#Researchers Enlarge Brain Samples Making Them Easier to Image New technique enables nanoscale-resolution microscopy of large biological specimens.
says Ed Boyden, an associate professor of biological engineering and brain and cognitive sciences at MIT. Boyden is the senior author of a paper describing the new method in the Jan 15 online edition of Science.
who is a member of MIT Media Lab and Mcgovern Institute for Brain Research. Protein complexes, molecules that transport payloads in and out of cells,
and take a long time to image large samples. f you want to map the brain, or understand how cancer cells are organized in a metastasizing tumor,
MIT researchers led by Ed Boyden have invented a new way to visualize the nanoscale structure of the brain and other tissues.
Boyden says. specially for the brain, you have to be able to image a large volume of tissue,
While Boyden team is focused on the brain, other possible applications for this technique include studying tumor metastasis
It Thync, a wearable device that zaps your brain with low levels of pulsed electrical energy to calm you down
Zap Your Brain To Change Your Mood Shanklin describes the calm mode giving him a feeling
The energy mode provide his brain with more clarity. Thync is considered a lifestyle product, as opposed to a medical device,
#Needle Injects Healing Electronics into the Brain Researchers have built a tiny mesh-like electronic sensor,
and injected it into the brain. The device taking this fantastic electronic voyage may soon be able to zap tumors,
repair damaged spinal cords or even connect parts of the brain like an artificial synapse. The key finding is that the sensor
Could A Brain Implant Cure Depression? f one is thinking of trying to change the way one does long term brain implants,
it could be a really big deal, said Charles Lieber, chemistry professor at Harvard university and lead author on the new paper published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology. ou can promote a positive interaction
After an injection several centimeters into the brain of a laboratory mouse the scientists were able to monitor electronic brain signals.
Brain-Zapping Implant Could Aid Injured Soldiers The authors of the paper say next step is to use the mesh system to deliver living stem cells that may help repair damaged sections of the brain or perhaps a multifunction electronic device
#'Wi-fi'Nanoparticles Send Signals from the Brain The problem with talking to our own brains,
The brain uses complex electrical fields and impulses to move information around on the atomic level.
A medical research team at Florida International University in Miami injected 20 billion nanoparticles into the brains of mice
Brain-To-Brain Networking Takes First Baby Stepsthe agnetoelectricnanoparticles (MENS) injected in the mice have several special properties.
should be able to communicate directly with the brain electric field. hen MENS are exposed to even an extremely low frequency magnetic field,
the electric field can directly couple to the electric circuitry of the neural network. he nanoparticles could be used to deliver drugs to specific parts of the brain.
Wearable Device Changes Your Moodthe technique could also be used to create a new kind of brain-computer interface.
the nanoparticles could generate measurable magnetic fields in response to the brain electrical fields. Toggle the system back
but due to an ill-advised rey Anatomybinge-watching incident last night, my brain and I are not currently on speaking terms. via New Scientis k
#Brain-Sensing Headband Helps Users Manage Stress Technology and relaxation don always go hand in hand. However, a brain-sensing headband that reads brain waves
and provides real-time feedback has been developed to help users better focus and manage stress. The Muse headband is lined with seven EEG sensors that detect the brain electrical activity
and sends information about the user state of mind to a smartphone app, Calm, which is available on both ios and Android.
Interaxon, the company behind the Muse headband and a Mars venture client, claims that sustained use of the device will train one brain to stay more naturally calm and focused.
Tiny Brain Parts Teased From Stem Cells This isn the first time stem cells have been used to help develop hearts.
Moreover, their brains had fewer new neurons than other mice. Thirty days later, however, when the protein had been cleared from their bodies,
suggesting that B2m is part of a pathway that affects the brain. hat this shows is that you can manipulate the blood, rather than the brain, to potentially treat memory problems,
but a small amount of fluorescence in the brain which is a destination for much of the Vitamin c produced in the liver.
receiving pacemaker implants in his chest that could intercept aberrant signals from his brain before they reached his muscles.
A new study from MIT Brigham and Women s Hospital and Johns hopkins university suggests that delivering chemotherapy directly into the brain cavity may offer a better way to treat tumors that have metastasized to the brain.
because it s not getting to the brain at a high enough dose for a long enough period of time says Cima who is also a member of MIT s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research.
To overcome these delivery issues Cima s lab is working on small implantable devices to deliver drugs for ovarian cancer and bladder disease as well as brain cancer.
For the new brain study the researchers delivered chemotherapy drugs via implantable microcapsules made of a biocompatible material called liquid crystal polymer.
TMZ which is a first-line treatment for brain metastasis and gliomas and doxorubicin a common treatment for breast cancer
which often metastasizes to the brain. Zone of influenceworking with mice implanted with tumors similar to human brain metastases the researchers found that TMZ delivered directly to the brain prolonged survival by several days compared with TMZ administered by injection.
They also found higher rates of apoptosis or programmed cell death in tumor cells near the capsules.
However doxorubicin delivered to the brain did not perform as well as systemic injection of doxorubicin. As an explanation for that discrepancy the researchers found that TMZ travels farther from the capsule after release allowing it to reach more tissue.
After they have their brain metastases surgically taken out you could put in these microcapsules which would kill any remaining cancer cells right then and there.
because so many cancers particularly those of the breast and lung spread to the brain. The researchers are also working on using this approach to precisely deliver drugs to very small regions of the brain in hopes of developing better treatments for psychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders.
The research was funded by the National institutes of health and the Brain science Foundation n
#Microscopic walkers find their way across cell surfaces Nature has developed a wide variety of methods for guiding particular cells enzymes and molecules to specific structures inside the body:
and brain to model tumors in those regions the researchers say. This method also offers new ways to seek personalized treatments for cancer patients depending on the types of mutations found in their tumors the researchers say.
if they displayed any fluorescent protein in the brain indicating whether the RNA successfully entered the brain tissue was taken up by the cells
or other large molecules to enter the brain through the bloodstream.##The research was funded by the National institutes of health the Packard Award in Science and Engineering Sanofi Pharmaceuticals Foxconn Technology Group and the Hertz Foundation e
But the brain behind those Hollywood interfaces, MIT alumnus John Underkoffler 8, SM 1, Phd 9 who served as scientific advisor for both films has been bringing a more practical version of that technology to conference rooms
A new study from MIT neuroscientists reveals the brain circuit that controls how memories become linked with positive or negative emotions.
which are stored in different parts of the brain. A memory s context including information about the location where the event took place is stored in cells of the hippocampus
David Anderson a professor of biology at the California Institute of technology says the study makes an important contribution to neuroscientists fundamental understanding of the brain
Because researchers cannot study the biochemistry of the living human brain the genes that predispose people to schizophrenia
when and how these genes act in human brain cells and how in psychiatric patients those processes may go awry.
#Noninvasive brain control Optogenetics, a technology that allows scientists to control brain activity by shining light on neurons,
This technique requires a light source to be implanted in the brain, where it can reach the cells to be controlled.
Led by Ed Boyden, an associate professor of biological engineering and brain and cognitive sciences at MIT, the researchers described the protein in the June 29 issue of Nature Neuroscience.
has become a common laboratory tool for shutting off or stimulating specific types of neurons in the brain,
such as an optical fiber, into the brain to control the selected neurons. Such implants can be difficult to insert,
which the brain changes size, or of neurodegenerative disorders, during which the implant can interact with brain physiology.
In addition, it is difficult to perform long-term studies of chronic diseases with these implants. To find a better alternative, Boyden, graduate student Amy Chuong,
who is a member of MIT Media Lab and the Mcgovern Institute for Brain Research.
the researchers were able to shut down neuronal activity in the mouse brain with a light source outside the animal head.
The suppression occurred as deep as 3 millimeters in the brain, and was just as effective as that of existing silencers that rely on other colors of light delivered via conventional invasive illumination.
A key advantage to this opsin is that it could enable optogenetic studies of animals with larger brains,
says Garret Stuber, an assistant professor of psychiatry and cell biology and physiology at the University of North carolina at Chapel hill. n animals with larger brains,
#Illuminating neuron activity in 3-D Researchers at MIT and the University of Vienna have created an imaging system that reveals neural activity throughout the brains of living animals.
This technique, the first that can generate 3-D movies of entire brains at the millisecond timescale,
as well as the entire brain of a zebrafish larva, offering a more complete picture of nervous system activity than has been previously possible. ooking at the activity of just one neuron in the brain doesn tell you how that information is being computed;
says Ed Boyden, an associate professor of biological engineering and brain and cognitive sciences at MIT and one of the leaders of the research team. n short,
you have to see the entire brain. The new approach, described May 18 in Nature Methods, could also help neuroscientists learn more about the biological basis of brain disorders. e don really know
Boyden team developed the brain-mapping method with researchers in the lab of Alipasha Vaziri of the University of Vienna and the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology in Vienna.
Scanning the brain with a laser beam can produce 3-D images of neural activity, but it takes a long time to capture an image
who is a member of MIT Media Lab and Mcgovern Institute for Brain Research. Prevedel built the microscope,
and observing the results elsewhere in the brain, scientists could determine which neurons are participating in particular tasks.
the NSF Center for Brains, Minds, and Machines at MIT; and Jeremy and Joyce Wertheimer n
the Pediatric Brain Tumour Fund, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Alnylam, and the Center for RNA Therapeutics and Biology e
#Delving deep into the brain Launched in 2013, the national BRAIN INITIATIVE aims to revolutionize our understanding of cognition by mapping the activity of every neuron in the human brain,
revealing how brain circuits interact to create memories, learn new skills, and interpret the world around us.
Before that can happen, neuroscientists need new tools that will let them probe the brain more deeply
and in greater detail, says Alan Jasanoff, an MIT associate professor of biological engineering. here a general recognition that in order to understand the brain processes in comprehensive detail,
we need ways to monitor neural function deep in the brain with spatial, temporal, and functional precision, he says.
Jasanoff and colleagues have taken now a step toward that goal: They have established a technique that allows them to track neural communication in the brain over time,
using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) along with a specialized molecular sensor. This is the first time anyone has been able to map neural signals with high precision over large brain regions in living animals,
who is also an associate member of MIT Mcgovern Institute for Brain Research. His team used this molecular imaging approach, described in the May 1 online edition of Science,
Much of the brain dopamine is produced by a structure called the ventral tegmental area (VTA.
This dopamine travels through the mesolimbic pathway to the ventral striatum, where it combines with sensory information from other parts of the brain to reinforce behavior
and help the brain learn new tasks and motor functions. This circuit also plays a major role in addiction.
This allows the researchers to see where in the brain dopamine is being released. The researchers also developed an algorithm that lets them calculate the precise amount of dopamine present in each fraction of a cubic millimeter of the ventral striatum.
which relays sensory and motor signals in the brain. Each dopamine stimulation lasted for 16 seconds
He and his colleagues plan to build on this work by expanding their studies to other parts of the brain,
and brains work and translates that knowledge into technology that reflects those principles leading to a world where technology
This technique, described in the March 24 online edition of Nature Communications, could also be deployed to help identify the huge array of neurons found in the brain cortex,
and elsewhere in the brain, to robustly and precisely know the cell types, he says.
Sebastian Seung, a former MIT professor of brain and cognitive sciences and physics who is now at Princeton university,
which feed information to the brain visual processing regions via the optic nerve. Neuroscientists have identified at least nine types of ganglion cells with distinct functions, structures,
and send the information to parts of the brain that control circadian rhythms. These genetically and functionally defined cell types offered a valuable starting point for the new study,
the researchers used a light microscope to image individual neurons in the brains of mice that had been engineered genetically so that one class of ganglions,
and brain interpret visual information, says Constance Cepko, a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical school.
They also hope to use their technique to study parts of the brain that have many layers of neurons especially the neocortex
visual information flows into your brain, which interprets what youe seeing. Now, for the first time, MIT neuroscientists have mapped noninvasively this flow of information in the human brain with unique accuracy,
using a novel brain-scanning technique. This technique, which combines two existing technologies, allows researchers to identify precisely both the location and timing of human brain activity.
Using this new approach, the MIT researchers scanned individualsbrains as they looked at different images
and were able to pinpoint, to the millisecond, when the brain recognizes and categorizes an object,
and where these processes occur. his method gives you a visualization of henand hereat the same time.
Dimitrios Pantazis, a research scientist at MIT Mcgovern Institute for Brain Research, is also an author of the paper.
When and where Until now, scientists have been able to observe the location or timing of human brain activity at high resolution,
The most commonly used type of brain scan, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fmri), measures changes in blood flow
revealing which parts of the brain are involved in a particular task. However, it works too slowly to keep up with the brain millisecond-by-millisecond dynamics.
Another imaging technique, known as magnetoencephalography (MEG), uses an array of hundreds of sensors encircling the head to measure magnetic fields produced by neuronal activity in the brain.
These sensors offer a dynamic portrait of brain activity over time, down to the millisecond, but do not tell the precise location of the signals.
Each image was shown for half a second. e wanted to measure how visual information flows through the brain.
the researchers produced a timeline of the brain object-recognition pathway that is very similar to results previously obtained by recording electrical signals in the visual cortex of monkeys,
visual information entered a part of the brain called the primary visual cortex, or V1, which recognizes basic elements of a shape,
where the brain identified the object as early as 120 milliseconds. Within 160 milliseconds, all objects had been classified into categories such as plant or animal.
The MIT researchers are now using representational similarity analysis to study the accuracy of computer models of vision by comparing brain scan data with the modelspredictions of how vision works.
scientists should also be able to study how the human brain analyzes other types of information such as motor, verbal,
opening up tremendous possibilities to study the human brain. The research was funded by the National Eye Institute
#Schizophrenia linked to abnormal brain waves Schizophrenia patients usually suffer from a breakdown of organized thought often accompanied by delusions or hallucinations.
The researchers found that mice lacking the brain protein calcineurin have hyperactive brainwave oscillations in the hippocampus
The researchers believe the abnormal hyperactivity they found in the hippocampus may represent a disruption of the brain s default mode network a communication network that connects the hippocampus prefrontal cortex (where most thought
When the brain is focusing on a specific goal or activity the default mode network gets turned down.
and during tasks that require the brain to focus and patients do not perform well in these tasks.
#New fibers can deliver many simultaneous stimuli The human brain complexity makes it extremely challenging to study not only because of its sheer size,
limiting the information that can be derived from the brain at any point in time. Now researchers at MIT may have found a way to change that.
they have created a system that could deliver optical signals and drugs directly into the brain,
so sharp when you take a step and the brain moves with respect to the device, you end up scrambling the tissue.
At the same time, one or more drugs could be injected into the brain through the hollow channels, while electrical signals in the neurons are recorded to determine, in real time,
The fibers could ultimately be used for precision mapping of the responses of different regions of the brain or spinal cord,
diverse collection of multifunctional fibers, tailored for insertion into the brain where they can stimulate
the Center for Materials science and engineering, the Center for Sensorimotor Neural engineering, the Mcgovern Institute for Brain Research, the U s army Research Office through the Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies,
and shown that inhibiting a previously unknown brain circuit that regulates compulsive sugar consumption does not interfere with healthy eating. or the first time,
we have identified how the brain encodes compulsive sugar seeking and wee also shown that it appears to be distinct from normal,
a principle investigator at the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory who previously developed novel techniques for studying brain circuitry in addiction
Addictive drugs ijackthe brain the natural reward-processing center, the ventral tegmental area (VTA. But food is a natural reward and,
and recorded their naturally occurring activities in brain slices, with the help of Gillian Matthews,
but exactly where and how this happens in the brain has been a mystery, says Tye,
who is also the Whitehead Career development Assistant professor in MIT's Department of Brain and Cognitive sciences. ow we have evidence showing that this transition is represented in the LH-VTA circuit.
Historically, these genetic brain diseases were viewed as untreatable. However, in recent years neuroscientists have shown in animal models that it is possible to reverse the debilitating effects of these gene mutations.
called FMR1, is turned off during brain development. Fragile X is rare, affecting one in about 4, 000 individuals.
Synaptic protein synthesis was disrupted indeed in the hippocampus, a part of the brain important for memory formation.
previously believed to be an intractable consequence of altered early brain development, might instead arise from ongoing alterations in synaptic signaling that can be corrected by drugs.
This research was supported in part by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the National institute of mental health, the Simons Foundation, the Simons Center for the Social Brain at MIT,
Using the data from this study carbon nanoparticles coated with genetically-engineered proteins are being used to target glioblastoma the most aggressive form of brain tumour.
According to TAU doctoral student and research team member Dr. Lilach Bareket there are already medical devices that attempt to treat visual impairment by sending sensory signals to the brain.
and send visual signals to a person's brain to counter the effects of AMD and related vision disorders many of these approaches require the use of metallic parts and cumbersome wiring or result in low resolution images.
"The biggest challenge facing researchers trying to culture neurons for study is that it's very difficult to recreate the cozy, soft, three-dimensional environment of the brain.
If I'm wearing a gadget that suddenly tells me I have a form of brain cancer that's incurable
so that it can navigate through the human body enabling the crew to perform surgery in the brain.
#Atom-width graphene sensors could provide unprecedented insights into brain structure and function Understanding the anatomical structure
and function of the brain is a longstanding goal in neuroscience and a top priority of President Obama's brain initiative.
if used together could offer profound benefits for studying the brain at high resolution. Combining these technologies is challenging
and quantifying neural network activity in the brain said Doug Weber DARPA program manager. The ability to simultaneously measure electrical activity on a large and fast scale with direct visualization and modulation of neuronal network anatomy could provide unprecedented insight into relationships between brain structure
and function and importantly how these relationships evolve over time or are perturbed by injury or disease.
and develop and validate models of brain circuit function. This knowledge could greatly aid how we understand
See-through sensors open new window into the brain More information: Graphene-based carbon-layered electrode array technology for neural imaging and optogenetic applications.
a two-dimensional form of carbon only one atom thick to fabricate a new type of microelectrode that solves a major problem for investigators looking to understand the intricate circuitry of the brain.
The team also notes that the single-electrode techniques used in the Nature Communications study could be adapted easily to study other larger areas of the brain with more expansive arrays.
and used Kuzum and her colleagues expect to gain greater insight into how the physiology of the brain can go awry.
That information may include the identification of specific marker waveforms of brain electrical activity that can be mapped spatially and temporally to individual neural circuits.
using technology that mimics the human brain. The researchers have built a novel nanostructure that offers a new platform for the development of highly stable and reliable nanoscale memory devices.
our work advances the search for next generation memory technology can replicate the complex functions of human neural system bringing us one step closer to the bionic brain."
and offer building blocks for computing that could be trained to mimic synaptic interfaces in the human brain n
And removing extra material just in case isn't a good option in the brain which controls so many critical processes.
and removed all malignant cells in the rodents'brains. Also because the technique involves steps that have made already it to human testing for other purposes the researchers conclude that it has the potential to move readily into clinical trials.
Surgeons might be able to use the device in the future to treat other types of brain cancer they say.
and brain signaling with the potential to transform our understanding of how the brain worksnd how to treat its most devastating diseases.
ultraflexible electronics into the brain and allow them to become fully integrated with the existing biological web of neurons.
cheaper chips and computers inspired by biological brains in that they could perform many tasks at the same time.
#Branch-Like Dendrites Function As Minicomputers In The Brain A new paper in Nature suggests that we've been thinking about neurons all wrong.
Researchers from University college London the University of North carolina School of medicine found that in response to visual stimuli dendrites fired electrical signals in the brains of mice.
This multiplies the brain's processing power. It's the equivalent of finding out a bunch of wiring was really a set of transistors according to Smith.
The discovery could give us new insight into how the brain is wired. The study appears in Nature this week.
#Scientists'Eavesdrop'On A Brain A team of researchers from Stanford say they've created a system to eavesdrop on the brain allowing them to monitor a person's brain activity
#To make it happen the team removed parts of skull from three patients experiencing frequent drug-resistant epileptic seizures then attached a packet of electrodes to their exposed brains.
this is what was happening in their brain at that time.##As part of the study the researchers#also had the three patients go through an experiment:
a region of the brain known to light up when people are calculating called the#intraparietal sulcus was sparked.
#what makes the researchers'technique different than other brain-monitoring tools--was showed that it how the#intraparietal sulcus#responds to more abstract calculative thoughts.
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