brain research
Naked Mole Rats May Hold Clues to Stroke Survival
by andreas on Nov.30, 2009, under brain research
Blind and nearly hairless, naked mole rats may help scientists develop better treatment methods for brain injuries.
Blind, nearly hairless, and looking something like toothy, plump, pink fingers, naked mole rats may rank among nature’s most maligned creatures, but their unusual physiology endears them to scientists.
Two University of Illinois at Chicago researchers report in the Dec. 9 issue of NeuroReport (now on-line) that adult naked mole rat brain tissue can withstand extreme hypoxia, or oxygen deprivation, for periods exceeding a half-hour — much longer than brain tissue from other mammals.
The findings may yield clues for better treatment of brain injuries associated with heart attack, stroke and accidents where the brain is starved of vital oxygen.
John Larson, associate professor of physiology in psychiatry, and Thomas Park, professor of biological sciences, studied African naked mole rats — small rodents that live about six feet underground in big colonies of up to 300 members. The living is tight and the breathing even worse, with the limited air supply high in carbon dioxide and low in oxygen.
More details on the research is available from PhysOrg.
Study Suggests Agressive Teens Derive Pleasure from Bullying
by admin on Nov.08, 2008, under brain research
Brain scans of people with conduct disorder demonstrate heightened activity in the pleasure center of the brain when they were shown images of a person in pain. Image courtesy of University of Chicago
A recent study from the University of Chicago found that when aggressive teenage boys view a video clip of a person hurting someone else, the brain’s pleasure center, the ventral striatum, demonstrated heightened activity in functional MRI scans. When a less-aggressive teen viewed the same clip, the brain did not light up in the same way. Instead, the subjects with less-aggressive behavior exhibited stimulation of the medial prefrontal cortex, which is center of the brain that is involved in self-regulation.
Merging Man And Machine
by andreas on Nov.06, 2008, under brain research
60 Minutes recently ran a feature on scientists who are experimenting with directly linking the brain with computers.
The first example the program highlighted was that of Scott Mackler, a neuroscientist who suffers with Lou Gehrig’s disease. Almost completely paralyzed, Mackler can communicate using a special cap that can detect his brain activity, enabling him to select his words letter by letter on a computer.
Cathy Hutchinson, who suffered from a stroke that left her paralyzed, volunteered to have her brain directly connected to a computer. After implanting sensors in her motor cortex, Hutchinson can operate a computer only using the power of her thoughts.
Potential applications of this technology include prosthetic limbs wired directly to the brain.
Wiring Neurons To Computer-Circuit Components
by andreas on Oct.28, 2008, under brain research
The New Scientist recently published an article on engineers who have interfaced neurons with computer circuits. The brain is a fascinating web of dense neural connections but the brain can be unreliable. As the article points out: “one neuron can successfully provoke a signal in another only 40% of the time.”
So what if scientists could improve the brain’s neural network using silicon-based technology? That has, so far, been an elusive goal that, once achieved, cuold be used to treat a variety of diseases associated with damaged nervous systems.
Engineers working with neurons in the lab have built reliable digital logic gates that perform like those inside electronics.
The starting point is a glass plate coated with cell-repellent material. The desired circuit pattern is scratched into this coating and then coated with a cell-friendly adhesive. Unable to gain purchase on most of the plate, the cells are forced to grow in the scratched areas.
The scratched paths are thin enough to force the neurons to grow along them in one direction only, forming straight wire-like connections around the circuit.
Using this method the researchers built a device that acts like an AND logic gate, producing an output only when it receives two inputs.
New Drug Stops Alzheimer’s Disease from Progressing in Animal Study
by andreas on Sep.30, 2008, under brain research
PET scan of a human brain with Alzheimer
German scientists have developed a compound that delayed the progression of Alzheimer’s disease in mice. The breakthrough could lead to a causal treatment of the disease, while traditional treatments for Alzheimer’s have focused on addressing the disease’s symptoms.
Using mice as test subjects, the researchers were able to prevent the development of the amyloid plaque that has been implicated with the development of Alzheimer’s. This was made possible by blocking the activity of the glutaminyl cyclase (QC) enzyme. Afterwards, the mental capabilities of the mice improved to the point that it was comparable to mice that were free of the disease. According to the researchers at Universität Göttingen in Germany, this form of therapy is completely new. According to Alzheimer researcher Thomas Bayer, if one could reduce the activity of the QC enzyme by 30 to 40 percent, the onset of the worst symptoms of the disease could be delayed five to ten years, greatly improving the patient’s quality of life. The scientists caution that more studies must be performed to determine the efficacy of the treatment in humans.
