under the microscope
‘Slime’ keeps the brain safe.
“Slippery proteins in the brain’s blood vessels form a protective barrier that breaks break down with age, studies in mice show.” ~ learn more
Tag: brain
under the microscope
The soul in the stomach.
This is more story than science. “How a 17th-century physician followed his ‘gut feeling’ and proposed a link between the emotions and the stomach, which seemingly echoes the latest medical research on the brain–gut connection.” ~ learn more
under the microscope
Brain aging study of nutrients in 100 people.
“When examining the cognitive data, the team found two types of brain aging: slower-than-accepted and accelerated. When they combined the cognitive data with the nutritional measurements, they found a certain nutritional profile clearly linked to those with slower brain aging.” […]
under the microscope
Brain scans can now see your mental imagery.
Who’s ready for this future? “Our proposed framework successfully reconstructed both seen images (i.e., those observed by the human eye) and imagined images from brain activity. Quantitative evaluation showed that our framework could identify seen and imagined images highly accurately […]
better doing
Why do you like what you like?
“Basically, your brain does game theory: Do the cool people around you like potatoes? Would you benefit from liking potatoes? Do you understand potato consumption rituals well-enough to blend in at the hot potato salons? Then: Start liking potatoes.” ~ learn more
big ideas
Thinking doesn’t just happen in the brain.
In October 2022, I shared this link where Michael Levin showcased work from his lab on organ regeneration. He had figured out that all cells communicate electrically, which is how they know what and where to be when they grow up. He demonstrated it by cutting a planarian […]
under the microscope
A protein to restore memories lost to Alzheimer’s.
There’s a protein that’s found in the kidney and brain that’s cleverly called KIBRA. “Kauwe, Pareja-Navarro et al. identify a KIBRA-dependent mechanism to repair the plasticity at synapses that is dysregulated in neurons underlying the loss of memory in tauopathy.” […]
under the microscope
Moiré quantum transistor performs associative learning at room temperature.
“[T]he device simultaneously processes and stores information just like the human brain. In new experiments, the researchers demonstrated that the transistor goes beyond simple machine-learning tasks to categorize data and is capable of performing associative learning.” The bit about working […]
under the microscope
Alzheimer’s linked to the gut, again.
“Published in Brain, the study shows that that the memory impairments in people with Alzheimer’s could be transferred to young animals through transplant of gut microbiota.” ~ learn more and original paper
under the microscope
Fungal infections in the brain may cause Alzheimer’s-like symptoms.
“For now, that is just a hypothesis, but it does align with recent findings that indicate amyloid beta plaques are latecomers in Alzheimer’s disease, not the original triggers of cognitive decline. This could be why treatments that target these plaques […]