Summary: Researchers implicate neurons in the anterior insula cortex as a driving force for motivation in the brain, according to a new mouse study.
Source: CSHL
A characteristic of depression is a lack of motivation. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) Professor Bo Li, in collaboration with CSHL Adjunct Professor Z. Josh Huang, discovered a group of neurons in the mouse brain that influences the animal’s motivation to perform tasks for rewards.
Experimental compound, which has received orphan drug and pediatric rare disease designations from the FDA, displays effectiveness in treating symptoms of Autism and Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers developed a novel model to assess the effect of this experimental drug on symptoms related to au.
The brain is considered a very expensive organ to run.
Your brain may be leaking … energy, according to a new study that may explain why your noggin consumes 20% of the energy needed to keep your body running.
The study researchers found that tiny sacs called vesicles that hold messages being transmitted between brain cells may be constantly oozing energy, and that leakage is likely a trade-off for the brain being ready to fire at all times, according to a new study published Dec. 3 in the journal Science Advances.
Summary: A newly developed self-assessment test of cognitive function can help detect early signs of dementia sooner than commonly used office-based cognitive tests.
Source: Ohio State University.
Many people experience forgetfulness as they age, but it’s often difficult to tell if these memory issues are a normal part of aging or a sign of something more serious. A new study finds that a simple, self-administered test developed by researchers at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, College of Medicine and College of Public Health can identify the early, subtle signs of dementia sooner than the most commonly used office-based standard cognitive test.
Plasma from voluntarily running mice reduces baseline expression of neuroinflammatory genes and experimentally induced brain inflammation when infused into sedentary mice.
Most physicists and philosophers now agree that time is emergent while Digital Presentism denotes: Time emerges from complex qualia computing at the level of observer experiential reality. Time emerges from experiential data, it’s an epiphenomenon of consciousness. From moment to moment, you are co-writing your own story, co-producing your own “participatory reality” — your stream of consciousness is not subject to some kind of deterministic “script.” You are entitled to degrees of freedom. If we are to create high fidelity first-person simulated realities that also may be part of intersubjectivity-based Metaverse, then D-Theory of Time gives us a clear-cut guiding principle for doing just that.
Here’s Consciousness: Evolution of the Mind (2021) documentary, Part III: CONSCIOUSNESS & TIME #consciousness #evolution #mind #time #DTheoryofTime #DigitalPresentism #CyberneticTheoryofMind
Watch the full documentary on Vimeo on demand: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/339083
*Based on recent book The Syntellect Hypothesis: Five Paradigms of the Mind’s Evolution (2020) by evolutionary cyberneticist Alex M. Vikoulov, available as eBook, paperback, hardcover, and audiobook on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Syntellect-Hypothesis-Paradigms-Minds-Evolution/dp/1733426140
To us humans, to be alive is to perceive the flow of time. Our perception of time is linear – we remember the past, we live in the present and we look forward to the future.
In systemizing consciousness studies some recent progress has been made, but the temporal dimension of consciousness, notably the D-Theory of Time might be at least as essential to our understanding of what we call human consciousness.
Our experience of time can be understood as a fractal dimension, not even a half dimension – we are subjected to our species-specific algorithmic sense of time flow. What’s necessary for completion of quantum information processing, though, is a collapse of possibilities – “many worlds” collapsing into an observer’s temporal singularity, i.e., the present moment which happens approximately every 1/10 of a second. Between conscious moments lie incredibly vast and “eternally long” potentialities of something happening. But rest assured, you will experience a sequence of those “digital” moments which gives you a sense of subjective reality.
Is time fundamental or emergent? How does time exist, if at all? How can we update the current epistemic status of temporal ontology? Digital Presentism: D-Theory of Time outlines a new theory of time, for to understand our experiential reality and consciousness, we need to understand TIME.
Consciousness and time are intimately interwoven. Time is change (between static 3D frames), 4th dimension. The flow of time is a rate of change, computation, and conscious awareness is a stream of realized probabilistic outcomes.
Physical exercise is great for a mouse’s brain, and for yours. Numerous studies conducted in mice, humans and laboratory glassware have made this clear. Now, a new study shows it’s possible to transfer the brain benefits enjoyed by marathon-running mice to their couch-potato peers.
Stanford School of Medicine researchers have shown that blood from young adult mice that are getting lots of exercise benefits the brains of same-aged, sedentary mice. A single protein in the blood of exercising mice seems largely responsible for that benefit.
The discovery could open the door to treatments that—by taming brain inflammation in people who don’t get much exercise—lower their risk of neurodegenerative disease or slow its progression.
Researchers from the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology and Saratov State University have come up with an inexpensive method for visualizing blood flow in the brain. The new technique is so precise it discerns the motions of individual red blood cells — all without the use of toxic dyeing agents or expensive genetic engineering. The study was published in The European Physical Journal Plus.
To understand more about how the brain’s blood supply works, researchers map its blood vessel networks. The resulting visualizations can rely on a variety of methods. One highly precise technique involves injecting fluorescent dyes into the blood flow and detecting the infrared light they emit. The problem with dyes is they are toxic and also may distort mapping results by affecting the vessels. Alternatively, researchers employ genetically modified animals, whose interior lining of blood vessels is engineered to give off light with no foreign substances involved. Both methods are very expensive, though.
Researchers from Skoltech and Saratov State University have devised an inexpensive method for visualizing even the smallest capillaries in the brain. The method — which integrates optical microscopy and image processing — is dye-free and very fine-grained, owing to its ability to detect each and every red blood cell travelling along a blood vessel. Since the number of RBCs in capillaries is not that high, every cell counts, so this is an important advantage over other methods, including dye-free ones.
Harvard University on Tuesday launched the Kempner Institute for the Study of Natural and Artificial Intelligence, a new University-wide initiative standing at the intersection of neuroscience and artificial intelligence, seeking fundamental principles that underlie both human and machine intelligence. The fruits of discoveries will flow in both directions, enhancing understanding of how humans think, perceive the world around them, make decisions, and learn, thereby advancing the rapidly evolving field of AI.
The institute will be funded by a $500 million gift from Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg, which was announced Tuesday by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. The gift will support 10 new faculty appointments, significant new computing infrastructure, and resources to allow students to flow between labs in pursuit of ideas and knowledge. The institute’s name honors Zuckerberg’s mother, Karen Kempner Zuckerberg, and her parents — Zuckerberg’s grandparents — Sidney and Gertrude Kempner. Chan and Zuckerberg have given generously to Harvard in the past, supporting students, faculty, and researchers in a range of areas, including around public service, literacy, and cures.
“The Kempner Institute at Harvard represents a remarkable opportunity to bring together approaches and expertise in biological and cognitive science with machine learning, statistics, and computer science to make real progress in understanding how the human brain works to improve how we address disease, create new therapies, and advance our understanding of the human body and the world more broadly,” said President Larry Bacow.
Elon Musk says Neuralink is just waiting on FDA approval for its first human trials, which will be conducted among those with severe spinal injuries. Musk said he is sure the chip will help them walk.
