Researchers at ETH Zurich have developed a new technique to better understand how electrons interact within materials. By using a moiré material — created by twisting ultra-thin atomic layers — they generated an artificial crystal lattice in a nearby semiconductor, allowing for more precise studies of electron behavior.
Regular use of math and reading skills could prevent cognitive decline with age, according to a new Science Advances study.
Cognitive skills of the population such as literacy and numeracy are important not only for individual incomes but also for the economic growth of nations (2–6). As a result, the aging of world populations presents an economic concern if the commonly assumed declines of these skills with age hold.
We use longitudinal variation in individual literacy and numeracy skills for a representative adult sample to create age-skill profiles that credibly separate age from cohort effects. The pure age component that we derive provides a different perspective on the impacts of aging populations. Overall, our results are not consistent with a view that a natural law dictates an inevitable decline in these skills with age. Potential cognitive declines only occur at later ages and are not inevitable with usage of skills.
This is consolation for countries with aging populations, but avoidance of skill losses is not automatic and appears related to stimulation from skill usage. These results thus suggest that age-skill relationships of adults deserve policy attention, consistent with concerns about the necessity of lifelong learning.
“We are not there yet but we think this could be the basis of a speech prosthesis,” said Dr Joseph Makin, co-author of the research from the University of California, San Francisco.
Writing in the journal Nature Neuroscience, Makin and colleagues reveal how they developed their system by recruiting four participants who had electrode arrays implanted in their brain to monitor epileptic seizures.
These participants were asked to read aloud from 50 set sentences multiple times, including “Tina Turner is a pop singer”, and “Those thieves stole 30 jewels”. The team tracked their neural activity while they were speaking.
Can the diagnosis of epilepsy-causing focal cortical dysplasias (FCD) be improved using state-of-the-art artificial intelligence?
This study evaluates the efficacy and interpretability of graph neural networks in automatically detecting focal cortical dysplasia lesions on magnetic resonance imaging scans.
New study from Wenxing Qin, Yuran Duan, Zhiqiang Hu, Yueru Hou, Daqian Xu and colleagues (Zhejiang University School of Medicine) unveils a novel mechanism by which the metabolic enzyme PCK1 hinders cGAS-STING activation by competitively consuming GTP, consequently fostering tumor immune evasion.
This study unveils a novel mechanism by which the metabolic enzyme PCK1 hinders cGAS-STING activation by competitively consuming GTP, consequently fosterin.
You may have noted that AI companions are an intriguing yet complex phenomenon in this modern age. This event has caused various psychological effects on the human mind, both beneficial and detrimental. With the rapid advancement of AI systems, including conversational interfaces, virtual personal assistants, and robotic companions, interactions with these technologies are increasingly influencing emotional well-being and social behavior. You must have watched the film “Her,” which highlights similar themes of companionship with an operating system.
Her follows Theodore, a lonely writer who develops a deep emotional connection with an AI assistant named Samantha. Unlike traditional AI, Samantha isn’t just a programmed voice—she learns, evolves, and expresses emotions, making Theodore feel truly seen and understood. Their relationship blurs the line between human and machine companionship, raising questions about whether AI can meet emotional needs the way real human relationships do. As Samantha grows beyond Theodore, the film explores what it means to love something that isn’t physically present and whether AI relationships can ever replace real human connection.
This article will explore the psychological effects of AI companions, their potential benefits, and the limitations of this technology.
Analysis of circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA) is commonly used for molecular profiling in patients with advanced-stage non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The authors of this Review summarize the available evidence on the potential utility of incorporating ctDNA in the management of those with early stage and locally advanced NSCLC and propose interventional studies to provide the necessary additional evidence.
Measurement of CSF flow and brain motion in Chiari malformation type I subjects undergoing posterior fossa decompression surgery
Posted in biotech/medical, neuroscience | Leave a Comment on Measurement of CSF flow and brain motion in Chiari malformation type I subjects undergoing posterior fossa decompression surgery
Radiologically, Chiari malformation type I (CM-I) is characterized by cerebellar tonsil herniation of at least 5 mm through the foramen magnum. In symptomatic cases, posterior fossa decompression (PFD) surgery is often performed and improves symptoms in approximately 75% of patients. However, the surgery involves risks, and identifying which candidates will benefit from surgery is important. It has previously been shown that the amount of tonsillar descent does not correlate with symptom severity or surgical outcomes. The authors hypothesized that using advanced neuroimaging methods to directly measure CSF flow and brain motion will give insights regarding which patients have the greatest likelihood of cerebral dynamic improvements from surgery.
Here, the authors evaluated 108 CM-I patients (age 19–70 years), 61 of whom underwent PFD surgery. The authors used phase-contrast MRI to measure CSF flow/stroke volume and cine displacement encoding with stimulated echoes (DENSE) imaging to measure brain motion, with a goal to predict postsurgical cerebral dynamic improvements from presurgical images.
The authors found that CSF stroke volume increased after PFD surgery by 28.9% (p = 0.014), brainstem motion decreased after surgery by 17.3% (p = 0.002), and cerebellum motion decreased 45.2% (p < 0.001). Notably, the amount of CSF flow increase after surgery had no relationship to tonsillar descent (R = 0.059, p = 0.767) but did relate to the amount of presurgical CSF flow (R = −0.518, p = 0.005). Likewise, improvements to brain motion were better predicted by the amount of presurgical motion (brainstem, R = −0.638, p < 0.001; cerebellum, R = −0.878, p < 0.001) than by tonsillar descent (brainstem, R = −0.312, p = 0.093; cerebellum, R = −0.620, p < 0.001).
A new study suggests a nasal spray developed to target neuroinflammation could one day be an effective treatment for traumatic brain injury (TBI). By studying the effects of the nasal anti-CD3 in a mouse model of TBI, researchers found the spray could reduce damage to the central nervous system and behavioral deficits, suggesting a potential therapeutic approach for TBI and other acute forms of brain injury. The results are published in Nature Neuroscience.
The study examines the monoclonal antibody Foralumab, made by Tiziana, which has been tested in clinical trials for patients with multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease, and other conditions.
Multiple experiments were done in mouse models with moderate-to-severe traumatic brain injury to explore the communication between regulatory cells induced by the nasal treatment and the microglial immune cells in the brain. Over time, researchers were able to identify how they modulate immune response.
In addition to assessing the effects of the treatment, the research team was able to learn about immune response over time and compare the immune responses and effects of TBI in the mice.
The next step in the research is to translate the findings from preclinical models to human patients.