New article from the International Bar Association @IBAnews on Neurorights and the various ethical considerations involved with neurotechnology. Read here: https://www.ibanet.org/neurotechnologies-protection-against-…ata— The NeuroRights Foundation (@neuro_rights) October 30, 2023.
This year, Rockefeller scientists plumbed the depths of wound repair and tackled how songbirds solve problems; they used microchips to grow mini-lungs and proposed an environmental trigger for multiple sclerosis. Efforts to combat COVID, Hepatitis B, and other infections bore fruit, and countless papers shed light on basic research, answering questions that have long baffled biologists. Here are some of the intriguing discoveries that came out of Rockefeller in 2023.
As the male reproductive system ages, it becomes more and more susceptible to mutations. New research from the laboratory of Li Zhao explored this phenomenon in fruit flies, by focusing on how mutations arise during the formation of sperm. The team found that, while mutations are common in the testes of both young and old flies, the repair mechanisms that remove those mutations and maintain genomic integrity during spermatogenesis become less efficient in older individuals, leading to the accumulation and persistence of more mutations in older flies.
Freya India is a writer and journalist focussed on female mental health and modern culture. Gen Z girls are not doing ok. No matter how badly you think men have it right now (and they do), girls are doing no better.
Thrombolytic therapy administered longer after the onset of ischemic stroke than current recommendations did not demonstrate improved clinical outcomes as compared to placebo, according to a recent trial published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Minjee Kim, MD, associate professor in the Ken and Ruth Davee Department of Neurology’s Division of Neurocritical Care, was a co-author of the study.
Ischemic stroke occurs when a blood vessel supplying blood to the brain is blocked or reduced, and accounts for nearly 90% of all strokes, according to statistics from the American Stroke Association.
The eyes have been called the window to the brain. It turns out they also serve as an immunological barrier that protects the organ from pathogens and even tumors, Yale researchers have found.
In a new study, researchers showed that vaccines injected into the eyes of mice can help disable the herpes virus, a major cause of brain encephalitis. To their surprise, the vaccine activates an immune response through lymphatic vessels along the optic nerve.
Transplanting Whole Human Eyes To Restore Vision In Patients Who Are Blind Or Visually Impaired — Dr. Calvin Roberts, MD — Program Manager, Transplantation of Human Eye Allografts (THEA), Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H)
Dr. Calvin Roberts, M.D. is Program Manager at the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) where manages for the Transplantation of Human Eye Allografts (THEA — https://arpa-h.gov/research-and-fundi…) program, which aims to transplant whole human eyes to restore vision in patients who are blind or visually impaired by reconnecting the nerves, muscles and blood vessels of whole donor eyes to the brain.
New Haven, Conn. — Contrary to popular belief, brain cells use a mix of analog and digital coding at the same time to communicate efficiently, according to a study by Yale School of Medicine researchers published this week in Nature.
This finding partially overturns a longstanding belief that each of the brain’s 100 billion neurons communicate strictly by a digital code. Analog systems represent signals continuously, while digital systems represent signals in the timing of pulses. Traditionally, many human-designed circuits operate exclusively in analog or in digital modes.
“This study reveals that the brain is very sophisticated in its operation, using a code that is more efficient than previously appreciated,” said David McCormick, professor in the Department of Neurobiology and senior author of the study. “This has widespread implications, not only for our basic understanding of how the brain operates, but also in our understanding of neuronal dysfunction.”
Alexander Borst, Max-Planck-Institute for Biological Intelligence, Martinsried, GermanyAbstract: Detecting the direction of image motion is important for vis…
Unlike computers, cells in the brain use digital and analog signals at the same time to communicate with each other, researchers have found.
The finding contradicts the belief that nerve cells in the brain communicate with each other using digital code only.
In an analog system, signals can vary continuously, while digital systems represent signals by a series of pulses. The brain uses a mixture of the two to transmit signals among cells, researchers say.
Summary: A new study explores how the human brain constructs emotions, regardless of sensory input.
By analyzing brain activity in individuals with and without sensory deprivations while they experienced the film 101 Dalmatians, researchers discovered that emotions are represented in the brain through an abstract coding system that transcends sensory modalities. This system involves a distributed network, including the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, which stores abstract representations of emotions.
The findings challenge traditional views on emotion and perception, suggesting that our emotional experiences are not solely dictated by our immediate sensory input but are instead constructed by the brain in a more abstract manner.
