A new study offers insight into what is happening in our brains when our working memory must use its limited resources to remember multiple things.
Researchers found that two parts of the brain work together to ensure that more brain resources are given to remember a priority item when a person is juggling more than one item in memory.
The study involved people remembering spatial locations. Imagine seeing two books on different shelves of a cluttered bookcase that was not arranged in any order. How could you remember where they were if you came back a few seconds later?
In a small study, researchers transplanted stem cells into the brains of 12 Parkinson’s patients, stopping progression and bringing about improvement in motor function.
UCLA researchers have made a significant breakthrough in stroke rehabilitation by developing a drug, DDL-920, that replicates the effects of physical therapy in mice. This discovery could pave the way for new treatments that enhance recovery for stroke patients.
Key Findings:
- Understanding Stroke-Induced Brain Disconnection: The study revealed that strokes can disrupt brain connections far from the initial damage site, particularly affecting parvalbumin neurons. These neurons are crucial for generating gamma oscillations—brain rhythms essential for coordinated movements.
- Role of Physical Rehabilitation: Physical therapy was found to restore gamma oscillations and repair connections in parvalbumin neurons, leading to improved motor functions in both mice and human subjects.
This book dives into the holy grail of modern physics: the union of quantum mechanics and general relativity. It’s a front-row seat to the world’s brightest minds (like Hawking, Witten, and Maldacena) debating what reality is really made of. Not casual reading—this is heavyweight intellectual sparring.
☼ Key Takeaways: ✅ Spacetime Is Not Continuous: It might be granular at the quantum level—think “atoms of space.” ✅ Unifying Physics: String theory, loop quantum gravity, holography—each gets a say. ✅ High-Level Debates: This is like eavesdropping on the Avengers of physics trying to fix the universe. ✅ Concepts Over Calculations: Even without equations, the philosophical depth will bend your brain. ✅ Reality Is Weirder Than Fiction: Quantum foam, time emergence, multiverse models—all explored.
This isn’t a how-to; it’s a “what-is-it?” If you’re obsessed with the ultimate structure of reality, this is your fix.
☼ Thanks for watching! If the idea of spacetime being pixelated excites you, drop a comment below and subscribe for more mind-bending content.
Human cyborgs are individuals who integrate advanced technology into their bodies, enhancing their physical or cognitive abilities. This fusion of man and machine blurs the line between science fiction and reality, raising questions about the future of humanity, ethics, and the limits of human potential. From bionic limbs to brain-computer interfaces, cyborg technology is rapidly evolving, pushing us closer to a world where humans and machines become one.
Reducing high blood pressure substantially lowers the risk of dementia and cognitive impairment without dementia, according to the results of a phase 3 clinical trial involving almost 34,000 patients, published in Nature Medicine. These findings highlight the potential importance of widespread adoption of more intensive blood pressure control among patients with hypertension to reduce the global disease burden of dementia.
It is estimated that the global number of people with dementia will rise from 57.4 million in 2019 to 152.8 million by 2050, with the greatest impact being in low-to middle-income countries. Previous research suggests that lifestyle interventions, such as eating a healthy diet and exercising regularly, could be the most effective way to reduce the growing global incidence of dementia.
Research has also found that people with untreated hypertension have a 42% greater risk of developing dementia in their lifetime than healthy study participants. However, only a few randomized controlled trials have tested the effect of medications that reduce blood pressure on the risk of dementia, and none have looked at it as a primary trial endpoint.
Lucid dreaming (LD) is a state of conscious awareness of the ongoing oneiric state, predominantly linked to REM sleep. Progress in understanding its neurobiological basis has been hindered by small sample sizes, diverse EEG setups, and artifacts like saccadic eye movements. To address these challenges in the characterization of the electrophysiological correlates of LD, we introduced an adaptive multi-stage preprocessing pipeline, applied to human data (male and female) pooled across laboratories, allowing us to explore sensor-and source-level markers of LD. We observed that, while sensor-level differences between LD and non-lucid REM sleep were minimal, mixed-frequency analysis revealed broad low-alpha to gamma power reductions during LD compared to wakefulness. Source-level analyses showed significant beta power (12−30 Hz) reductions in right central and parietal areas, including the temporo-parietal junction, during LD. Moreover, functional connectivity in the alpha band (8−12 Hz) increased during LD compared to non-lucid REM sleep. During initial LD eye signaling compared to baseline, source-level gamma1 power (30−36 Hz) increased in right temporo-occipital regions, including the right precuneus. Finally, functional connectivity analysis revealed increased inter-hemispheric and inter-regional gamma1 connectivity during LD, reflecting widespread network engagement. These results suggest that distinct source-level power and connectivity patterns characterize the dynamic neural processes underlying LD, including shifts in network communication and regional activation that may underlie the specific changes in perception, memory processing, self-awareness, and cognitive control. Taken together, these findings illuminate the electrophysiological correlates of LD, laying the groundwork for decoding the mechanisms of this intriguing state of consciousness.
Significance statement Lucid dreaming (LD) is a unique state of oneiric awareness, where individuals recognize they are dreaming while still in the dream. LD neural correlates remain elusive, as it is very rare and difficult to reproduce in the laboratory. Using an advanced preprocessing pipeline, we harmonized diverse EEG datasets to analyze the largest LD sample to date. We observed gamma power increases in the precuneus during initial eye lucidity signaling, beta power reductions in parietal areas, including the temporo-parietal junction, and enhanced alpha and gamma connectivity during LD over non-lucid REM sleep. These findings shed light on how the brain generates self-referential awareness and volitional action even during sleep.
Alternative RNA splicing is like a movie editor cutting and rearranging scenes from the same footage to create different versions of a film. By selecting which scenes to keep and which to leave out, the editor can produce a drama, a comedy, or even a thriller—all from the same raw material. Similarly, cells splice RNA in different ways to produce a variety of proteins from a single gene, fine-tuning their function based on need. However, when cancer rewrites the script, this process goes awry, fueling tumor growth and survival.
In a recent study reported in the Feb. 15 issue of Nature Communications, scientists from The Jackson Laboratory (JAX) and UConn Health not only show how cancer hijacks this tightly regulated splicing and rearranging of RNA but also introduce a potential therapeutic strategy that could slow or even shrink aggressive and hard-to-treat tumors. This discovery could transform how we treat aggressive cancers, such as triple-negative breast cancer and certain brain tumors, where current treatment options are limited.
At the heart of this work, led by Olga Anczuków, an associate professor at JAX and co-program leader at the NCI-designated JAX Cancer Center, are tiny genetic elements called poison exons, nature’s own “off switch” for protein production. When these exons are included in an RNA message, they trigger its destruction before a protein can be made—preventing harmful cellular activity. In healthy cells, poison exons regulate the levels of key proteins, keeping the genetic machinery in check. But in cancer, this safety mechanism often fails.
