Early signs of Alzheimer’s disease may be hidden in the way a person speaks, but it’s not yet clear which details of our diction are most critical for diagnosis.
A study from 2023 suggests that as we age, how we say something may matter more than what we say. Researchers at the University of Toronto think the pace of everyday speech may be a better indicator of cognitive decline than difficulty finding a word.
“Our results indicate that changes in general talking speed may reflect changes in the brain,” said cognitive neuroscientist Jed Meltzer when the research was published.
Comb jellies – very simple, gelatinous creatures best-known for their hypnotic underwater light shows – first appeared in Earth’s oceans around 550 million years ago.
For a long time, biologists have kind of considered them the living embodiment of ‘no thoughts, head empty’
But a new study suggests their central sensory organ is far more complex and brain-like than we realized.
Chinese researchers have developed a novel and highly efficient mitochondrial capsule transplantation therapy, achieving the safe and efficient transplantation of healthy mitochondria into cells and tissues for the first time. This new therapy can significantly alleviate symptoms of severe diseases such as Parkinson’s disease.
According to the study, published in the journal Cell, the therapy proposes a brand-new strategy in the field of regenerative medicine, shedding fresh light on intervention in refractory diseases caused by mitochondrial dysfunction, such as mitochondrial genetic diseases and neuron degenerative disorders.
Mitochondria are organelles that refer to specialized subunits with specific functions in cells. Mitochondria function like power plants in cells, continuously converting nutrients into energy for life activities. They are also the only organelles in human cells that possess their own genome.
Scientists have uncovered a hidden “death switch” in the brain that may be driving Alzheimer’s disease—and even found a way to turn it off in mice. The culprit is a toxic pairing of two proteins that, when combined, triggers the destruction of brain cells and fuels memory loss. By using a new compound to break apart this deadly duo, researchers were able to slow disease progression, protect brain cells, and even reduce hallmark amyloid buildup.
https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI169297 Freja Herborg & team explore the behavioral consequences and dopaminergic dysfunction that arise from patient-derived mutations in the dopamine transporter associated with parkinsonism and co-morbid neuropsychiatric disease, establishing a new mouse disease model.
The images show striatal slices with decreased immunolabeling intensity of both DR1 and DR2 in DAT-I312F/D421N+/+ mice compared with WT mice.
1Molecular Neuropharmacology and Genetics Laboratory, Department of Neuroscience, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
2CNS Research Group, Department of Pharmacology and Physiology, Department of Neurosciences, Faculty of Medicine, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Quebec, Canada.
3Centre for Neuroscience and Stereology, Copenhagen University Hospital Bispebjerg-Frederiksberg, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Though previous studies have identified brain regions that are involved in moral behavior and moral judgement, little is known about how brain activity underpins moral inconsistency.
To identify brain regions associated with moral inconsistency, the researchers used fMRI imaging to scan people’s brains during a task that required them to weigh honesty and profit. Participants could earn more money by being dishonest, but they were also asked to rate their own behavior on a 10-point scale from “extremely immoral” to “extremely moral.” The team also monitored the participants’ brain activity while they judged the morality of other people undertaking the same task.
In people who were morally consistent—meaning, they judged themselves and others by the same moral standards—the vmPFC was activated similarly during both the behavioral and judgement tasks. However, in morally inconsistent participants—those who judged other people’s cheating as immoral but rated their own cheating more leniently—the vmPFC was less active during the behavioral task and less connected to other brain regions involved in decision making and morality.
To examine whether vmPFC activity plays a causal role in moral inconsistency, the researchers stimulated some participants’ vmPFCs via a non-invasive method called transcranial temporal interference stimulation (tTIS) before they undertook the behavioral and judging tasks. They showed that vmPFC stimulation resulted in higher levels of moral inconsistency compared to participants who received mock stimulation.
These results suggest that people who are morally inconsistent don’t make use of their vmPFC to integrate information when making behavioral decisions, the researchers say. “Individuals exhibiting moral inconsistency are not necessarily blind to their own moral principles; they are just biologically failing to consider and apply them in their own moral behavior,” says the author. ScienceMission sciencenewshighlights https://sciencemission.com/Moral-inconsistency
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Project Hail Mary opened in theaters last week, introducing the world to Rocky, the alien creature whose friendship with the main character, Ryland Grace, forms the heart of the story. Rocky quickly became a fan favorite of readers of the book, partly because of the extensive research and imagination put into the creature by the author, Andy Weir. In today’s video, I have Andy Weir join me to break down everything you could possibly want to know about Rocky, from his (not so) fictional planet to his crazy anatomy. It’s a masterclass in speculative biology that will amaze amaze amaze you.
Check out the Oldest and Newest Places posters, now on sale! https://laughsmarter.com/collections/.… to support the channel? Here’s how: Patreon: / answerswithjoe Channel Memberships: / @joescott T-Shirts & Merch: https://laughsmarter.com Book of Mysteries: https://a.co/d/0gRx0qvM Documentary: https://nebula.tv/oldestnewest Check out my 2nd channel, Joe Scott TMI: / @joescott-tmi And my podcast channel, Conversations With Joe: / @conversationswithjoe You can listen to my podcast, Conversations With Joe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Spotify 👉 https://spoti.fi/37iPGzF Apple Podcasts 👉 https://apple.co/3j94kfq Google Podcasts 👉 https://bit.ly/3qZCo1V Follow me at all my places! Instagram: / answerswithjoe TikTok: / answerswithjoe Facebook: / answerswithjoe Twitter: / answerswithjoe TIMESTAMPS 0:00 — Intro 3:15 — About The Eridani System 7:10 — Morphology 18:04 — Crystal Brain 20:44 — Digestion 24:19 — Circulation/Musculature/Dormancy 28:37 — Communication 35:00 — How They Brought Rocky to Life 38:16 — Sponsor — Incogni.
“I like to say that physics is hard because physics is easy, by which I mean we actually think about physics as students.”
Up next, The Multiverse is real. Just not in the way you think it is. ► • The Multiverse is real. Just not in the wa…
Physics seems complicated, until you realize why it works so well, says physicist Sean Carroll, revealing the basis of the field’s greatest successes: Radical simplicity.
Carroll takes us from Newton’s clockwork universe to Laplace’s demon, to Einstein’s spacetime revolution, exploring the historical shockwaves each breakthrough caused. If you’ve wondered how stripping the world down to its simplest parts can reveal deeper truths, this is where that story begins.
00:00:00 Radical simplicity in physics. 00:00:55 Chapter 1: The physics of free will. 00:04:55 Laplace’s Demon. 00:06:27 The clockwork universe paradigm. 00:07:41 Determinism and compatibilism. 00:08:45 Chapter 2: The invention of spacetime. 00:17:30: Einstein’s general theory of relativity. 00:24:27 Chapter 3: The quantum revolution. 00:28:05 The 2 biggest ideas in physics. 00:32:27 Visualizing physics. 00:38:17 Quantum field theory. 00:46:51 The Higgs boson particle. 00:47:28 The standard model of particle physics. 00:52:53 The core theory of physics. 01:02:03 The measurement problem. 01:13:47 Chapter 4: The power of collective genius. 01:16:19 A timeline of the theories of physics.
Roger Penrose, Sabrina Gonzalez Pasterski, and Max Tegmark discuss consciousness, quantum physics, and the possibility of a sentient superintelligent A.I.
The idea that the brain is computational has, from the outset, been central to neuroscience. Like a computer, the brain is a problem-solving machine that stores memories and processes information. But despite the advances in AI, many challenge whether this analogy captures the essence of the mind. Computers use transistors to build elementary logic gates, enabling them to store files exactly, in 0s and 1s. They are precise and repeatable. Human brains, in contrast, are biological—the neurons do not operate as simple logic gates, but have thousands of inputs, and their output is dependent on past activity and their current internal state. Remove a computer’s processor, and it breaks. But humans can survive with only one brain hemisphere. Fundamentally, brains think, they have perception, and are conscious.
Is it a mistake to see the mind as computational? Are computers, at root, limited machines with little in common with the sophistication of living things? Or have computers and mathematics uncovered the essential character of thought—and perhaps even the cosmos itself?
