and the brain regions associated with dementia and it can help contribute to a dementia diagnosis. He noted that this also provides strong evidence that dementia in humans could be called a type of'accelerated ageing
but the shoulders and the small brain recall Homo's more apelike ancestors, the researchers said.
but nobody has suspected that mental ability in creatures with such a small brain as naledi, he said.
Until now, animal research on central nervous system disorders, such as spinal cord injury and Parkinson's disease, has been limited because researchers could not extract sufficient cerebrospinal fluid to perform conventional assays."
"With our technology, researchers will be able to perform large-scale controlled studies with comparable accuracy to conventional assays,
hand di rectly connected to his brain, US de ence researchers have claimed. Paralysed for more than a deca de due to a spinal cord injury,
the man could even identify which me chanical finger was being gently to uched, researchers said.
which paralysed people will not on y be able to manipulate objects by sending signals from their brain to devices,
"By wiring a sense of touch rom a mechanical hand directly in o the brain, this work shows the po ential for seamless bio-technologi cal restoration of near-natural unction,
Electrode arrays were placed onto the man's sensory cortex, the brain region responsible for identi ying tactile sensations such as pressure.
In addition, the team pla ced arrays on his motor cortex, the part of the brain that directs body movements.
Wires were run from he arrays on the motor cortex to a mechanical hand developed by the Applied Physics laboratory (APL.
The team used wires to route those signals to the arrays on the man's brain.
#Indian-American scientist uses sound waves to control brain cells WASHINGTON: In a first, an Indian American researcher from Salk Institute for Biological Studies in California has developed a new way to selectively activate brain,
heart muscle and other cells using ultrasonic sound waves. Dubbed as sonogenetics, the new technique has some similarities to the burgeoning use of light to activate cells
in order to better understand the brain.""Light-based techniques are great for some uses. But this is a new,
additional tool to manipulate neurons and other cells in the body,"informed,"Sreekanth Chalasani, assistant professor in Salk's molecular neurobiology laboratory.
In optogenetics, researchers add light-sensitive channel proteins to neurons they wish to study. By shining a focused laser on the cells,
either activating or silencing the target neurons. Chalasani and his group decided to see if they could develop an approach that
when you want to stimulate a region deep in the brain without affecting other regions, "adds Stuart Ibsen, postdoctoral fellow in the Chalasani lab. So far,
sonogenetics has only been applied to C. elegans neurons.""The real prize will be to see whether this could work in a mammalian brain,
"Chalasani pointed out. His group has begun already testing the approach in mice.""When we make the leap into therapies for humans,
#Paraplegic man walks using only his brain power A brain-to-computer echnology that can translate thoughts into leg movements has enab ed a man paralysed from the waist down by a spinal cord injury to become the first such
The slow, halting first steps of the 28-year-old paraplegic were documented in a preliminary study published in The british-based Journal of Neuroengineering and Rehabilitation,
The feat was accomplished using a system allowing the brain o bypass the injured spinal cord and instead send messages through a computer algorithm to elec rodes placed around the patient's knees to trigger controlled eg muscle movements.
but incremental achievement in the development of brain-computer interfaces that may one day help stroke
brain-controlled walking after a complete spinal cord injury,"said biomedical engineer Zoran Nenadic, who led the research.
#Paraplegic man walks using only his brain power A brain-to-computer technology that can translate thoughts into leg movements has enabled a man paralysed from the waist down by a spinal cord injury to become the first such patient to walk without the use of robotics,
The slow, halting first steps of the 28-year-old paraplegic were documented in a preliminary study published in The british-based Journal of Neuroengineering and Rehabilitation,
The feat was accomplished using a system allowing the brain to bypass the injured spinal cord and instead send messages through a computer algorithm to electrodes placed around the patient's knees to trigger controlled leg muscle movements.
but incremental achievement in the development of brain-computer interfaces that may one day help stroke
brain-controlled walking after a complete spinal cord injury,"said biomedical engineer Zoran Nenadic, who led the research.
#Premature birth may weaken brain connections Premature birth may result in weakened connections in brain networks linked to attention, communication and the processing of emotions, thereby increasing risk of neurological and psychiatric disorders,
"We found significant differences in the white matter tracts and abnormalities in brain circuits in the infants born early,
compared with those of infants born at full term, "said principal investigator Cynthia Rogers, assistant professor of child psychiatry at Washington University School of medicine in St louis. White matter tracts in the brain are made of axons that connect brain regions to form networks.
The researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging and diffusion tensor brain imaging to compare 58 babies born at full term with 76 infants born at least 10 weeks early.
meanwhile, received a brain scan within a few days of his or her due date. The researchers found that some key brain networks--those involved in attention,
communication and emotion--were weaker in premature infants, offering an explanation for why children born prematurely may have elevated an risk of psychiatric disorders.
The researchers also found differences in preemies'resting-state brain networks, particularly in a pair of networks previously implicated in learning and developmental problems.
These brain circuit abnormalities likely contribute to problems that materialize as the children get older,
"The brain is particularly'plastic'very early in life and potentially could be modified by early intervention,"Rogers pointed out t
He further stated that this same approach will be used on other drugs in the near future as well. his is the first in a line of central nervous system products Aprecia plans to introduce as part of our commitment to transform the way patients experience taking medication,
It also houses the all-important spinal cord, which connects all parts of our body directly to the brain.
Unfortunately, a number of injuries, infections and conditions directly affect the backbone and spine, limiting movement or at times even the very functioning of our bodies.
While it was known previously that the opah (Lampris guttatus) could heat its eyes and brain, a paper published today in Science shows it can also heat its entire body.
resulting in damage to the optic nerve, which carries information to the brain. Since the symptoms of glaucoma do not show up until very late stages,
early detection by a procedure called fundus imaging is advised. Fundus imaging involves taking photographs of the retina
About 12 percent of India 1. 2 billion people are estimated to be affected by glaucoma. amage to the optic nerve due to glaucoma is not reversible.
#Groundbreaking Work with Two-Photon Microscopy Wins Brain Prize The 1 million euro Brain Prize has been awarded to four scientists three of them Cornell alumni for their groundbreaking work with two
Solving the mystery of how circuits in the brain produce behavior, thoughts and feelings is one of the most important scientific frontiers in the 21st century.
Two-photon microscopy is a transformative tool in brain research, combining advanced techniques from physics and biology to allow scientists to examine the finest structures of the brain in real time. ee very proud of the work these alumni are doing,
says Lois Pollack, director and professor of applied and engineering physics. hey are examples for the next generation of students we are now training,
computational and engineering sciences. hese recipients of the Brain Prize reflect Cornell long history of fruitful collaborations across campus,
professor of neurobiology and behavior in the College of Arts and Sciences and senior associate vice provost for research. e know that the technological breakthroughs
fundamental science between neurobiologists, engineers, computational biologists, physicists and chemists. The Brain Prize, for scientists making an outstanding contribution to European neuroscience
and who are still active in research, will be presented May 7 in Copenhagen by Crown prince Frederik of Denmark.
#Real-time Nanoscale Images of Lithium Dendrite Structures That Degrade Batteries Scientists at the Department of energy Oak ridge National Laboratory have captured the first real-time nanoscale images of lithium dendrite structures known to degrade lithium
and growth of lithium dendrite structures known to degrade lithium-ion batteries. CREDIT: ORNL Dendrites form when metallic lithium takes root on a battery anode
and begins growing haphazardly. If the dendrites grow too large, they can puncture the divider between the electrodes
and short-circuit the cell, resulting in catastrophic battery failure. The researchers studied dendrite formation by using a miniature electrochemical cell that mimics the liquid conditions inside a lithium-ion battery.
Placing the liquid cell in a scanning transmission electron microscope and applying voltage to the cell allowed the researchers to watch as lithium depositshich start as a nanometer-size seedrew into dendritic structures. t gives us a nanoscopic view of how dendrites nucleate and grow,
said ORNL Raymond Unocic, in situ microscopy team leader. e can visualize the whole process on a glassy carbon microelectrode
and observe where the dendrites prefer to nucleate and also track morphological changes during growth.
Watch a video of the dendrite growth here: https://www. youtube. com/watch? v=rpputm u pm.
Now that we can see exactly how the dendrites are forming using our technique, we can be proactive
The ORNL team believes scientists who are experimenting with different ways to tackle the dendrite problem,
#Scientists Map 3d Atomic Structure of Brain Signaling Scientists have revealed never-before-seen details of how our brain sends rapid-fire messages between its cells.
They mapped the 3-D atomic structure of a two-part protein complex that controls the release of signaling chemicals, called neurotransmitters, from brain cells.
exciting advance that may open up possibilities for targeting new drugs to control neurotransmitter release. Many mental disorders, including depression, schizophrenia and anxiety,
affect neurotransmitter systems,"said Axel Brunger, the study's principal investigator. He is a professor at Stanford School of medicine and SLAC and a Howard hughes medical institute investigator."
SNARES play a key role in the brain's chemical signaling by joining, or"fusing,"little packets of neurotransmitters to the outer edges of neurons,
where they are released and then dock with chemical receptors in another neuron to trigger a response.
A'Smoking Gun'for Neurotransmitter Release In this latest research the scientists found that when the SNARES and synaptotagmin-1 join up,
they act as an amplifier for a slight increase in calcium concentration, triggering a gunshot-like release of neurotransmitters from one neuron to another.
They also learned that the proteins join together before they arrive at a neuron's membrane,
which helps to explain how they trigger brain signaling so rapidly.""The neuron is not building the'gun'as it sits there on the membrane-it's already there,
"Brunger said. The team speculates that several of the joined protein complexes may group together
and simultaneously interact with the same vesicle to efficiently trigger neurotransmitter release, an exciting area for further studies."
"The structure of the SNARE-synaptotagmin-1 complex is a milestone that the field has awaited for a long time,
discovered synaptotagmin-1 and showed that it plays an important role as a calcium sensor and calcium-dependent trigger for neurotransmitter release."
Robotics and X-rays to Advance Neuroscience To study the joined protein structure, researchers in Brunger's laboratory at the Stanford School of medicine found a way to grow crystals of the complex.
who oversaw the development of the highly automated platform used for the neuroscience experiment, said,"This experiment was the first to use this robotic platform at LCLS to determine a previously unsolved structure of a large, challenging multi-protein complex."
Brunger said future studies will explore other protein interactions relevant to neurotransmitter release.""What we studied is only a subset,
Until now, animal research on central nervous system disorders, such as spinal cord injury and Parkinson's disease, has been limited because researchers could not extract sufficient cerebrospinal fluid to perform conventional assays."
"With our technology, researchers will be able to perform large-scale controlled studies with comparable accuracy to conventional assays,
the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, the Jackson T. Stephens Spine & Neurosciences Institute, the Myeloma Institute, the Harvey & Bernice Jones Eye Institute, the Psychiatric Research
and deliver a healing protein to the brain while also teaching neurons to begin making the protein for themselves.
The researchers, led by Elena Batrakova, an associate professor at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy's Center for Nanotechnology in Drug Delivery,
genetically modified white blood cells called macrophages to produce glial cell-derived neurotrophic factor, or GDNF, and deliver it to the brain.
Glial cells provide support and protection for nerve cells throughout the brain and body and GDNF can heal
and stimulate the growth of damaged neurons.""Currently, there are no treatments that can halt or reverse the course of Parkinson's disease.
There are only therapies to address quality of life, such as dopamine replacement, "Batrakova said.""However, studies have shown that delivering neurotrophic factor to the brain not only promotes the survival of neurons
but also reverses the progression of Parkinson's disease.""In addition to delivering GDNF, the engineered macrophages can"teach"neurons to make the protein for themselves by delivering both the tools and the instructions needed:
DNA, MESSENGER RNA and transcription factor. Successfully delivering the treatment to the brain is the key to the success of GDNF therapy,
said Batrakova. Using immune cells avoids the body's natural defenses. The repurposed macrophages are also able to penetrate the blood-brain barrier,
something most medicines cannot do. The reprogrammed cells travel to the brain and produce tiny bubbles called exosomes that contain GDNF.
The cells release the exosomes, which then are able to deliver the proteins to neurons in the brain.
The work is described in an article published online by PLOS ONE.""By teaching immune system cells to make this protective protein,
a connection to nerve endings or the central nervous system, a beating heart, and so on, "they wrote. Ren's lab reported the mechanics of making a new transparent and stretchable electric material,
Whether it's a brain, muscle or plant cell, nano-sized gateways control the activity of the mitochondrial battery,
who is also a professor of radiology, neuroscience, pathology and laboratory medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College.
#Nontoxic Dopamine-Based Nanocoating Holds Promise for Flame Retardant Applications Inspired by a naturally occurring material found in marine mussels,
A team led by Cockrell School of engineering associate professor Christopher Ellison found that a synthetic coating of polydopamine--derived from the natural compound dopamine--can be used as a highly effective, water-applied flame retardant for polyurethane foam.
Dopamine is a chemical compound found in humans and animals that helps in the transmission of signals in the brain and other vital areas.
The researchers believe their dopamine-based nanocoating could be used in lieu of conventional flame retardants.
The researchers'findings were published in the journal Chemistry of Materials on Sept. 9 ."Since polydopamine is natural and already present in animals,
The polydopamine was coated onto the interior and exterior surfaces of the polyurethane foam by simply dipping it into a water solution of dopamine for several days.
#Prosthetic Hands with Macro-Sieve Peripheral Nerve Interface Can Feel Hot and Cold and Sense of touch Daniel Moran, Phd, professor of biomedical engineering in the School of engineering & Applied science and of neurobiology,
which would send sensory signals to the brain. DARPA is already funding the uke Arm,
whose expertise is in motor neurophysiology and brain-computer interfaces, and his team have developed an electrode designed to stimulate sensory nerve cells in the ulnar and median nerves in the arms.
which includes Harold Burton, Phd, professor of neurobiology; Wilson (Zach) Ray, MD, assistant professor of neurological surgery, both at the School of medicine;
have developed a macro-sieve peripheral nerve interface designed to stimulate regeneration of the ulnar and median nerves to transmit information back into the central nervous system.
His team has had already success with this method in motor neurons in a rat model. f this works to stimulate motor neurons in muscles,
Burton, an expert in sensory neurophysiology, will analyze how the brain processes the feedback from the nerve stimulation. he more real estate the brain uses,
Moran says. he hand area in the somatosensory cortex is a big piece of brain,
and his team will work with DARPA to determine how many sensors to put on the prosthetic hands. f the nervous system can handle more than eight
and what the nervous system can interpret with artificial sensation. he School of engineering & Applied science at Washington University in St louis focuses intellectual efforts through a new convergence paradigm and builds on strengths,
#Brain cells activated by sound waves For the first time, scientists have controlled directly brain cells using sound waves, in a tiny laboratory worm.
They used ultrasound to trigger activity in specific neurons, causing the worms to change direction.
As well as requiring a particular gene to be expressed in the brain cells, the technique bathes the animals in tiny bubbles to amplify the sound waves.
These complications temper the technique's promise for controlling brain activity in a noninvasive way. Writing in the journal Nature Communications,
the researchers argue that their new method for controlling brain cells could improve on"optogenetics","a technique that uses light rather than sound.
The problem with light is that it cannot penetrate through tissues-it is scattered very quickly.
Consequently, using optogenetics to control brain circuits in a mammal currently requires a fibre-optic implant.
when you want to stimulate a region deep in the brain, "said the study's first author Stuart Ibsen, from the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in California.
whether this could work in a mammalian brain, "said Dr Sreekanth Chalasani, who runs the lab behind the work.
For now, the team's research relies on the worm Caenorhabditis elegans, a well-studied critter with precisely 302 neurons.
Those neurons responded to the ultrasound waves thanks to a type of channel on their surface, called TRP-4,
A handful of brain cells in the worm naturally express TRP-4, and so"wild-type"worms do react to ultrasound by changing their movement.
however-including the delivery of TRP-4 or a similar gene into the brain, probably by injecting a virus. Michael Hausser,
a professor of neuroscience at University college London, described the study as"a nice'proof-of-principle'demonstration...
using probably the simplest nervous system on the planet"."He told the BBC:""I would urge extreme caution about extrapolating this work to other species-especially mice or humans."
with the neurons only 25 micrometres beneath the surface: a quarter of the diameter of a human hair.
This makes it an ideal organism for ultrasound to influence neural activity.""It will be a much greater challenge to get such a technique to work in a big brain within a skull
#US House rejects NSA phone data trawl The US House of representatives has voted to end the National security agency's bulk collection of Americans'phone records.
when studying RNA from tissues including human muscle, brain and skin. With this RNA signature, they developed a'healthy age gene score
and the brain regions associated with dementia, and it can help contribute to a dementia diagnosis. This also provides strong evidence that dementia in humans could be called a type of'accelerated ageing
For the first time, a circuit of about 100 artificial synapses was proved to perform a simple version of a typical human task:
and scaled to approach something like the human brain's, which has 1015 (one quadrillion) synaptic connections.
For all its errors and potential for faultiness, the human brain remains a model of computational power and efficiency for engineers like Strukov and his colleagues, Mirko Prezioso, Farnood Merrikh-Bayat,
Brian Hoskins and Gina Adam. That's because the brain can accomplish certain functions in a fraction of a second
your brain is making countless split-second decisions about the letters and symbols you see, classifying their shapes
In order to create the same human brain-type functionality with conventional technology, the resulting device would have to be loaded enormous with multitudes of transistors that would require far more energy."
"Classical computers will always find an ineluctable limit to efficient brain-like computation in their very architecture,
"This memristor-based technology relies on a completely different way inspired by biological brain to carry on computation."
"To be able to approach functionality of the human brain, however, many more memristors would be required to build more complex neural networks to do the same kinds of things we can do with barely any effort and energy,
according to materials scientist Hoskins, this brain would consist of trillions of these type of devices vertically integrated on top of each other."
Daniel Moran, Ph d.,professor of biomedical engineering in the School of engineering & Applied science and of neurobiology, of physical therapy and of neurological surgery at Washington University School of medicine in St louis
which would send sensory signals to the brain. DARPA is already funding the uke Arm,
Moran, whose expertise is in motor neurophysiology and brain-computer interfaces, and his team have developed an electrode designed to stimulate sensory nerve cells in the ulnar and median nerves in the arms.
Moran team includes Harold Burton, Ph d.,professor of neurobiology and Wilson (Zach) Ray, M d.,assistant professor of neurological surgery, both at the School of medicine;
The team developed a macro-sieve peripheral nerve interface designed to stimulate regeneration of the ulnar and median nerves to transmit information back into the central nervous system.
His team has had already success with this method in motor neurons in a rat model. f this works to stimulate motor neurons in muscles,
Burton, an expert in sensory neurophysiology, will analyze how the brain processes the feedback from the nerve stimulation. he more real estate the brain uses,
Moran. he hand area in the somatosensory cortex is a big piece of brain, so there should be a lot of bandwidth.
Moran and his team will work with DARPA to determine how many sensors to put on the prosthetic hands. f the nervous system can handle more than eight
and what the nervous system can interpret with artificial sensation. ource: Washington University in St. Loui i
#Sleep Position May Impact Brain Ability to Clear Waste How you sleep on your side, on your back,
but body position might actually affect how efficiently the brain clears waste, according to new research out of Stony Brook University.
but n animals it is clear that the lateral position increases waste removal compared to other body positions. he research was published Tuesday in the Journal of Neuroscience.
the glymphatic pathway is where cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) filters through the brain and exchanges with interstitial fluid (ISF) to clear waste chemicals,
such as amyloid B and tau proteins, from the brain. The buildup of these proteins and other waste chemicals is suspected in the development of neurological diseases including Alzheimer.
which is a brain-wide pathway that runs along (i e. on the outside) of all vessels in the brain and connects to the space surrounding brain cells (referred to as the ISF space),
has been studied in detail in animal models. The outer part of the network ubeis bordered by a certain type of brain cells, known as stroglialcells,
Benveniste explained. The astoglial cells endfeet cover>97 percent of the surface of all brain vessels. ne can think of this
as if the astroglial cell ndfeetare arranged as a donut shaped around all the vessels, Benveniste told Bioscience Technology.
Read More: Researchers Discover Missing Link Between Brain and Immune Systemshe explained how the system lushesout waste:
n the astroglial endfeet there are special water channels (aquaporin-4 water channels) which are critical for how efficiently the glymphatic system can get rid of waste
because it allows water to move fast through the brain tissue so as to lushwaste products out efficiently.
The small gap between the astroglial endfeet also act like a ieveso that only waste products of a certain size can access the entire pathway.
Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) circulates into the glymphatic pathway from the surface of the brain along the arteries
which dives directly from the surface into the deeper part of the brain; and ultimately enters the space around the brain cells;
and sweeps through it and thereby mixes with the interstitial fluid of the brain which contains waste products.
The CSF-ISF mix with the waste products is flushed then out on the other idealong the veins
and ultimately ends up in lymph vessels in the body and then in the blood. he noted that there are other factors
and therefor the assessment of the clearance of damaging brain proteins that may contribute to
or cause brain diseases. o why is the glymphatic system more effective when sleeping in the lateral position?
hen the body trunk and head is in the prone (more upright) position, more of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) moves in other directions,
In other words it appears that ess CSF in this position actually enters the brain glymphatic pathway and therefore overall waste clearance is diminished. his could have implications for prevention of certain neurodegenerative diseases. e speculate that
(if it worked efficiently) that these products are allowed not to accumulate excessively in the brain. nce these proteins build up they can form aggregated plaques,
which can be very difficult for the brain to get rid of. hus, any lifelong habits that can promote optimal waste removal via the glymphatic pathway might help prevent
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