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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...

Summary: In a study of speakers of 45 languages, researchers found similar patterns of brain activity and language selectivity. Source: MIT For decades, neuroscientists have created well-defined maps of the brain’s “language network,” or regions of the brain specialized for processing language. Found primarily in the left hemisphere, this tissue includes areas within Broca’s area, as well as in other parts of the frontal and temporal lobes. However, most of these mapping studies were conducted on English speakers while they were listening to or reading English texts. MIT neuroscientists have now conducted brain imaging studies of speakers of 45 different languages. The results show that the language network of speakers appears to be essentially the same as that of native English speakers. This finding, though not surprising, establishes that the location and key properties of language networks appear to be universal. This work also lays the groundwork for the...

Summary: The inhibitory and excitatory networks in the visual system of the brain develop by different processes, even if the organization of the networks is similar. Source: Max Planck Florida Brain function, like many other areas of life, is about balance. Excitatory neurons that increase the activity of connected neurons are offset by inhibitory neurons that suppress this activity. In this way, excitation and inhibition work together throughout the brain to process information and guide behavior. Imbalances in this system, which sometimes appear during development, contribute to neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism. To date researchers have mostly focused on excitatory neurons, while the function and development of inhibitory neural circuits has been studied. New research from the Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience shows that the inhibitory and excitatory neural circuits of the visual system develop by different processes, even if the organization of the mature c...

“These results help us refine a systematic network map that can serve as an instruction manual on how human immune cells function and how we can engineer them to our advantage,” said Alex Marson MD, PhD, director of the Gladstone-UCSF Institute of Genomic Immunology and senior author of the new study, published in Natural Genetics . The study, which was carried out in collaboration with Jonathan Pritchard PhD, professor of genetics and biology at Stanford School of Medicine, is also important for better understanding how variations in a person’s genes are related to the risk of autoimmune diseases. Immunity Insights from CRISPR Researchers know that when the immune system’s T cells—white blood cells that can fight infection and cancer—become active, the levels of thousands of proteins in the cells change. They also know that many proteins are interconnected so that a change in the level of one protein can cause a change in the level of another. Scientists repres...

Using new technology to study thousands of genes simultaneously in immune cells, researchers at the Gladstone Institutes, UC San Francisco (UCSF), and the Stanford School of Medicine have created the most detailed map of how complex networks of genes function together. New insights into how these genes relate to one another shed light on the basic drivers of immune cell function and immune disease. “These results help us refine a systematic network map that can serve as an instruction manual for how human immune cells function and how we can engineer them to our advantage,” says Alex Marson, MD, PhD, director of the Gladstone-UCSF Institute of Genomic Immunology and senior author. from the new study, published in Nature Genetics. The study, carried out in collaboration with Jonathan Pritchard, PhD, professor of genetics and biology at Stanford School of Medicine, is also important for better understanding how a person’s gene variation is linked to the risk of autoimmu...