Changes to short, repetitive sequences in the genome have been linked to diseases like autism and schizophrenia. New revelations about how such changes increase and decrease gene expression may provide insight into these and other disorders.
Category: neuroscience – Page 593
Brain implants, software guide speech-disabled person’s intended words to computer screen
Pat Bennett’s prescription is a bit more complicated than “Take a couple of aspirins and call me in the morning.” But a quartet of baby-aspirin-sized sensors implanted in her brain are aimed at addressing a condition that’s frustrated her and others: the loss of the ability to speak intelligibly. The devices transmit signals from a couple of speech-related regions in Bennett’s brain to state-of-the-art software that decodes her brain activity and converts it to text displayed on a computer screen.
Bennett, now 68, is a former human resources director and onetime equestrian who jogged daily. In 2012, she was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a progressive neurodegenerative disease that attacks neurons controlling movement, causing physical weakness and eventual paralysis.
Our brains remember how to formulate words even if the muscles responsible for saying them out loud are incapacitated. A brain-computer hookup is making the dream of restoring speech a reality.
Scientists Unveil Unprecedented “Live” View Into the Brain’s Complexity
The human brain, with its intricate network of approximately 86 billion neurons, is arguably among the most complex specimens scientists have ever encountered. It holds an immense, yet currently immeasurable, wealth of information, positioning it as the pinnacle of computational devices.
Grasping this level of intricacy is challenging, making it essential for us to employ advanced technologies that can decode the minute, intricate interactions happening within the brain at microscopic levels. Thus, imaging emerges as a pivotal instrument in the realm of neuroscience.
The new imaging and virtual reconstruction technology developed by Johann Danzl’s group at ISTA is a big leap in imaging brain activity and is aptly named LIONESS – Live Information Optimized Nanoscopy Enabling Saturated Segmentation. LIONESS is a pipeline to image, reconstruct, and analyze live brain tissue with a comprehensiveness and spatial resolution not possible until now.
A single gene mutation may have made us smarter than Neanderthals
Once we fully we understand intelligence it could be essentially increased to nearly infinite levels once everything is quantified like this article talks about 😗😁.
Modern humans have a gene mutation that boosts the growth of neurons in the brain neocortex, a brain region associated with higher intelligence.
Science Fiction Meets Neuro-Reality: Organoids to Rebuild the Brain
This is leading to even better brain engineering 👏 🙌 👌 😀 😄.
Computer-augmented brains, cures to blindness, and rebuilding the brain after injury all sound like science fiction. Today, these disruptive technologies aren’t just for Netflix, “Terminator,” and comic book fodder — in recent years, these advances are closer to reality than some might realize, and they have the ability to revolutionize neurological care.
Neurologic disease is now the world’s leading cause of disability, and upwards of 11 million people have some form of permanent neurological problem from traumatic brain injuries and stroke. For example, if a traumatic brain injury has damaged the motor cortex — the region of the brain involved in voluntary movements — patients could become paralyzed, without hope of regaining full function. Or some stroke patients can suffer from aphasia, the inability to speak or understand language, due to damage to the brain regions that control speech and language comprehension.
Thanks to recent advances, sometimes lasting neurologic disease can be prevented. For example, if a stroke patient is seen quickly enough, life-threatening or-altering damage can be avoided, but it’s not always possible. Current treatments to most neurologic disease are fairly limited, as most therapies, including medications, aim to improve symptoms but can’t completely recover lost brain function.
Brain-Belly Connection: Gut Health May Influence Likelihood of Developing Alzheimer’s
Could changing your diet play a role in slowing or even preventing the development of dementia? We’re one step closer to finding out, thanks to a new UNLV study that bolsters the long-suspected link between gut health and Alzheimer’s disease.
The analysis — led by a team of researchers with the Nevada Institute of Personalized Medicine (NIPM) at UNLV and published this spring in the Nature journal Scientific Reports — examined data from dozens of past studies into the belly-brain connection. The results? There’s a strong link between particular kinds of gut bacteria and Alzheimer’s disease.
UNLV study pinpoints 10 bacterial groups associated with Alzheimer’s disease, provides new insights into the relationship between gut makeup and dementia.
The human brain’s characteristic wrinkles help to drive how it works
The study’s authors compared the influence of two components of the brain’s physical structure: the outer folds of the cerebral cortex — the area where most higher-level brain activity occurs — and the connectome, the web of nerves that links distinct regions of the cerebral cortex. The team found that the shape of the outer surface was a better predictor of brainwave data than was the connectome, contrary to the paradigm that the connectome has the dominant role in driving brain activity. “We use concepts from physics and engineering to study how anatomy determines function,” says study co-author James Pang, a physicist at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.
A model of the brain’s geometry better explains neuronal activity than a model based on the ‘connectome’.
Dementia: Daily dose of olive oil linked to better brain health
Opting for olive oil could reduce your risk of fatal dementia, according to a new study.
Participants who included half a tablespoon of olive oil in their daily diet were 28% less likely to die of dementia.
The study authors found that replacing a single teaspoon of margarine or mayonnaise with olive oil reduced the risk of fatal dementia by 8–14%.
Researchers have observed an association between daily consumption of olive oil — instead of margarine or mayonnaise — and a reduced risk of dying from dementia.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO)Trusted Source, there are over 55 million people living with dementia globally. There are an estimated 10 million new cases yearly, and dementia is also the seventh leading cause of death among older adults.
New research shows that a half tablespoon of olive oil per day may be beneficial for brain health. The study found that replacing a single teaspoon of margarine or mayonnaise with olive oil reduced the risk of fatal dementia by 8–14%.
A mother’s diet can protect her grandchildren’s brains: genetic model study
Mothers who eat apples and herbs in early pregnancy could be protecting the brain health of their children and grandchildren, a Monash University study using genetic models has found.
The discovery is part of a project that found a mother’s diet can affect not just her child’s brain but also those of her grandchildren.
Published in Nature CellBiology, the Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute study found that certain foods could help protect against the deterioration of brain function.
More specifically, the study used roundworms (Caenorhabditis elegans) as the genetic model because many of their genes are also found conserved in humans, allowing insights into human cells.
The researchers… More.
Apples and herbs in early pregnancy could protect your child and grandchild’s brain health, a study has found.