#There s a thermostat that stops neurons from spazzing out Brandeis University rightoriginal Studyposted by Leah Burrows-Brandeis on October 17 2013for the first time scientists have seen evidence in a living animal of a hermostatthat controls
with remarkable precision how often neurons fire. Neurons make new pathways and connections as our brain processes new information.
In order to do this individual neurons use an internal gauge to maintain a delicate balance that keeps our brains from becoming too excitable.
Scientists have theorized long a larger internal system monitors these individual gauges like a neural thermostat regulating average firing rates across the whole brain.
Without this thermostat they reasoned our flexible neurons would fire out of control making bad connections or none at all.
A demonstrated neural firing-rate set point opens up a whole new approach to thinking about neurological disorders such as epilepsy in
which the brain is excited too and autism in which the brain is excited not enough. f we can figure out how these set points are built we may be able to adjust them
and bring the brains of people suffering from such disorders back into balancesays Gina Turrigiano a professor at Brandeis University who led the study.
Turrigiano and colleagues observed in vivo that neocortical neurons cells that control higher functions such as sight language
and spatial reasoning have a set average firing rate and return to this set point even during prolonged periods of sensory deprivation.
The average firing rate is regulated so well by this neural thermostat that the rates do not change between periods of sleep and wakefulness.
when the brain does most of its wiring affected largely by the environment in which the animal is being raised.
This study demonstrated that during this period neurons are constantly elf-tuningto adjust for changes in environmental inputs says postdoctoral fellow Keith Hengen the paper s first author. f something is disturbed during that critical period
of early childhood development functioning neurons can self-adjust and return to their set-point average firing ratehengen says.
In this study published in the journal Neuron researchers studied young rats that temporarily lost vision in one eye.
But within the next 48 hours those neurons rebounded back to their set-point rateâ##like a cold house heating up.
This homeostatic mechanism keeps neurons on an even keel even as they change in response to learning development
and wakefulnesshengen says. he other rules in the brain have to play out in the context of this tightly regulated system of locked-in average firing rates. ource:
#Shortcut lets brain make memories in a flash Mcgill University rightoriginal Studyposted by Anita Kar-Mcgill U. on October 16 2013nerve cells have a special re-assemblytechnique that enables the brain to quickly form memories.
The technique speeds up protein production at synapses. These proteins are required to make a memory.
Researchers have discovered that in nerve cells the production process for memory proteins is preassembled already at the synapse
when it s the wrong timesays Wayne Sossin a neuroscientist at the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital at Mcgill University and senior investigator on the paper. his is especially important with nerve cells in the brain as you only want the brain to make precise
#How slow-wave sleep helps us learn Boston University Brown University Posted by David Orenstein-Brown on August 22 2013brown (US)# Scientists have pinpointed the brainwave frequencies
and brain region associated with sleep-enhanced learning of a finger-tapping task akin to typing
and lead author of the study appearing today in the Journal of Neuroscience.##We were trying to figure out which part of the brain is doing
what during sleep independent of what goes on during wakefulness. We were trying to figure out the specific role of sleep#says Tamaki.
In part because it employed three different kinds of brain scans the research is the first to precisely quantify changes among certain brainwaves
and the exact location of that changed brain activity in subjects as they slept after learning a sequential finger-tapping task.
and accuracy volunteers showed on the task after a few hours sleep was associated significantly with changes in fast-sigma and delta brainwave oscillations in their supplementary motor area (SMA) a region on the top-middle of the brain.
These specific brainwave changes in the SMA occurred during a particular phase of sleep known as#slow-wave#sleep.
It s an intensive activity for the brain to consolidate learning and so the brain may benefit from sleep perhaps
because more energy is available or because distractions and new inputs are fewer says corresponding author Yuka Sasaki a research associate professor in the department of cognitive linguistic & psychological sciences.#
The extent of reorganization that the brain accomplishes during sleep is suggested by the distinct roles the two brainwave oscillations appear to play.
while their brains were scanned both with magnetoencephalography (MEG) which measures the oscillations with precise timing and polysomnography
By this time the researchers had good baseline measurements of their brain activity and subjects had become accustomed to sleeping in the lab. On day four the subjects learned the finger-tapping task on their non-dominant hand (to purposely make it harder to learn).
On day five the researchers scanned each volunteer with an magnetic resonance imaging machine which maps brain anatomy
so that they could later see where the MEG oscillations they had observed were located in each subject s brain.
In all the experimenters tracked five different oscillation frequencies in eight brain regions (four distinct regions on each of the brain s two sides.
Sasaki says she expected the most significant activity to take place in the#M1#brain region which governs motor control
since a project to further study how the brain consolidates learning. In this case they re looking at visual learning tasks.#
#Would it be with similar frequency bands and a similar organization of neighboring brain areas?##In addition to Tamaki Sasaki and Watanabe other authors on the paper contributed from Boston University MGH National Taiwan University and Arizona State university.
#Computer picks emotion based on brain scan CARNEGIE MELLON (US) For the first time, scientists have identified which emotion a person is experiencing based on brain activity.
The study, published in PLOS ONE, combines functional magnetic resonance imaging (fmri) and machine learning to measure brain signals to accurately read emotions in individuals.
The findings illustrate how the brain categorizes feelings, giving researchers the first reliable process to analyze emotions.
Until now, research on emotions has been stymied long by the lack of reliable methods to evaluate them,
Identifying emotions based on neural activity builds on previous discoveries by Carnegie mellon University researchers Marcel Just and Tom M. Mitchell, who used similar techniques to create a computational model that identifies individualsthoughts
For the study, 10 actors were scanned at the Scientific Imaging & Brain Research center while viewing the words of nine emotions:
It was able to correctly identify the emotional content of photos being viewed using the brain activity of the viewers.
To identify emotions within the brain, the researchers first used the participantsneural activation patterns in early scans to identify the emotions experienced by the same participants in later scans.
when the computer model made use of activation patterns in only one of a number of different subsections of the human brain. his suggests that emotion signatures aren limited to specific brain regions,
such as the amygdala, but produce characteristic patterns throughout a number of brain regions, says Vladimir Cherkassky, senior research programmer in the psychology department.
Envy tough The research team also found that while on average the model ranked the correct emotion highest among its guesses,
suggesting that lust produces a pattern of neural activity that is distinct from all other emotional experiences.
and neuroscientist, explains, e found that three main organizing factors underpinned the emotion neural signatures, namely the positive or negative valence of the emotion, its intensityild or strong,
This is how emotions are organized in the brain. In the future, the researchers plan to apply this new identification method to a number of challenging problems in emotion research,
and the brain scientists say. A team of researchers introduced a robot designed to replicate the color pattern
#Tiny new sensor could simplify brain wave research Two years ago, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in the U s. developed a tiny magnetic sensor that could detect the human heartbeat without touching the subject's skin.
making it capable of measuring human brain activity and becoming almost as sensitive-but much cheaper and easier to operate-than the best magnetometers available today.
Magnetoencephalography (MEG) is a noninvasive procedure that measures the magnetic fields generated by the brain. This helps neuroscientists understand perceptual and cognitive processes
map cerebral activity to help identify tumors in preparation for surgery, or even create better brain-computer interfaces.
Today, the gold standard in MEG technology are superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDS. But while extremely sensitive and effective, this technology isn't easy on the wallet."
The NIST sensor was used to measure alpha waves in the brain associated with a person opening
The brushing also stimulates the production of oxytocin as well as improving milk flow speed. The milk is moved from the arm through the rest of the system by means of compressed air impeller pumps.
#Spinal implant could one day let paralyzed people walk again Three years ago scientists at The swiss Federal Institute of technology (EPFL) reported success in getting rats with severed spinal cords
They did so by suspending the animals in a harness then using implants to electrically stimulate neurons in their lower spinal cord.
In the original study the rats were injected first with chemicals that replaced the neurotransmitters that could no longer reach their hind legs.
which the spinal cord had been cut using electrodes that had been implanted onto the outermost layer of the spinal canal in that region.
After a period of training however the rats learned to activate the electrical impulses with their brains allowing them to walk
Eventually they even started forming new neuronal connections between the brain and the lower spine circumventing the cut in the spinal cord.
Although the researchers hoped that the technology could eventually find use in a rehabilitative neuroprosthetic system for humans there was at least one stumbling block#the implants
It's known as the e-Dura as it's designed to be implanted on the spinal cord or cortex beneath the dura mater#that's the protective envelope that surrounds the nervous system.
Those electrodes deliver a current plus they can detect electrical impulses (such as those that would be used to move the legs) in the brain.
and deform with the dura mater instead of rubbing or pressing against it. In lab tests e-Duras implanted in rats caused no problems even after two months#according to EPFL traditional implants would have caused significant nerve tissue damage within that same amount of time.
#Gelatin Nanoparticles could Deliver Drugs to your Brain Stroke victims could have more time to seek treatment that could reduce harmful effects on the brain thanks to tiny blobs of gelatin that could deliver the medication to the brain non-invasively.
The researchers found that gelatin nanoparticles could be laced with medications for delivery to the brain
Once administered the gelatin nanoparticles target damaged brain tissue thanks to an abundance of gelatin-munching enzymes produced in injured regions.
Illinois professor Kyekyoon#Kevin#Kim graduate student Elizabeth Joachim and researchscientist Hyungsoo Choi developed tiny gelatin nanoparticles that can carry medicationto the brain which could lead to longer
They can be administered nasally a noninvasive and direct route to the brain. This allows the drug to bypass the blood-brain barrier a biological fence that prevents the vast majority of drugs from entering the brain through the bloodstream.#
#Overcoming the difficulty of delivering therapeutic agents to specific regions of the brain presents a major challenge to treatment of most neurological disorders#said Choi.#
#However if drug substances can be transferred along the olfactory nerve cells they can bypass the blood-brain barrier
and enter the brain directly.##To test gelatin nanoparticles as a drug-delivery system the researchers used the drug osteopontin (OPN)
which in rats can help to reduce inflammation and prevent brain cell death if administered immediately after a stroke.#
#It is crucial to treat ischemic strokes within three hours to improve the chances of recovery.
so that treating a rat with nanoparticles six hours after a stroke showed the same efficacy rate as giving them OPN alone after one hour#70 percent recovery of dead volume in the brain.
#Gelatin nanoparticles are a delivery vehicle that could be used to deliver many therapeutics to the brain#Choi said.#
I. Kim is affiliated also with the Neuroscience Program the Institute for Genomic Biology the Beckman Institute and the departments of bioengineering of materials science and engineering and of nuclear plasma and radiological engineering at the U. of I d
#How Scientists Can Turn off Pain Receptors In research published in the medical journal Brain, Saint louis University researcher Daniela Salvemini, Ph d. and colleagues within SLU,
demonstrated that turning on a receptor in the brain and spinal cord counteracts chronic nerve pain in male and female rodents.
Activating the A3 receptor either by its native chemical stimulator the small molecule adenosine, or by powerful synthetic small molecule drugs invented at the NIH prevents
disease of knowledge and the brain which makes adults become babies. But South korea low birth rate will make family caregiving tougher. feel
like the brain, he said, letting it crash down. Now, he brain is destroyed. ementia is very bad for you,
so protect your brain, he said, with exercise, ot drinking too much sugar, and saying, addy, don drink so much because it not good for dementia.
At a Dementia March outside the World cup Soccer Stadium, children carried signs promoting Dr. Yang Mapo district center:
ake the Brain Smile! and ow is Your Memory? Free diagnosis center in Mapo. The Mapo Center for Dementia perches at a busy crossroads of old and new, near a university and a shop selling naturopathic goat extracts.
and my brain is processing it, but I cannot say it out loud, he said about the questions. ow can my brilliant brain remember everything?
Jeez, it so headachy. Checking his ability to categorize items, Dr. Yang asked, hat do you call dog and tiger?
He suggested that Mr. Cha get a government-subsidized brain M. R i. to confirm the diagnosis,
what brain cells he has. These include rooftop garden loral therapy, art classes making realistic representations of everyday objects, music therapy with bongos sounding ike a heartbeat.
gesturing toward his brain, hat something wrong with this, just a little bit. Students as Helpers Schools offer community service credit, encouraging work with dementia patients,
even including boosting brain functions like memory and learning
#FTC Proposes Stricter Guidelines on Food Ads for Children The Federal trade commission has proposed sweeping new guidelines that could push the food industry to overhaul how it advertises cereal, soda pop, snacks, restaurant meals and other foods to children.
The edible battery could also be used in medical devices like pacemakers and#implants#that treat Alzheimers and other brain conditions.
rather than just tolerating brain-numbing work to fund enjoyment elsewhere.####According to the Kaufman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity (KIEA), the entrepreneurial rate in the U s. is already well above the dot com bubble of 15 years ago,
##This simulates living bodies where neurons sense and deliver stimuli to the muscles and the muscles provide motion.##
they ve printed living central nervous system cells for the very first time. Led by professor Keith Martin, the team actually printed viable retina cells,
The printer was able to first print a layer of retinal ganglion cells and then a layer of glial cells on top of them,
possibly even including damaged nerve cells and spinal chord injuries. Via Dvice Share Thissubscribedel. icio. usfacebookredditstumbleupontechnorat t
#What happens when we put computers in our brains? This may seem like a wild idea,
but within 40 years neurons made from nanomaterials could enable humans to survive even the most horrendous accident,
##Researchers at#USC s Viterbi School of Engineeringhave created a#functioning synapse#using neurons made from carbon nanotubes.
In tests, their synapse circuits perform similar to normal biological neurons. Of course, duplicating synapse firings in nanotube circuits does not mean that scientists are ready to replace the human brain,
but a new interdisciplinary research center at#MIT#aims at nothing less than unraveling the mystery of intelligence;
The#MIT#researchers hope to gain a better understanding of how the brain gives rise to intelligence,
Reverse-engineering the brain. This massive#Blue Brain#effort with completion expected by mid-to-late-2020s will enable scientists to simulate the brain in a machine.
This is the first step in creating computers more powerful than human brains, says futurist Ray Kurzweil, in#The Singularity is Near.##
##The key lies in decoding and simulating the cerebral cortex, the seat of cognition, ##Kurzweil continues;##
##The human cortex has about 22 billion neurons and 220 trillion synapses.####Today, computers capable of crunching this amount of data do not exist,
but IBM experts believe that supercomputers with increased computational and memory capacity that can process this data will be available within three years.
predicts in his#blogthat expected advances in molecular nanotechnology will one day enable us to replace brain cells with damage-resistant nanomaterials that process thoughts faster than today s biological brains.##
##The new brain would include an exact copy of the structure and personality that existed before the conversion,
We could even control thought speeds, shifting from 100 milliseconds, the response time of todays brains, to 50 nanoseconds, millions of times faster.
Burch describes how we would switch to this new brain. A daily pill would supply nanomaterials
and instructions for nanobots to form new neurons and position them next to existing brain cells to be replaced.
but in six months, we would sport the new brain. Our artificial brain will allow wireless interface with computers and other digital technologies.
The most important benefit of our new brain could be its ability to survive disaster.
nanobots would quickly repair our brain, if damaged. Information is transmitted then to a processing center where a new body is cloned,
ready for transfer of our brain. The accident victim would wake up, not even realizing they had died.
Biological brains die within minutes after the heart stops, but our new brain will simply turn itself off and wait for a new power supply.
Experts predict these technologies could be in place by mid-century, but some wonder, will this make us less human;
Personally, once I get over the##yuck##factor of replacing my brain I see this as an incredible lifesaving medical procedure.
##Everyone knows that gaming is actually good for neurology and the brain, ##Stubb says.####Long gone are the days where parents tell you to stop.
Because once disgust shows up the brain of the disgust-feeler starts processing the other person (i e. the disgust trigger) as a toxin.
the brain's pattern recognition has a hair-trigger mechanism for recognizing signs of low-fertility and ill-health.
Something that acts almost human but not quite, reads to our brain's pattern recognition systemas illness.
When the brain detects humanlike features that is, when we recognize a member of our own species we tend to pay more attention.
While zinc is more stable, the water-based electrolytes in conventional zinc batteries cause zinc to form dendrites,
Futurist Marshall Brain in his#Robotic Freedom Blog#agrees with the idea. America should create a $25, 000 annual stipend for every U s. adult,
Brain says, which would be phased in over two-to-three decades. Arrival of human level automated systems marks a transformative time in history.
#Researchers discover gene that stimulates growth of new brain cells in adults City of Hope researchers have found that over-expressing a specific gene could prompt growth in adults of new neurons in the hippocampus,
and the growth of new neurons or neurogenesis is an important step in developing therapies to address impaired learning
Ph d.,lead author of the study and a neurosciences professor at City of Hope. In our study, we manipulated the expression of this receptor by introducing an additional copy of the gene
Researchers found that over-expression of the gene was associated actually with a physically larger brain,
The bulk of the brain s development happens before birth, and there are periods largely in childhood
and young adulthood when the brain experiences bursts of new growth. In the past couple of decades,
however, scientists have found evidence of neurogenesis in later adulthood occurring mostly in the hippocampus,
the region of the brain associated with learning and memory. Abstract of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences paper The role of the nuclear receptor TLX in hippocampal neurogenesis and cognition has begun just to be explored.
In this study, we generated a transgenic mouse model that expresses TLX under the control of the promoter of nestin, a neural precursor marker.
Transgenic TLX expression led to mice with enlarged brains with an elongated hippocampal dentate gyrus and increased numbers of newborn neurons.
Specific expression of TLX in adult hippocampal dentate gyrus via lentiviral transduction increased the numbers of Brdu+cells and Brdu+Neun+neurons.
Consistent with increased neurogenesis in the hippocampus the TLX transgenic mice exhibited enhanced cognition with increased learning and memory.
These results suggest a strong association between hippocampal neurogenesis and cognition, as well as significant contributions of TLX to hippocampal neurogenesis, learning,
and memory y
#Mobile can drive down healthcare costs and improve care Jawbone, wearable technology for a healthier lifestyle.
and predictably reactivate it by stimulating nerves in the brain. The University of California, San diego School of medicine researchers have erased
and predictably reactivate it by stimulating nerves in the brain at frequencies that are known to weaken
and strengthen the connections between nerve cells, called synapses. We can form a memory, erase that memory
said Roberto Malinow, MD, Phd, professor of neurosciences and senior author of the study. Scientists optically stimulated a group of nerves in a rat s brain that had been modified genetically to make them sensitive to light
and simultaneously delivered an electrical shock to the animal s foot. The rats soon learned to associate the optical nerve stimulation with pain
Analyses showed chemical changes within the optically stimulated nerve synapses, indicative of synaptic strengthening. In the next stage of the experiment, the research team demonstrated the ability to weaken this circuitry by stimulating the same nerves with a memory-erasing, low-frequency train of optical pulses.
or weaken the synapses, said Sadegh Nabavi, a postdoctoral researcher in the Malinow lab and the study s lead author.
noted that the beta amyloid peptide that accumulates in the brains of people with Alzheimer s disease weakens synaptic connections in much the same way that low-frequency stimulation erased memories in the rats.
Since our work shows we can reverse the processes that weaken synapses, we could potentially counteract some of the beta amyloid s effects in Alzheimer s patients,
International Institute of Neuroscience of Natal in Brazil, a paralyzed teen is set to open this year World cup by kicking a football
while wearing a motorized exoskeleton controlled by his or her brain. Colorado State university in particular recently published a video of its portion of the Walk Again Project,
The project started by partnering with some of the best brain and heart experts in the industry to brainstorm and develop ideas.
#Longevity gene may enhance brain power For the first time ever, scientists have shown that people who have a variant of a gene called KLOTHO also have improved cognitive abilities,
the mice got smarter, perhaps due to increased connections between nerve cells. This could provide a promising avenue of research for tackling Alzheimer disease.
If we could boost the brain ability to function, we may be able to counter dementias.
or the brain capacity to perform everyday intellectual tasks. The gene takes its name from the entity in Greek mythology called lotho who was one of the ateswho were supposed to control the thread of people lives.
#Scientists develop an off-switch for the brain Scientists have developed essentially an ff-switchfor the brain by using light pulses to effectively shut down neural activity.
In 2005, Stanford scientist Karl Deisseroth discovered how to switch individual brain cells on and off by using light in a technique that he dubbed ptogenetics,
the Independent reports that scientists have been able to more effectively shut down the neurons: r Deisseroth team has engineered now re its light-sensitive proteins to switch cells much more adequately than before.
said this improved ffswitch will help researchers to better understand the brain circuits involved in behavior, thinking and emotion.
t creates a powerful tool that allows neuroscientists to apply a brake in any specific circuit with millisecond precision, beyond the power of any existing technology.
The technique could help scientists develop treatments for patients with some brain diseases as it could allow problematic parts of the brain to be switched off
and addressed with minimal intrusion
#Fewer high school graduates enroll in college after graduation The proportion of high school students in the U s. who go on to college rose regularly for decades
#Neuroscientists reverse symptoms of Alzheimer s in mice Researchers found that the overproduction of the protein known as p25 may be the culprit behind the sticky protein-fragment clusters that build up in the brains of Alzheimer patients.
but until now, p25 role in Alzheimer pathology was understood not well. his protein appears to help maintain normal brain activity,
Elevated p25 levels in the brain have been documented upon exposure to neurotoxic stimuli such as oxidative stress and beta amyloids. n this study
for the first time we show that a variety of physiological neuronal activities generate p25 in the hippocampus,
where memories are encoded in the brain, Tsai says. To delineate the precise roles of p25,
which enabled researchers to prevent the production of p25 without altering other proteins with essential roles in brain development.
The researchers found that p25 is required for synaptic plasticity, the ability of brain connections to change over time;
especially for the process called long-term depression (LTD) that selectively weakens sets of synapses and is associated with memory extinction.
Tsai team observed that the mice unable to generate p25 could learn new tasks and form memories normally;
but also explains the underlying mechanism of the inordinate synaptic depression observed in the Alzheimer brain,
whether the blockade of p25 generation could mitigate pathological phenotypes in the Alzheimer brain, Tsai says.
and perhaps delaying the development of brain pathology, Tsai says. This work was supported in part by the National institutes of health and the Howard hughes medical institute M
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