Lifeboat Foundation

Even healthy brains become less efficient as they age, but they do so at different rates for different tasks in different people. Understanding what contributes to this decline, and the ways in which that decline varies, can provide significant insight into the function of the brain.

In a new study, researchers at The University of Texas at Dallas documented how some parts of the brain perform differently over time in response to various kinds of visual input.

A team from the Center for Vital Longevity (CVL) analyzed a phenomenon called neural dedifferentiation, in which regions of the brain that normally are specialized to perform distinct tasks become less selective in their responses to stimulus types.

Many computational properties are maximized when the dynamics of a network are at a “critical point”, a state where systems can quickly change their overall characteristics in fundamental ways, transitioning e.g. between order and chaos or stability and instability. Therefore, the critical state is widely assumed to be optimal for any computation in recurrent neural networks, which are used in many AI applications.

A team of researchers with interdisciplinary expertise in psychology, informatics (the application of information science to solve problems with data) and engineering along with the Vanderbilt Brain Institute (VBI) gained critical insights into one of the biggest mysteries in neuroscience, identifying the location and critical nature of these neurons.”

New research on cognitive flexibility points to a small class of brain cells that support switching attention strategies when old strategies fail.

Continue reading “Neuroscientists at Vanderbilt identify the brain cells that help humans adapt to change” »

Child psychiatrist Jon Jureidini and philosopher Leemon McHenry dispute the assumption that all approved drugs and medical devices are safe and effective. They warn that when clinical science is hitched to the pharmaceutical industry’s dash for profits, the scientific method is undermined by marketing spin and cherry-picking of data. They propose a solution inspired by philosopher of science Karl Popper: take drug testing out of the hands of manufacturers.”

It’s time to take trials out of the hands of pharmaceutical makers, argues the latest in a long line of books on corruption and the pharmaceutical industry.

The papers appear to feature the same pictures as others, raising doubts about the checks on scientific research, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Every second, a star dies in the universe. But these stellar beings don’t just completely vanish, stars always leave something behind.

Some stars explode in a supernova, turning into a black hole or a neutron star, while the majority of stars become white dwarfs, a core of the star it once used to be. However, a new study reveals that these white dwarfs contribute more to life in the cosmos than previously believed.

New observations of white dwarf stars reveal their stellar contribution to carbon atoms in the cosmos, one of the building blocks of life.

Acts of kindness may not be that random after all. Science says being kind pays off.

Research shows that acts of kindness make us feel better and healthier. Kindness is also key to how we evolved and survived as a species, scientists say. We are hard-wired to be kind.

Kindness “is as bred in our bones as our anger or our lust or our grief or as our desire for revenge,” said University of California San Diego psychologist Michael McCullough, author of the forthcoming book “Kindness of Strangers.” It’s also, he said, “the main feature we take for granted.”

https://vimeo.com/401171025

I know Elon Musk believes Mars is the promised land that we should try to move humans to but what about Venus?

A growing group of scientists want to float above our sister planet before we conquer the red one.

In a new study researchers at Karolinska Institutet and KTH Royal Institute of Technology have developed a new kind of brain atlas based on an innovative method of mapping brain tissue into areas according to their molecular profile. The study is published in Science Advances.