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at 17 th century, Dutch scientist Christiaan Huygens hung two of his newly invented pendulum clocks on a block of wood and observed that over time, the clocks synchronized their beats. He reported this finding, which he called ‘strange sympathy’, in 1665. Three and a half centuries later, neurons in the brain were found to synchronize their activity in the same way. Neurons in the brain often synchronize in quasi-rhythmic activity, collectively producing ‘brain waves’ that can sometimes be detected even from outside the skull using electroencephalography. Synchronization in these rhythms helps neurons to exchange information efficiently, which is essential for performing important functions such as learning, memory, attention, perception, and movement. How these rhythms are generated, maintained, and abolished to suit the ever-changing needs for smooth brain operation is an active area of ​​research. In a new study published today in Cell Reports, a team of n...

What was once a river of money has turned into a trickle as the Evergrande-triggered property crisis has spooked buyers, with a mortgage uprising – sparked in June by buyers of the unfinished Evergrande project – exacerbating already crushing pressure on developers. Mortgages refused to service bank loans they took to buy their apartments and the protest movement that began with the Evergrande development has now spread to about 320 projects across China and led to central authorities setting up $64 billion to help developers complete their unfinished projects. However, if Xi Jinping wants a smooth path to an unprecedented extension of the Communist Party’s leadership for a third term, Beijing may have to engage more directly and aggressively in the crisis. Credit: AP Worryingly for Chinese authorities and banks, unpaid suppliers for the Evergrande project are also starting their own payment strikes which, if they spread as lenders’ actions have spread, would amp...

Japanese, Italian, Ukrainian, Swahili, Tagalog, and dozens of other spoken languages ​​cause the same “universal language network” to fire in the brains of native speakers. This language processing center has been studied extensively in English speakers, but now neuroscientists have confirmed that the same network is activated in speakers of 45 different languages ​​representing 12 different language families. “This study is very basic, extending some of the findings from English to multiple languages,” senior author Evelina Fedorenko, a professor of neuroscience at MIT and a member of MIT’s McGovern Institute for Brain Research, said in a statement. statement (opens in a new tab) . “The hope is that now that we see that basic traits seem to be common across languages, we can ask about potential differences between languages ​​and language families in how they are implemented in languages. brain and we can study phenomena that don’t real...

In a recent interview, Game of Thrones star Emilia Clarke talked about being able to live “absolutely normal” after two aneurysms – one in 2011 and one in 2013 – caused brain injuries. He went on to undergo two brain surgeries. An aneurysm is a bulge or balloon in the wall of a blood vessel, often accompanied by a headache or severe pain. So how can people survive and thrive despite having, as Clarke puts it, “a little bit missing” from their brain? The key to understanding how brains can recover from trauma is that they are highly plastic – meaning our body’s supercomputer can reshape and remodel itself. Read more: Growing up in a disadvantaged environment can change children’s brains – and their reactions Our amazing plastic brain The brain can adapt and change in extraordinary ways. You do it now as you form new memories. It’s not that the brain has evolved to deal with brain trauma or stroke or aneurysm; our ...

During the embryonic stage of brain development, some neurons and synapses are well formed and connected, but others are not, causing some parts and parts to be discarded. This leaves dead or dying cells and requires the central nervous system to employ some kind of cleaning crew. Microglial cells take up the challenge, “swallow” waste, and are therefore essential for brain development. However, scientists don’t have a full understanding of how they populate the brain. A recent paper in Nature Neuroscience by University of Notre Dame biologist Cody J. Smith shows how lymphatics – which remove waste from other parts of the body – are also linked to microglia and brain development in zebrafish. “Microglia, we know, are born outside the brain but somehow have to enter the brain during development, which is called colonization,” said Smith, Elizabeth and Michael Gallagher Associate Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences. “We know that in h...

Summary: The newly developed system uses wireless technology to remotely activate certain brain networks in fruit flies in less than a second. Source: Rice University A research team led by Rice University neuroscientists has created wireless technology to remotely activate certain brain circuits in fruit flies in less than a second. In a demonstration published in Natural Ingredients Researchers from Rice, Duke University, Brown University and Baylor College of Medicine used magnetic signals to activate target neurons that control the body position of fruit flies that move freely in the cage. “To study the brain or to treat neurological disorders, the scientific community is looking for tools that are highly precise, but also minimally invasive,” said study author Jacob Robinson, a professor in electrical and computer engineering at Rice and a member of Rice’s Neuroengineering Initiative. “Remote control of certain neural circuits with magnetic fields is the holy grai...

Researchers from Rice University, Duke University, Brown University and Baylor College of Medicine developed magnetic technology to wirelessly control neural circuits in fruit flies. They used genetic engineering to express heat-sensitive ion channels in neurons that control behavior and iron nanoparticles to activate the channels. When the researchers activated the magnetic field in the fly cage, the nanoparticles converted the magnetic energy into heat, firing channels and activating neurons. An overhead camera filmed the fly during the experiment, and visual analysis showed the genetically modified fly assumed a wing-spreading posture about half a second after receiving the magnetic signal. Credit: C. Sebesta and J. Robinson/Rice University A research team led by Rice University neuroscientists has created wireless technology to remotely activate certain brain circuits in fruit flies in less than a second. ...

Forced to spend their days slamming their tiny skulls into the sides of trees in search of buried pieces, woodpeckers should have developed a trick or two to avoid brain damage. So you would think. A new study of woodpecker biomechanics has cast doubt on speculation that the chisel-headed little bird avoided turning its brains to mush through a fancy shock-absorbing adaptation. On the other hand, his brain may be too small to care. “By analyzing high-speed video of three woodpecker species, we found that woodpeckers do not absorb the shock of impact with trees,” said Sam Van Wassenbergh, a biomechanics researcher from the University of Antwerp in Belgium. Anyone who’s ever seen, or even just heard of, machine gun fire from the woodpecker’s signature beat will appreciate the physics involved. Snapping their heads back and forth at an astonishing 20 times per second, members of some species can experience forces of up to 1400 g. Compare that to the paltry 90 to 1...

Summary: In children, traumatic brain injury can lead to reduced brain size and cognitive impairment that affects learning, researchers report. Source: Imperial College London Traumatic brain injury can lead to reduced brain size in some children and teens, which could be linked to cognitive problems, a new study suggests. People who are hit hard to the head can suffer brain injuries that result in long-term cognitive problems such as difficulty with memory, concentration, and problem solving. Researchers have been able to study this problem in adults, using brain scans to accurately measure the impact of each injury. However, this is more difficult for children and adolescents to do because their brains grow and change so quickly. In a new study, published in the journal Brain Researchers at Imperial College London and Great Ormond Street Hospital have collected detailed measurements of the brains of normally developing children and used them as a guide to help spot differences betwe...

A new study has identified neuroplastic changes in brain structure that accompany attention-refractive modification training in highly anxious individuals. The findings, which appear in the journal Biological Psychology explain the mechanisms underlying the efficacy of treatment. Research has shown that the brain prioritizes threatening information over non-threatening information. But in highly anxious individuals, this attentional bias can be overwhelming and detrimental. The authors of the new study seek to better understand changes in brain structure that result from modification of attentional bias, an intervention that seeks to systematically train attention away from threatening stimuli and toward neutral stimuli. “Our laboratory has had a longstanding interest in understanding the behavioral and neural mechanisms of affective attention and attentional bias towards affective information,” said study authors Josh Carlson and Lin Fang of the Cognitive x Affective Beh...

Our visual perception of the world is often considered relatively stable. However, like all of our cognitive functions, visual processing is shaped by our experiences. During development and adulthood, learning can change visual perception. For example, enhanced visual discrimination of the same pattern is a learned skill that is essential for reading. In a new research study published in Current Biology, scientists have now discovered the neural changes that occur during learning to increase discrimination of closely related visual images. This study, led by first author Dr. Joseph Schumacher and senior author Dr. David Fitzpatrick at Florida’s Max Planck Institute of Neuroscience, sets out a transformative approach to studying perceptual learning in the brain. The researchers imaged the activity of a large number of single neurons over days to track changes that occur when the visual discrimination task is studied, performing these experiments in a new animal model, the t...

Recently Toxicology study , scientists assessed the challenges vaping cannabinoid products pose during an analysis of their effects on consumers’ respiratory health. Study: Cannabinoid Vaping Products Present New Challenges for Assessment of Respiratory Health Effects. Image Credit: Shannon L. Price / Shutterstock.com Cannabinoid vaping products Some common cannabinoid vaping products include D9-tetrahydrocannabinol (D9-THC), D8-tetrahydrocannabinol (D8-THC), as well as cannabidiol (CBD) products. Several studies regarding e-cigarettes or vaping have shown side effects, particularly in terms of their ability to cause lung injury, associated with cannabinoid vaping products. According to a February 2020 United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report, 2,807 people were hospitalized and 68 deaths occurred due to using cannabinoid vaping products. Several studies have shown that among e-cigarette/vaping users with product use-related lung injury (EVALI), 8...

SAN FRANCISCO, CA—For days, and even years, after a person has suffered a stroke or traumatic brain injury, they have an increased risk of developing epilepsy. Now, researchers at the Gladstone Institutes have found that star-shaped cells called astrocytes in the thalamus play a key role in making mice with brain injuries susceptible to seizures. The team also analyzed human post-mortem brain tissue and showed that the same cells identified in mice might change in the thalamus of people affected by brain injury and stroke. The findings, published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, suggest that targeting proteins in these cells can prevent long-term damage that follows brain injury. “After brain injury, the thalamus is relatively under-studied compared to other brain regions,” says Jeanne Paz, PhD, an associate researcher at Gladstone and senior author of the new study. “I hope this is just the start of a lot of new research into how important this region...

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain This is the last race. Eight athletes lined the track, their feet tensed against the starting blocks. They hear a countdown: “On Your Marks!”, “Get Set,” and then, a split second before the shot, a runner jumps forward, disqualifying himself from the competition. It is at such times that an aspect of behavior that is usually neglected—action suppression—is painfully exposed. A study published today in the journal Natural uncover how the brain stops us from jumping the gun. “We found an area of ​​the brain that is responsible for prompting action and another for suppressing that impulse. We can also trigger impulsive behavior by manipulating the neurons in these areas,” said the study’s senior author, Joe Paton, Program Director of Champalimaud Neuroscience in Portugal. Solve puzzles Paton’s team set out to solve a p...