Saturday, December 21

Tag: brain

Brain-Computer Interfaces Could Allow Soldiers To Control Weapons With Their Thoughts And Turn Off Their Fear – But The Ethics Of Neurotechnology Lags Behind The Science
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SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, VIDEO REELS

Brain-Computer Interfaces Could Allow Soldiers To Control Weapons With Their Thoughts And Turn Off Their Fear – But The Ethics Of Neurotechnology Lags Behind The Science

Imagine that a soldier has a tiny computer device injected into their bloodstream that can be guided with a magnet to specific regions of their brain. With training, the soldier could then control weapon systems thousands of miles away using their thoughts alone. Embedding a similar type of computer in a soldier’s brain could suppress their fear and anxiety, allowing them to carry out combat missions more efficiently. Going one step further, a device equipped with an artificial intelligence system could directly control a soldier’s behavior by predicting what options they would choose in their current situation. While these examples may sound like science fiction, the science to develop neurotechnologies like these is already in development. Brain-computer interfaces, or BCI, are techno...
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Am I Daydreaming?
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SOCIETY

Am I Daydreaming?

What is daydreaming? Parts of the brain show sleep-like activity when your mind wanders. Our attention is a powerful lens, allowing our brains to pick out the relevant details out of the overwhelming flow of information reaching us every second. However, scientists estimate we spend up to half our waking lives thinking about something other than the task at hand: our minds are wandering. This is striking considering the potential negative consequences, from decreased school or work performance to tragic traffic accidents. We also know that mind-wandering and lapses of attention are more common when we are sleep-deprived, which suggests they may happen when the neurons in our brain start behaving in a way that resembles sleep. We tested the relationship between sleep and lapses of attenti...
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In The Fruit Fly Brain Are Astrocyte Cells An On-Off Switch That Controls When Neurons Can Change And Grow
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SCIENCE

In The Fruit Fly Brain Are Astrocyte Cells An On-Off Switch That Controls When Neurons Can Change And Grow

Neuroplasticity – the ability of neurons to change their structure and function in response to experiences – can be turned off and on by the cells that surround neurons in the brain, according to a new study on fruit flies that I co-authored. The colors in this microscope photo of a fruit fly brain show different types of neurons and the cells that surround them in the brain. Sarah DeGenova Ackerman, CC BY-ND As fruit fly larvae age, their neurons shift from a highly adaptable state to a stable state and lose their ability to change. During this process, support cells in the brain – called astrocytes – envelop the parts of the neurons that send and receive electrical information. When my team removed the astrocytes, the neurons in the fruit fly larvae remained plastic longer, hinting that...
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Brain scientists haven’t been able to find major differences between women’s and men’s brains, despite over a century of searching
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TECHNOLOGY

Brain scientists haven’t been able to find major differences between women’s and men’s brains, despite over a century of searching

People have searched for sex differences in human brains since at least the 19th century, when scientist Samuel George Morton poured seeds and lead shot into human skulls to measure their volumes. Gustave Le Bon found men’s brains are usually larger than women’s, which prompted Alexander Bains and George Romanes to argue this size difference makes men smarter. But John Stuart Mill pointed out, by this criterion, elephants and whales should be smarter than people. So focus shifted to the relative sizes of brain regions. Phrenologists suggested the part of the cerebrum above the eyes, called the frontal lobe, is most important for intelligence and is proportionally larger in men, while the parietal lobe, just behind the frontal lobe, is proportionally larger in women. Later, neuroanatomists...
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How gene editing a person’s brain cells could be used to curb the opioid epidemic
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TECHNOLOGY

How gene editing a person’s brain cells could be used to curb the opioid epidemic

Even as the COVID-19 pandemic cripples the economy and kills hundreds of people each day, there is another epidemic that continues to kill tens of thousands of people each year through opioid drug overdose. Opioid analgesic drugs, like morphine and oxycodone, are the classic double-edged swords. They are the very best drugs to stop severe pain but also the class of drugs most likely to kill the person taking them. In a recent journal article, I outlined how a combination of state-of-the-art molecular techniques, such as CRISPR gene editing and brain microinjection methods, could be used to blunt one edge of the sword and make opioid drugs safer. I am a pharmacologist interested in the way opioid drugs such as morphine and fentanyl can blunt pain. I became fascinated in biology at the tim...
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Synthetic odors created by activating brain cells help neuroscientists understand how smell works
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SCIENCE, VIDEO REELS

Synthetic odors created by activating brain cells help neuroscientists understand how smell works

When you experience something with your senses, it evokes complex patterns of activity in your brain. One important goal in neuroscience is to decipher how these neural patterns drive the sensory experience. For example, can the smell of chocolate be represented by a single brain cell, groups of cells firing all at the same time or cells firing in some precise symphony? The answers to these questions will lead to a broader understanding of how our brains represent the external world. They also have implications for treating disorders where the brain fails in representing the external world: for example, in the loss of sight of smell. To understand how the brain drives sensory experience, my colleagues and I focus on the sense of smell in mice. We directly control a mouse’s neural activit...
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Lethargic global response to COVID-19: How the human brain’s failure to assess abstract threats cost us dearly
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COVID-19, Journalism

Lethargic global response to COVID-19: How the human brain’s failure to assess abstract threats cost us dearly

More U.S. citizens have confirmed COVID-19 infections than the next five most affected countries combined. Yet as recently as mid-March, President Trump downplayed the gravity of the crisis by falsely claiming the coronavirus was nothing more than seasonal flu, or a Chinese hoax, or a deep state plot designed to damage his reelection bid. The current U.S. administration’s mishandling of the coronavirus threat is part of a larger problem in pandemic management. Many government officials, medical experts, scholars and journalists continued to underestimate the dangers of COVID-19, even as the disease upended life in China as early as mid-January. The results of this collective inertia are catastrophic indeed. The U.S., along with Italy, Spain, Iran and the French Alsace, is now the site of...
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Brain boosters for the sheltered-in-place
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SOCIETY

Brain boosters for the sheltered-in-place

Being cooped up and a drastic change in daily routines can result in sluggishness — a general feeling of discombobulation. However, everything from nutrition, to exercise, to fresh air, to games and puzzles can stimulate the brain and enhance mood. Informed Harvard Medical School Jan. 29, “Any mentally stimulating activity should help to build up your brain. Read, take courses, try ‘mental gymnastics,’ such as word puzzles or math problems, experiment with things that require manual dexterity as well as mental effort, such as drawing, painting and other crafts.” Most independent booksellers, struggling for at least two decades because of the Internet and online sales, are currently considered “essential” businesses during state-mandated quarantines and have experienced increased sales o...
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