare while taking ≥7.5 mg daily. Patients were randomized to receive either sarilumab, injected twice monthly for 1 year, while tapering prednisone over 14 weeks, or placebo, while tapering prednisone over 1 year. The protocol allowed for steroid “rescue” therapy if symptoms flared.

Sustained remission between weeks 12 and 52 occurred significantly more often in the sarilumab group than in the placebo group (28% vs. 10%). At 52 weeks, patients in the sarilumab group were significantly more likely to be asymptomatic and to have received no rescue therapy (45% vs. 14%). Median cumulative prednisone exposure was much lower in the sarilumab group (777 mg vs. 2044 mg). Neutropenia, diarrhea, and arthralgia occurred more commonly with sarilumab than with placebo. No deaths occurred during the trial.

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SQL Injection is still popular, but attackers are now leaning towards Traversal techniques!

Fastly’s Network Effect Threat Report sheds light on the latest attack traffic patterns & tactics.

Read:

Dive into the world of cyber threats with our Network Effect Threat Report. Learn about multi-customer attacks and which industries are most targeted.

Continue reading “Threat Report: High Tech Industry targeted the most with 46% of attack traffic tagged by NLX” | >

An international team of scientists, including from the University of Cambridge, have launched a new research collaboration that will leverage the same technology behind ChatGPT to build an AI-powered tool for scientific discovery.

While ChatGPT deals in words and sentences, the team’s AI will learn from numerical data and physics simulations from across scientific fields to aid scientists in modeling everything from supergiant stars to the Earth’s climate.

The team launched the initiative, called Polymathic AI earlier this week, alongside the publication of a series of related papers on the arXiv open access repository.

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I dont really care where it comes from but we need Crispr tec to be where any alteration we do want causes Zero un intended alterations any where else 100% of the time, aim for by 2030–2035 window.

A diverse set of species, from snails to algae to amoebas, make programmable DNA-cutting enzymes called Fanzors—and a new study from scientists at MIT’s McGovern Institute for Brain Research has identified thousands of them. Fanzors are RNA-guided enzymes that can be programmed to cut DNA at specific sites, much like the bacterial enzymes that power the widely used gene-editing system known as CRISPR. The newly recognized diversity of natural Fanzor enzymes, reported Sept. 27 in the journal Science Advances, gives scientists an extensive set of programmable enzymes that might be adapted into new tools for research or medicine.

“RNA-guided biology is what lets you make programmable tools that are really easy to use. So the more we can find, the better,” says McGovern Fellow Omar Abudayyeh, who led the research with McGovern Fellow Jonathan Gootenberg.

CRISPR, an ancient bacterial defense system, has made it clear how useful RNA-guided enzymes can be when they are adapted for use in the lab. CRISPR-based genome editing tools developed by MIT professor and McGovern investigator Feng Zhang, Abudayyeh, Gootenberg, and others have changed the way scientists modify DNA, accelerating research and enabling the development of many experimental gene therapies.

Continue reading “Thousands of programmable DNA-cutters found in algae, snails, and other organisms” | >